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Jekyll vs Hugo
Compare Jekyll and Hugo to find the best tool for your needs.
Jekyll
A simple, blog-aware static site generator perfect for personal, project, or organization sites.
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Hugo
The world's fastest framework for building static websites, with rich content management capabilities.
See all detailsQuick overview
Pricing
Free (open source)
Free (open source)
Pros & Cons
Jekyll
Pros
- Fast and secure static sites
- GitHub Pages integration
- Simple to use for developers
- Great for blogs and documentation
Cons
- Requires Ruby knowledge for customization
- Not suitable for dynamic content
- No visual editor for non-technical users
- Build time increases with site size
Hugo
Pros
- Extremely fast build times
- No dependencies required
- Live reload for instant preview
- Flexible content management
Cons
- Steeper learning curve for templating
- Less plugins than older generators
- Requires command line usage
- Go templates can be challenging
Features comparison
| Feature | Jekyll | Hugo |
|---|---|---|
| Core Features | ||
| SEO | Partial Basic features built-in, but requires 'jekyll-seo-tag' plugin for full functionality | Yes Built-in SEO features including meta tags, canonical URLs, Open Graph, and JSON-LD |
| Sitemap | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-sitemap' plugin | Yes Built-in sitemap generation without plugins |
| RSS Feed | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-feed' plugin | Yes Built-in RSS/Atom feed generation without plugins |
| Theming system | Yes Built-in theming system with many available themes | Yes Powerful theming system with theme inheritance and module capabilities |
| Plugin system | Yes Rich plugin system with many extensions available | Partial Uses 'modules' rather than plugins, with a different architectural approach than traditional plugins |
| Content Management | ||
| Emoji | Via plugin Requires 'jemoji' plugin | Yes Native emoji support with several rendering options |
| Image optimization | Via plugin Options include 'jekyll-picture-tag', 'jekyll-responsive-image', or manual integration | Yes Built-in image processing with resize, crop, filter capabilities and image optimization |
| Taxonomies | Partial Native support for categories and tags, but limited for custom taxonomies without plugins | Yes Powerful built-in taxonomy system with support for custom taxonomies |
| Pagination | Via plugin Native in older versions, but requires 'jekyll-paginate' or 'jekyll-paginate-v2' for recent versions | Yes Built-in pagination for list pages with customizable options |
| Table of contents | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-toc' plugin or using kramdown with toc option | Yes Built-in table of contents generation for markdown content |
| Comments | Via integration Integration with third-party services like Disqus, Utterances, or staticman | Via integration Integration with Disqus, Commento, Utterances or other comment systems via templates |
| Integrations | ||
| Social media integration | Partial Basic support via Liquid templates, but requires customization for advanced integration | Yes Built-in support for social cards, sharing, and integration via templates |
| Analytics | Via integration Easily integrable via snippets in Liquid templates | Via integration Easy integration with most analytics platforms via themes or templates |
| Newsletter | Via integration Requires third-party services integration like Hakanai, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, etc. | Via integration Third-party services can be integrated via templates or partials |
| Search | Via plugin Options include 'jekyll-algolia', 'simple-jekyll-search', or 'jekyll-lunr-js-search' | Via integration Options include built-in JSON index, Algolia, Lunr.js, or other client-side search solutions |
| Headless CMS integration | Via integration Compatible with Forestry, Netlify CMS, CloudCannon, Contentful via custom configuration | Yes Excellent support for most headless CMS platforms including Contentful, Forestry, NetlifyCMS, Strapi |
| Advanced Features | ||
| Multilingual | Limited Basic support via collections or plugins like 'jekyll-polyglot' or 'jekyll-multiple-languages-plugin' | Yes First-class support for multilingual sites with i18n capabilities |
| AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-amp-pwa-plugin' or custom configuration | Via templates Can be implemented using custom output formats and templates |
| PWA (Progressive Web App) | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-pwa-plugin' or custom configuration | Via integration Requires custom configuration or theme with PWA support |
| Specialized Content | ||
| PlantUML | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-plantuml' or 'jekyll-diagrams' plugin | Via shortcode Customizable shortcodes can be created for PlantUML integration |
| Mermaid | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-mermaid' plugin or custom JavaScript integration | Via shortcode Official shortcode available for Mermaid diagrams |
| KaTeX (math) | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-katex' plugin or custom JavaScript integration | Via integration Support through either KaTeX or MathJax via templates or theme integration |
| GitHub Gists integration | Via plugin Requires 'jekyll-gist' plugin | Via shortcode Can be implemented via custom shortcodes |