Introduction
Hugo is a static site generator, which basically means it’s a tool that allows us to pre-compile all of our website into static HTML, CSS and JS. The main benefit of using such methods to crate a site is speed. A Static site takes a lot less time to load than a site that uses databases for example.
Disadvantages
Some of the disadvantages I have come across are as follows:
- A lot more backend work
- Harder to manage content
- Editing and creating content can be a pain
This is to no fault of hugo itself but to the unnecessary complexity in my infrastructure!! Deploying the site in my environment was a challenge as I had to get the site files from gitlab and build a docker image that would compile the site as well as create an image to be deployed in my docker swarm. I do feel I made this more complicated than it needed to be, however now that I have it working the workflow is great.
The content is manually managed meaning you have to create edit and delete posts yourself. HUGO does a great job at making this as pleasant of an experience as possible but coming from a CMS (Content Management System) it is a lot more involved.
Because there is no integrated webui or CMS for Hugo, the experience you get when creating content will vary person to person depending on the environment you use to create the content. When using a CMS I took dragging and dropping images for granted where now I have to explicitly define full paths to images which can get me out of the flow of writing content, however it’s finding solutions for these challenges that makes this interesting.
Then Why?
The main reason for switching to a static site generator is speed and how lightweight the final product is, at the time of writing this the total size of the content on this site including images is ~5mb which is considerably smaller than a full CMS and database alone with no content.
Some advantages of static sites in general:
- Security
- Reliability
- Scalability
- Low Resource Requirement
Although the pursuit of speed brought me to HUGO, here are a few things that kept me:
- Git
- Markdown
- Simplicity
- Live Preview
As mentioned before my initial reason for switching to a static site generator was speed and how lightweight the final product is, at the time of writing this the total size of the content on this site including images is ~5mb which is considerably smaller than a full CMS and database alone with no content.
I have recently started to use git a lot more and I’m able to implement a content versioning system that can follow me everywhere and on any device very easily. It also means there is always a backup of my site on gitlab and I don’t need to worry about backing up databases.
Markdown makes life a lot easier, Its quick, easy and doesn’t require me to right click or use buttons. Markdown is also very transferable, scroll up to the top of this page and hit the “Suggest Changes” button and you will see how a markdown file can be interpreted by not only HUGO but gitlab too and so many other tools.
Regarding themes, HUGO allows you to easily create your own, or just as easily implement other peoples themes.
Although at the start HUGO seemed difficult to me I managed to learn it pretty quickly and appreciate the simplicity it brings to the table. I wouldn’t say my workflow is perfect by any means but I feel HUGO makes it easy to develop a smooth workflow.
Live Preview allows you to start up a light weight web server locally and has an auto refresh feature so whenever a change is made the web page refreshes so you can see changes without manually refreshing.
Conclusion
This post is a quick intro to HUGO and why I choose to use it, However there is another post on setting up a HUGO site from start to finish.