Featured image of post Build your website easily with Hugo

Build your website easily with Hugo

Part. I - What is Hugo and why you should use it.

What is Hugo ?

Hugo is a powerful open-source static site generator written in Go, optimized for speed and designed to be flexible. Unlike traditional CMS such as WordPress or Drupal, Hugo generates your entire site in advance, making it faster and more secure.

Whether you want to create a personal blog (like this one), a professional portfolio or a corporate site, Hugo gives you the tools you need without the complexity of databases or server-side programming languages.

With Hugo, content is written in Markdown, a lightweight, intuitive language that lets you format text using simple syntax. This approach makes content creation accessible even to those with no HTML knowledge, while maintaining a clear separation between content and design.

Hugo has been designed to facilitate collaboration between different profiles on the same project:

  • Content editors can concentrate exclusively on creating and editing content in the content folder, simply using Markdown files. No technical knowledge of web development is required to contribute effectively.

  • Developers can work on technical aspects such as templates, layouts and advanced functionalities in the themes and layouts folders without the risk of disrupting or altering the content created by editors.

Why Use Hugo ?

Hugo is :

  • Fast: Hugo is recognized as the fastest static site generator on the market. It can generate thousands of pages in a matter of seconds, ensuring ultra-fast loading of your site.
  • Cost efficiency: By eliminating the need for complex databases and servers, Hugo significantly reduces operating costs.
  • Hugo is a single file: Hugo groups all its dependencies in a single executable file, making it easy to back up and transfer between machines.
  • Easy to maintain: With fewer dependencies, no database, and a simplified hosting process, Hugo requires less maintenance than traditional solutions.
  • Stable: Hugo’s development team favors backward compatibility, enabling upgrades without risk of malfunction for existing sites.
  • Scalable: Hugo efficiently handles multilingual sites, large-scale projects with thousands of pages and millions of monthly users.
  • Community-based: Hugo benefits from an active community, working in the collective interest without commercial motivation.
  • Flexible: The Go templating language gives developers the ability to add custom features, adapting your site to specific needs.

Traditional websites vs. Hugo websites

Traditional websites

  • On-demand processing: Each page is generated in real time when a visitor requests it
  • Database dependency: Requires constant queries to retrieve content
  • Limited performance: Loading times are generally slower due to server-side processing
  • High hosting costs: Requires more powerful servers to handle dynamic processing
  • Less secure: Increased security vulnerabilities due to databases and numerous plugins

Static Hugo sites

  • Pre-rendered pages: All content is generated in advance and ready to be served instantly.
  • Database independence: No database queries required to display content
  • Better performance: Loading times are significantly reduced, enhancing the user experience.
  • Cost-effective hosting: Can be deployed on simple, free hosting solutions such as GitHub Pages or Netlify
  • Better security: Significantly reduced level of risk without database or dynamic processing

Conclusion

By switching from Ghost to Hugo, I’ve seen a real decrease in resource usage on my server, not to mention the fact that my old Ghost site had no posts at all.

Whether you run a personal blog, a professional portfolio or a medium-sized corporate site, Hugo’s minimal resource requirements allow you to maintain a high-performance, cost-effective web presence without sacrificing quality.

Next step: I’ll take you step by step through the process of creating your own Hugo website. Stay tuned!

Additional Resources

Hugo in Action - Atishay Jain

Before reading the book Hugo in Action by Atishay Jain, I only knew Hugo by name. Thanks to this resource, in just two days I was able to put this site into production with full continuous integration.

I can’t recommend it highly enough :

Hugo in Action Hugo in Action - Atishay Jain

Hugo in 100 Seconds