Hexo vs Hugo
| Tagline | Fast, simple, and powerful Node.js blog framework | The world's fastest static website generator built in Go |
| Category | Blogging & CMS | Blogging & CMS |
| Replaces | WordPress.com, Medium, Squarespace | WordPress.com, Squarespace, Medium |
| GitHub stars | 39k | 75k |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Manual Docker | Manual Docker |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 1 month ago | 1 month ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Hexo
- No built-in admin UI; requires CLI or third-party plugins for content editing
- Plugin ecosystem quality is uneven; some plugins are unmaintained
- Less active core development compared to Hugo or Eleventy
Hugo
- No built-in admin UI; content editing requires direct file editing or a third-party headless CMS
- No dynamic features (comments, forms) out of the box — requires external services
- Learning curve for Go templating syntax can be steep for non-developers
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Hugo for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.