For the new readers this might come as a surprise, but this is probably the hundredth time I’ve made my website from scratch. I’ve used plenty of different SSGs like Jekyll, Hugo, Eleventy and Astro. Previously I used Astro but this time around I’m back to Hugo.
Astro was nice with the components, MDX, etc. until they broke my sitemaps (which still isn’t fixed at the time of writing). While a minor nitpick I wish more stability from the software I use. That is one of the reasons I switched back to Hugo along with the seeming lack of extensibility Astro offered.
New design
My website has gone through various iterations over the years. It has been content focused, design focused, minimalistic and functional. This time around I’ve chosen more minimalistic and clean approach. I’ve had to make some sacrifices in the name of keeping things simple. In the end the results speak for themselves.
Constant switching
I’ve been switching back and forth with multiple static site generators. This time around with Hugo I’m hoping I’ll stick to it. Hugo is one of the most stable and well-known SSG there is. It also offers blazing fast speeds!
Every time I rework my website it gets slightly better but at the same time I lose valuable time that could be spent elsewhere. I’m getting my hopes up that this will be the last time I create my website from scratch or at least when I switch generators. Only time will tell but this time around I’m very pleased with the results.
Ecosystem
While I first thought that the lack of being written in JavaScript was a weakness I later realized it was a strength. JS based SSGs like Astro and Eleventy offer excellent integration with tools like PostCSS and components. Hugo however is written in Go but still manages to offer those features through clever integration. Hugo also has built-in support for Sass.
I’ve enjoyed working with the Hugo templates, which are just supercharged Go HTML templates. They are in my opinion more powerful and pleasant to use than components in JavaScript frameworks. These templates can also be used in Markdown through shortcodes just like how MDX works.
Currently, I’m not using PostCSS at all; I’m still using Sass and ESBuild tough, which are both directly integrated into Hugo. With my setup I get ridiculously fast build times compared to other generators. That is caused by the fact that Hugo doesn’t have to invoke Node.js even once.
The final verdict
Hugo is amazing and not less powerful than other generators in the least. It is faster than any other generator as well and offers great flexibility. If you are into theming, Hugo got you covered. There are endless possibilities with this static site generator, and I’m loving it. I just hope that I will stick around and not change again tomorrow.