head to head · open source
hugo vs mediacms
hugo has 90,326 GitHub stars, 8,447 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mediacms has 5,176 stars, 984 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. hugo leads on adoption by 1,645% (90,326 vs 5,176 stars). hugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0; mediacms is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. hugo has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, mediacms 19%. hugo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), 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 | mediacms | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 5.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 984 |
| 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 mediacms if
- You want the mediacms feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and mediacms fits your workflow better
About hugo
[Clang]: [GCC]: [Git]: [Go]: [bep]: [bugs]: [contributing]: CONTRIBUTING.md [create a proposal]: [dart sass]: [details]: [documentation repository]: [documentation]: [dragonfly bsd, freebsd, netbsd, and openbsd]: [features]: [forum]: [friends]: [hugo modules]: [installation]: [issue queue]: [linux]: [macos]: [prebuilt binary]: [requesting help]: [spf13]: [static site generator]: [support]: [themes]: [transpile sass to css]: [website]: [windows]: A fast and flexible static site generator built with love by [bep][], [spf13][], and [friends][] in Go. [Website][] [Installation][] [Documentation][] [Support][]…
About mediacms
MediaCMS MediaCMS is a modern, fully featured open source video and media CMS. It is developed to meet the needs of modern web platforms for viewing and sharing media. It can be used to build a small to medium video and media portal within minutes. It is built mostly using the modern stack Django + React and includes a REST API. A demo is available at Screenshots Features Complete control over your data : host it yourself! Modern technologies : Django/Python/Celery, React. Support for multiple publishing workflows : public, private, unlisted and custom Role Based Access Control (RBAC) : create RBAC categories…
read the full mediacms overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hugo or mediacms more popular?
hugo has 90,326 GitHub stars and mediacms has 5,176. hugo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hugo and mediacms free?
Both are open source. hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mediacms under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hugo and mediacms?
hugo is written in Go and mediacms in Python. 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 mediacms?
Choose hugo if you want the larger community (90,326 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mediacms if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.