Hugo and Gatsby are two of the most popular Static Website Generators out there. In the past year, many Bloggers have made the jump from WordPress to Hugo and Gatsby. Both of these frameworks share some similarities in the sense that they are open-source. Also, they are backed up by an impressive community following that constantly strives to work on improving them. However, as a user, if you need to choose one among them, what would be your choice? In this article, we will be providing you with a detailed analysis of these 2 immensely popular static site generators and highlight their pros and cons.
Here is a list of our Top hugo theme picks
Popularity
Both Hugo and Gatsby are quite popular choices for building websites. Hugo is easier to use for people with less technical skills. The small learning curve and the simple template system makes it the number one choice for many users. However, on social media websites like Youtube, Gatsby has more content.
Front end developers, however, prefer Gatsby to Hugo. This is because the working principles of Gatsby are easy to understand if you have front-end skills. As a result, they can customize pages without requiring a huge learning curve. Also, Gatsby allows you to do some fancy stuff with Javascript as well and hence it has amassed a significant following. While writing this article, Gatsby had more than 5000 stars in the Github Star Ranking system. So all in all, Gatsby is slightly ahead in the popularity metric.
Learning Curve
Gatsby uses React and GraphQL. The structure of the project is built using React while GraphQL API is used to separate the dynamic content from the structure. Since Gatsby makes use of React, you would need a good understanding of ReactJS. Also, to understand React, you should have knowledge of Javascript as well. If you don’t have experience with Javascript and React, it is better to go with Hugo. Else, it could prove to be quite challenging.
Hugo on the other hand is built using GO. However, you don’t need to understand GO to use Hugo. You only need to learn about GO’s template libraries. This is the deciding factor for many people while choosing between Hugo and Gatsby. While using Hugo, there is a good chance that you would be referring to the documentation a lot. This is not the case with Gatsby. We would advise you to choose Gatsby over Hugo if the only deciding criterion was framework familiarity.
Here is a comparison by The Official Gatsby Team
Performance
Now, there is no disputing the fact that Hugo is the fastest framework for building websites. We have tested it ourselves and we even managed to set up a blog in a second. This time also depends on the amount of content like assets, and themes. In terms of building speed, Hugo stands clear of Gatsby. Currently, Hugo also does resize and resampling of images as well. With more than 300 Themes to choose from, working with Hugo is quite a joyful experience.
What Hugo does is to create HTML pages and then add Java script to it. Gatsby Sites on the other hand are Progressive Website Applications (PWA), which is a combination of mobile and web applications by integrating the best features from both sides. PWAs offer a great user experience and they are undoubtedly the next big thing. Other than the speed, Hugo does not offer anything above Gatsby.
Themes
Both Hugo and Gatsby boast of an exquisite collection of themes that would make any Blog look good. Hugo in fact has hundreds of themes that are suited for different purposes and needs. However, we felt that the themes offered by Gatsby are more functional due to React and hence feel better designed. So, we prefer the Themes from Gatsby but it is ultimately a personal choice.
Wrap Up:
Both Hugo and Gatsby are excellent frameworks aimed at slightly different users. If you are looking to develop your first blog or website, then Hugo would be the better choice as the minimal learning curve and the user-friendly interface would be beneficial for you. However, for people who want to take their blogs to the next level, Gatsby would be the better choice as it offers more functionality and flexibility.
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