head to head · open source
hugo vs Strapi
hugo has 90,326 GitHub stars, 8,447 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Strapi has 73,425 stars, 10,050 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hugo leads on adoption by 23% (90,326 vs 73,425 stars). hugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. hugo has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Strapi 14%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, content-management-system), 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 | Strapi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 73K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 10K |
| 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 Strapi if
- You want the Strapi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Strapi 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 Strapi
Open source headless CMS, self hosted or Cloud you're in control. The leading open source headless CMS, 100% JavaScript/TypeScript, flexible and fully customizable. Docs · Strapi Cloud · Roadmap · Discord · Discussions Strapi is an open source, self hosted headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface. Define your content models and Strapi generates a full API, ready to consume from any frontend, mobile app, or IoT device. Design content structures visually with the Content Type Builder , no code required Auto generated REST & GraphQL APIs…
read the full Strapi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hugo or Strapi more popular?
hugo has 90,326 GitHub stars and Strapi has 73,425. hugo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hugo and Strapi free?
Both are open source. hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Strapi has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between hugo and Strapi?
hugo is written in Go and Strapi 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 Strapi?
Choose hugo if you want the larger community (90,326 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Strapi if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.