Why Hugo Is a Huge Deal

2019-07-22 tech tech

Here are five reasons why Hugo is a huge deal. Yes, you heard me right. Hugo, the open source framework, and no, not the movie is really awesome.

Why you ask? It is not only it is a super sweet static site generator, but is as modern as the times. Around this time, you might be thinking, what is a static site generator? And why do I need it? Is there no other alternative? Let us answer this and more.

What is a static site generator ( SSG ) ?

In my own words, it is a technology that helps you prepare and present your site using no data store. You end up reading files being served directly from the actual static files on which you actually wrote the text, and images .

Why do you need it ?

There may be scenarios where you cannot or do not want to use a database to serve your site content from. In that case, using SSG is an alternative approach.

Is there no other alternative to using Hugo ?

If you Google for SSGs, the most known that would come up might be Jekyll. Jekyll is alright. If you love working with Ruby, like I did at some point, then you are in seventh heaven. However for myself, I have moved away from Ruby in recent years. Although, there were other SSGs( like Pelican, Nuxt and many others), Hugo wins my .

  1. Golang: I am one of the believers that in a few years, the Go language would be massively important. And you want to be one of those who join now as opposed to later. If you have not guessed it already, Go is the language behind Hugo. This was one reason, and my primary reason to back Hugo. I am sold on the language.

  2. Speed: It is one of the fastest of them all. Although other frameworks like Nuxt can also place a claim on this title, the little I have seen of Hugo sites gives me the necessary assurance I need. Additional, it picks on the advantages of using Go.

  3. Simple: It is drop dead simple. It so simple to learn to use. You only need to know a few steps. I will treat that in a future blog post. It did not take me more an hour to totally uderstand the framework, how to fetch themes and customize this blog. Yes, if you have not guesed it already, I redid the blog to use hugo. I do not just preach, I practice them too. Editing the post was a breeze. The instant reloading of my changes on the screen was also nice as well.

  4. It is one of the most used, and most popular: Hugo is one of the most loved static site generators the world over. Popular frameworks also indicate a strong community behind them. This means you would never lack direction on how to setup and proceed. You frequently find articles and tutorials showing developers how to migrate to Hugo. I do not know about you, but I will want to be one of the guys moving to Hugo right away instead of later.

  5. Lower cost: As compared to my previous setup, I spent a few more Ghana Cedis. Now, I can afford to spend very little to none to keep my blog running. This is possible because of how the content is servered as well as the generosity of platforms like GitHub and Netifly.

With all of this, I have only started scrating the surface. I hope you grow to love Hugo as much as I have. If yoyu want ot know a little bit more, you can check out their site, Hugo. Alterantielvy, if you wnt to me with me, you can reach out to me via email at eli.anthony.agbenu@gmail.com .

Until next time, it is cheers for now. As always, keep learning .