Hugo vs Other Static Site Generators: Why I Chose Hugo

When building this blog, I evaluated several static site generators. Here’s why I ultimately chose Hugo.

The Contenders

I considered these popular options:

1. Hugo - Go-based SSG
2. Jekyll - Ruby-based, GitHub Pages default
3. Next.js - React-based framework with SSG support
4. Gatsby - React-based SSG focused on GraphQL

Comparison Matrix

Why Hugo Won

1. Speed

Hugo is ridiculously fast. Building thousands of pages takes seconds, not minutes:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

# Typical Hugo build
hugo --minify
# Total in 142 ms

# Compare to Jekyll
bundle exec jekyll build
# Total in 12.3 seconds

For a simple blog, this might not matter. But when you’re iterating on design, those seconds add up.

2. Zero Dependencies

Hugo is a single binary. No Ruby gems, no npm packages, no dependency hell:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

# Hugo installation
brew install hugo
# Done!

# Jekyll installation
gem install bundler jekyll
bundle install
# Hope nothing breaks...

3. Built-in Features

Hugo includes everything out of the box:

• Syntax highlighting (Chroma)
• Image processing (resize, crop, filters)
• Minification (HTML, CSS, JS)
• Asset pipelines (SCSS, PostCSS)
• Taxonomies (tags, categories)
• RSS feeds
• Sitemaps

No plugins needed for basic functionality.

4. Minimal Output

Hugo generates pure HTML and CSS. No JavaScript runtime required:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12

<!-- Hugo output: Clean HTML -->
<article>
  <h1>My Post</h1>
  <p>Content here</p>
</article>

<!-- Gatsby output: React hydration -->
<div id="___gatsby">
  <div data-gatsby-ssr>
    <!-- 100KB+ of JS -->
  </div>
</div>

When NOT to Use Hugo

Hugo isn’t always the best choice:

• Complex data fetching - Next.js/Gatsby better for APIs
• Heavy interactivity - React-based SSGs shine here
• Existing React codebase - Might as well use Next.js
• GraphQL requirements - Gatsby is purpose-built for this

The Template Language

Hugo uses Go templates, which take some getting used to:

1
2
3
4

{{ range .Pages }}
  <h2><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h2>
  <p>{{ .Summary }}</p>
{{ end }}

It’s not as elegant as JSX, but it’s powerful enough and keeps things simple.

Real-World Performance

This blog:

• Build time: ~100ms
• Page weight: ~15KB (HTML + CSS)
• Lighthouse score: 100 across the board
• Time to interactive: < 0.5s

Try achieving that with a React-based SSG!

Conclusion

For a simple blog focused on content and performance, Hugo is hard to beat. It’s:

• ✅ Fast to build
• ✅ Fast to load
• ✅ Easy to deploy
• ✅ Zero dependencies
• ✅ Future-proof

If you’re building a content-focused site and don’t need heavy JavaScript, give Hugo a try.

Getting Started with Hugo

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

# Install Hugo
brew install hugo

# Create new site
hugo new site my-blog

# Add a theme
git submodule add https://github.com/yihui/hugo-xmin.git themes/hugo-xmin

# Create a post
hugo new post/my-first-post.md

# Start dev server
hugo server -D

# Build for production
hugo --minify

That’s it! No package.json, no webpack config, no build toolchain complexity.

What’s your favorite static site generator? Let me know!