90,061 stars · Apache-2.0 · v0.167.0 (28 Sep 2026) · Track this in Scout
Turns a folder of Markdown files into a complete website in seconds.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
Hugo is a static site generator: a program that turns text files into finished web pages, with no database sitting behind the site. It is a single downloaded program written in Go, and it builds very large sites in a few seconds.
What it is good for. Anyone who wants a blog, a documentation site or a company site that loads quickly, costs almost nothing to host, and has no database or web application to keep patched. If a website currently needs monthly security updates just to stay online, this removes that job entirely.
- One program. No database, no runtime to install on the hosting side, nothing to keep updated in production.
- Genuinely fast. Thousands of pages build in seconds, so previewing a change is instant.
- Thirteen years of themes, tutorials and answers. The repository was created in July 2013 and code landed on the morning of this edition.
- The template language is the real cost. A simple layout change can take an afternoon the first time.
- The README and the documentation disagree about Go. The README asks for "Go version 1.26.0 or later" while the documentation site and the project's own
go.modboth require 1.27.0, so following the README alone leaves the toolchain a full release too old. - No memory, disk or processor figure is published anywhere, and every documented source build ends in
@latest, so the install command is not repeatable.
- jekyll/jekyll
The same job of building a site from Markdown and templates, in Ruby with a large plugin ecosystem and much slower builds.
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getzola/zolaAlso a single program with nothing to install on the server, written in Rust with Tera templates.
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11ty/eleventyBuilds static sites from Markdown and data files, runs on Node.js, and supports many template languages at once.
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brew install hugo # macOS sudo apt install hugo # Debian or Ubuntu sudo dnf install hugo # Fedora
