Why I chose Zola over Hugo

Table of Contents

When I wanted to create this blog, I hesitated between Hugo and Zola. Here's why I chose Zola.

Hugo: the heavyweight

Hugo is the most popular static site generator. Huge community, tons of themes, complete docs. But...

  • Go template syntax is awful
  • Configuration is a maze
  • Too many features I don't need

Zola: simplicity

Zola is written in Rust (single binary, no dependencies). What convinced me:

  1. Tera templates — clean syntax, close to Jinja2
  2. Single binary — zola serve and you're off
  3. Built-in Sass — no external CSS pipeline needed
  4. Hot reload — real-time changes

Verdict

For a personal blog, Zola is perfect. Simple, fast, and the tabi theme is gorgeous.

# Install Zola
cargo install zola

# Create a site
zola init my-blog
cd my-blog
zola serve

No regrets.