Fifty of 2022's most popular Hugo themes

One reason Hugo is such a popular static site generator is the ease with which you can add visually appealing themes to new and existing website projects. Maybe a responsive Hugo theme is essential to your users, or multi-language capability; maybe it's simple contact forms or an easily adjustable dark mode. Whatever the case, the Hugo community has an option ready for you.

If you haven't tested out new theme templates on Hugo yet, take a minute — literally — to spin up a new Hugo site on CloudCannon, the CMS designed for your Hugo sites. With your Git account connected, you'll be able to create a new Hugo site repo with ease, and adding a theme to a Hugo site is as straightforward as following the official Hugo documentation. (Note that some themes require a little extra config; each of the fifty themes listed below have readme files detailing what you'll need to do.)

When it comes to actually selecting a theme, though, you're spoilt for choice. I've set out the top fifty Hugo themes below, with a little information about each of them. The most important points to note are the minimum version of Hugo they require, and how recently they have been updated.

How I ranked Hugo themes

I've arranged these themes based on their GitHub stars as of the date of publication, in descending order. While I began digging through tools like Google Analytics or Semrush to uncover trends, ultimately that data was — to put it mildly — messy, and made too many assumptions about users' intentions. Now, GitHub stars are by no means the sole arbiter of quality. As many GitHub users have pointed out, they can function as a kind of self-affirming popularity contest. Nonetheless, the star metric I've used for ranking themes here will reflect a range of user intentions. Personally, I use GitHub stars for three main reasons: to follow along with creators' updates; to show my appreciation for interesting or noteworthy projects; and sometimes even just to bookmark projects to check out later.

If you're interested in finding out more about each of these themes, I'd recommend using seladb's StarTrack 2.4.0 to show their recent growth in GitHub stars over time. Knowing the age of a given project — as well as when it was last updated — is handy for tracking trends and making sure you're aware of projects that are (or aren't) actively maintained.

With all that in mind, let's take a look at the most starred Hugo themes.

1. PaperMod

Papermod Hugo theme screenshot

A fast, clean, and responsive theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Aditya Telange
License: MIT

2. Stack

Stack Hugo theme screenshot

A card-style theme, designed for bloggers.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Jimmy Cai
License: GPL-3.0-only

3. Coder

Coder Hugo theme screenshot

A minimalist blog theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Luiz F. A. de Praacute
License: MIT

4. LoveIt

LoveIt Hugo theme screenshot

A clean, elegant and advanced theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Dillon
License: MIT

5. Book

Book Hugo theme screenshot

A Hugo documentation theme as simple as a plain book.

Use case(s): Documentation
Author: Alex Shpak
License: MIT

6. Even

Even Hugo theme screenshot

A concise theme, ported from the Hexo theme of the same name.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: olOwOlo
License: MIT

7. Docsy

Docsy Hugo theme screenshot

A set of Hugo documentation templates for launching open source content.

Use case(s): Documentation
Author: The Docsy Authors
License: Apache-2.0

8. Learn

Learn Hugo theme screenshot

A multilingual-ready theme designed for documentation.

Use case(s): Documentation
Author: Mathieu Cornic
License: MIT

9. terminal

Terminal Hugo theme screenshot

A simple, retro theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: panr
License: MIT

10. hello-friend-ng

Hello Friend NG Hugo theme screenshot

A simple theme, inspired by Hello Friend and Hermit.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Djordje Atlialp
License: MIT

11. Doks

Doks Hugo theme screenshot

A theme to help you build modern documentation websites.

Use case(s): Documentation
Author: Henk Verlinde
License: MIT

12. Hermit

Hermit Hugo theme screenshot

A minimal and fast theme for bloggers.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Track3
License: MIT

13. Paper

Paper Hugo theme screenshot

A simple, clean, and flexible theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: nanxiaobei
License: MIT

14. Beautiful Hugo

Beautiful Hugo theme screenshot

A simple and beautiful theme; port of the Beautiful Jekyll theme.

Use case(s): Full-featured sites, Blogging, Portfolio
Author: halogenica
License: MIT

15. hello-friend

Hello Friend Hugo theme screenshot

A simple theme with everything you need to start a new project.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: panr
License: MIT

16. Tranquilpeak

Tranquilpeak Hugo theme screenshot

A gorgeous and responsive theme for blogging.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Thibaud Leprêtre
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

17. Jane

Jane Hugo theme screenshot

A readable and concise theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: xianmin
License: MIT

18. Ananke

Ananke Hugo theme screenshot

A solid starting place for Hugo sites with basic features, including best practices for performance, accessibility, and rapid development.

