# Justin Holt

> Official Craft CMS Partner and full-stack web developer based in Charlotte, NC with 27+ years of experience. Specializing in custom Craft CMS development, Commerce, headless APIs, DevOps, and AI-powered workflows.

## About

Justin Holt is an independent Craft CMS developer and Official Craft CMS Partner operating as justinholt.com, incorporated. He builds custom Craft CMS solutions for agencies and direct clients, including custom plugins, modules, Commerce storefronts, headless APIs via Element API, multi-site installations, and AI integrations. He has served 70+ clients across industries including real estate, fintech, entertainment, food and beverage, nonprofits, government, education, and manufacturing.

## Services

- Custom Craft CMS Development (plugins, modules, Twig, PHP, Yii)
- Craft Commerce (storefronts, payment integrations, custom order workflows)
- Second Seat Developer (agency team augmentation for Craft projects)
- Frontend Development (Vite, Tailwind CSS, vanilla JS, performance optimization)
- DevOps and ServerOps (deployment pipelines, server management, load balancing, Redis)
- AI Agent Integration (AI-powered CMS workflows, content automation, smart search)

## Key Links

- Website: https://justinholt.com
- Blog: https://justinholt.com/blog/
- Craft Partner Profile: https://craftcms.com/partners/justinholtcom-incorporated
- Email: justin@justinholt.com
- AI Developer: https://ai-developer.io

## Blog Posts

- [Building Faceted Search in Craft CMS with Algolia and InstantSearch](https://justinholt.com/blog/algolia-instantsearch-craft-cms/)
- [Multi-Site Architecture in Craft CMS: Patterns That Actually Work](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-multi-site-architecture/)
- [The Craft CMS Plugins I Install on Every Project](https://justinholt.com/blog/essential-craft-cms-plugins/)
- [What I've Learned as an Official Craft CMS Partner](https://justinholt.com/blog/lessons-official-craft-cms-partner/)
- [Practical AI Integrations for Craft CMS](https://justinholt.com/blog/ai-integrations-craft-cms/)
- [Why I Recommend Craft CMS Over WordPress (And When I Don't)](https://justinholt.com/blog/why-craft-cms-over-wordpress/)
- [Setting Up DDEV for Craft CMS Local Development](https://justinholt.com/blog/ddev-craft-cms-local-development/)
- [Deployment Pipelines for Craft CMS: From Git Push to Production](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-deployment-pipelines/)
- [Craft CMS for WordPress Developers: A Translation Guide](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-for-wordpress-developers/)
- [Performance Tuning Craft CMS: Eager Loading, Caching, and Query Optimization](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-performance-tuning/)
- [Headless Craft CMS: GraphQL vs Element API vs Just Using Twig](https://justinholt.com/blog/headless-craft-cms-graphql-element-api/)
- [Building Custom Modules in Craft CMS (And When to Skip the Plugin)](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-custom-modules/)
- [Migrating from Craft 4 to Craft 5: What I Learned the Hard Way](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-4-to-5-migration/)
- [Setting Up Vite with Craft CMS](https://justinholt.com/blog/craft-cms-vite-integration/)

## Expertise

- Craft CMS (Official Partner, 70+ projects)
- PHP, Yii 2, Twig
- Craft Commerce
- Algolia Search and InstantSearch.js
- Vite, Tailwind CSS, vanilla JavaScript
- Multi-site and multi-language Craft installations
- Element API for headless/JSON endpoints
- DDEV, Docker, Laravel Forge, GitHub Actions
- AI integrations (OpenAI, Anthropic Claude) in CMS workflows
- Performance optimization (eager loading, caching, Blitz)

## Location

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA