head to head · open source
hugo vs primo
hugo has 89,858 GitHub stars, 8,381 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped today. primo has 2,370 stars, 572 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped today. hugo leads on adoption by 3,691% (89,858 vs 2,370 stars). hugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0; primo is written in Svelte under MIT. hugo has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, primo 24%. primo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, 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 | primo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Svelte |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 572 |
| 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 primo if
- You want the primo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You evaluated both and primo 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 primo
Primo Primo is a CMS for developers who build sites for clients who need to manage them afterward. Your entire site stays in sync as both a database and a folder of files, so Claude Code, Cursor, and any AI agent can edit it directly. Your clients manage content visually in the browser. In active development since 2019. Self hosted by freelancers, agencies, and small teams. One click deploy: The shape of it One Go binary. PocketBase (SQLite) for storage. Svelte 5 for the editor UI and for the blocks you write. The same server hosts the CMS and serves your published sites — no external services, no separate fronte…
read the full primo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hugo or primo more popular?
hugo has 89,858 GitHub stars and primo has 2,370. hugo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hugo and primo free?
Both are open source. hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and primo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hugo and primo?
hugo is written in Go and primo in Svelte. 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 primo?
Choose hugo if you want the larger community (89,858 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose primo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.