head to head · open source
hugo vs hexo
hugo has 89,858 GitHub stars, 8,381 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped today. hexo has 41,774 stars, 42 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. hugo leads on adoption by 115% (89,858 vs 41,774 stars). hugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0; hexo is written in TypeScript under MIT. hugo has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, hexo 0%. hugo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (static-site-generator), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| hugo | hexo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 42K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 42 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hugo if
- You weight community size — 90K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hexo if
- You want the hexo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hexo fits your workflow better
About hugo
Hugo is a static site generator written in Go that renders a complete site in seconds, often less, and it is aimed at developers, technical writers, and content teams who build blogs, documentation sites, portfolios, landing pages, and corporate sites as static files.
About hexo
Hexo is a static site generator for blogs, built on Node.js and distributed as the hexo package through npm. The project is written in TypeScript, licensed under MIT, and lives in the Node.js and JavaScript ecosystem alongside the broader set of static site generators tracked under the static site generator topic. It has been published for roughly 14 years, carries about 41,766 stars, and points users to a dedicated website and documentation set at hexo.io.
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Frequently asked questions
Is hugo or hexo more popular?
hugo has 89,858 GitHub stars and hexo has 41,774. hugo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hugo and hexo free?
Both are open source. hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hexo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hugo and hexo?
hugo is written in Go and hexo in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, hugo or hexo?
Choose hugo if you want the larger community (89,858 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hexo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.