Hugo is one of the most popular open source static site generators.
Hugo uses Go’s html/template and text/template libraries as the basis for the templating. Go Templates are HTML files with the addition of variables and functions.
It is optimized for speed, ease of use, and configurability. Hugo takes a directory with content and templates and renders them into a full HTML website.
Hugo relies on Markdown files with front matter for metadata, and you can run Hugo from any directory. This works well for shared hosts and other systems where you don’t have a privileged account.
Hugo renders a typical website of moderate size in a fraction of a second. A good rule of thumb is that each piece of content renders in around 1 millisecond.
Hugo is designed to work well for any kind of website including blogs, tumbles, and docs.
Key Features
- Takes data files, i18n bundles, configuration, templates for layouts, static files, and content written in Markdown, AsciiDoctor, or Org-mode and renders a static website.
- Multilingual support.
- Image processing.
- Custom output formats.
- Shortcodes.
- Nested sections allow for different types of content to be separated.
- Cross-platform support with binaries for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Open BSD, macOS (Darwin), and Android for x64, i386 and ARM architectures. There’s also binaries for Windows.
Website: gohugo.io
Support: Documentation, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Bjørn Erik Pedersen, Steve Francia and contributors
License: Apache License 2.0
Hugo is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Go Static Site Generators | |
|---|---|
| Hugo | Fast framework for building websites |
| Plenti | Go backend and Svelte frontend |
| InkPaper | Elegant static blog generator |
| Hastie | Takes Markdown text files, applies a template, and generates an HTML site |
| gostatic | Dependency tracking and re-rendering only changed pages |
| Zas | Billed as the most simple static site generator ever |
| Goldsmith | Extensible static website generator |
| Gozer | Fast and simple static site generator |
| LitePub | Lightweight static blog generator |
| Magnanimous | Simple and fast static website generator |
| Underblog | Extremely simple, fast static blog generator |
| Krems | For markdown-based blogs |
| Sitegen | Simple but flexible static site generator |
| verless | Simple and lightweight static site generator |
| Hindsite | Fast, lightweight static website generator |
| Ago | Small static blog generator without any fuzz |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Lightweight Alternatives to WordPress | |
|---|---|
| Hugo | Fast framework for building websites |
| Jekyll | Blog-aware static site generator |
| Grav | Super fast modern CMS focusing on speed and simplicity. No installation |
| Pico | Blazing speed, flexibility, and a lightweight footprint |
| Textpattern | Flexible, elegant and easy-to-use open source CMS |
| GetSimple CMS | Saves all data to structured XML-files |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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