Why I Use Hugo as an Alternative to WordPress for My Blogging Website
Hugo + Github Pages can be a cheaper option for blogging compared to WordPress
As a software engineer, I like to document the steps that I take to solve a problem. This is usually very time-consuming, but it can be very useful for future reference, sharing as well as getting feedback from peers.
Thus far, I have always been using Medium for most of my tech content. I like the interface as a writer, where images, code blocks, and external links are properly formatted without much editing required. However, it cannot consolidate my content into a single website where I can search and categorize easily. Moreover, there is a paywall on Medium which makes sharing difficult for non-members.
Hence, I started to explore many blogging platforms for hosting some of my content and finally found a combination that I liked — Hugo + GitHub Pages. But first, let’s talk about WordPress…
WordPress
If you google now, WordPress is probably one of the most common tools used for building websites, especially for blogging. It comes with many free plugins, templates, and guides on how to get started. As a blogger, you can probably get a customized website running within 1 — 3 days. So why not WordPress?
The price…
To me, blogging is just a hobby and I didn’t want to spend too much money on it. To get access to all the features of WordPress, you will have to use WordPress.org and not WordPress.com. The easiest way to get started is to find a WordPress Hosting Web Service such as Bluehost, DreamHost, hosting, knownhost, greengeeks, etc… Alternatively, you can set up your own Wordpress.org and host it on servers such as Digital Ocean, vultr, aws, azure, etc…
All of these options come at a monthly subscription cost. Even with all the deals, you can expect yourself to be paying $3 — $15+ per month, which isn’t a lot, but it’s not something I was willing to pay. Hence, I needed something cheaper.
The writing tools…
I tried using WordPress.com as it was free but quickly came to regret it. I am very comfortable with markdown language for my documentation and the content I write on Medium usually requires good formatting for code snippets or screenshots.
I found a free web template on WordPress.com but then realized that to add plugins to support code snippets in the blog posts, I had to upgrade, which cost around $5–10 per month. This was probably why WordPress.org is always the recommendation as opposed to WordPress.com.
Creating a Website with Hugo
Apart from WordPress, I have also tried using other blogging platforms such as Hashnode, Substack, Notion, etc… Let’s just say that they were unable to provide some of the features that I wanted, which led me to settle on Hugo.
Hugo is a free and popular open-source static site generator. Even if you are not very tech-savvy, I think it is pretty simple to pick up. To start, you will need the following:
- A machine that can install Hugo (for writing & building your website) and Git (for source code version control)
- A GitHub account for your source codes as well as for hosting the website using GitHub Pages
- A website domain (around $5 — $20)
- Markdown language (for writing content)
- HTML and CSS (for customizing the website theme)
You can find free Hugo themes or purchase some online. I started with the free themes and spent some time understanding the codebase, before making tweaks here and there to customize the website to my liking. I won’t go into details on how you can create your website with Hugo as that’s a very long topic. Here are some useful links that helped me a lot when playing with Hugo.
- https://www.techielass.com/how-to-install-hugo-on-windows-10/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIFvgrRxdt4&t=576s
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtIqKaDlqXo&list=PLLAZ4kZ9dFpOnyRlyS-liKL5ReHDcj4G3
My Savings?
I only spent $15/year on the web domain and the rest was free. The Hugo + GitHub Pages setup is significantly cheaper as compared to WordPress.org which would cost me at least $30++ for the first year and more in subsequent years (even with WordPress shared web hosting plans).
Summary
There is a slight learning curve for using Hugo, but if you are slightly familiar with HTML and CSS, I think you will pick it up easily. I like the flexibility to change the website theme when using Hugo as compared to WordPress. So I will be sticking with this for now!
Thank you for reading till the end! ☕
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