Essential? No. You get a web site to fulfill a need. If you have no need for a personal site, you don't need one and shouldn't have to get it. That said: I use

Essential? No. You get a web site to fulfill a need. If you have no need for a personal site, you don't need one and shouldn't have to get it. That said: I use my personal site to organize the work I've done, and that's something that no other web site does well, so for me (and very possibly for you, if you do lots of work), the organization makes it worth it.