Use case(s): Full featured sites
Author: theNewDynamic
License: MIT

19. MemE

MemE Hugo theme screenshot

A powerful and highly customizable theme for personal blogs, focusing on elegance, simplicity, and code correctness.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: reuixiy
License: MIT

20. Mainroad

Mainroad Hugo theme screenshot

A responsive, simple, clean, and content-focused theme, based on the MH Magazine lite WordPress theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Vimux
License: GPL v2

21. Eureka

Eureka Hugo theme screenshot

A feature-rich and highly customizable theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: C. Wang R. Ma
License: Apache-2.0

22. Zzo

Zzo Hugo theme screenshot

A feature-rich blogging theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: zzossig
License: MIT

23. Universal

Universal Hugo theme screenshot

A clean and stylish website template ported from Bootstrap, which stands out with its clean design and elegant typography.

Use case(s): Full featured sites
Author: devcows
License: MIT

24. Introduction

Introduction Hugo theme screenshot

A minimal, single page, smooth scrolling theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Victoria Drake
License: Apache-2.0

25. Toha

Toha Hugo theme screenshot

A theme for a personal portfolio with minimalist design and responsiveness.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Emruz Hossain
License: MIT

26. mini

mini Hugo theme screenshot

A fast, minimalist and responsive theme for bloggers.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: nodejh
License: MIT

27. Minimo

Minimo Hugo theme screenshot

A minimalist theme that keeps the focus on your content.

Use case(s): Blogging
Author: Munif Tanjim
License: MIT

28. reveal-hugo

Reveal Hugo theme screenshot

A theme that allows you to create rich HTML-based presentations with Hugo and Reveal.js.

Use case(s): Reveal.js presentations
Author: Josh Dzielak
License: MIT

29. Hyde

Hyde Hugo theme screenshot

A brazen two-column theme based on the Jekyll theme of the same name. It pairs a prominent sidebar with uncomplicated content.

Use case(s): Blogging
Author: spf13
License: MIT

30. Anatole

Anatole Hugo theme screenshot

A beautiful minimalist two-column theme based on farbox-theme-Anatole.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Alexander Bilz
License: MIT

31. Archie

Archie Hugo theme screenshot

A minimal and clean theme with a "markdown-ish" UI.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Athul Cyriac Ajay
License: MIT

32. XMin

XMin Hugo theme screenshot

An "eXtremely Minimal" theme: about 150 lines of code in total, including HTML and CSS.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Yihui Xie
License: MIT

33. Clean White

Clean White Hugo theme screenshot

A clean, elegant blog theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Huabing Zhao
License: Apache-2.0

34. LeaveIt

LeaveIt Hugo theme screenshot

A clean, elegant, and simple — but not simpler — blog theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: LiuZhichao
License: MIT

35. Minimal

Minimal Hugo theme screenshot

A minimal personal blog theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Calin Tataru
License: MIT

36. Call me Sam.

Call Me Sam Hugo theme screenshot

A simple and minimalist theme, focused on content and typography.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Victoria Drake
License: Apache-2.0

37. Hugo Fresh

Hugo Fresh Hugo theme screenshot

Adapted from the gorgeous, Bulma-based theme of the same name from CSS Ninja.

Use case(s): Full featured sites
Author: Stefan M.
License: MIT

38. Creative portfolio

Creative Portfolio Hugo theme screenshot

A clean and elegant template ported from Bootstrapious.

Use case(s): Portfolio
Author: Kishan B
License: MIT

39. Clarity

Clarity Hugo theme screenshot

A theme based on VMware's Clarity Design System for publishing technical blogs.

Use case(s): Blogging
Author: Chip Zoller and Dan Weru
License: MIT

40. Cactus

Cactus Hugo theme screenshot

A clean and responsive theme for personal blogging, forked from the Hexo theme Cactus.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Zeran Wu
License: MIT

41. Yinyang

Yinyang Hugo theme screenshot

A minimalist black-and-white theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Joway Wang
License: MIT

42. Ink

Ink Hugo theme screenshot

A crisp and minimal personal website and blog theme.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Kailash Nadh
License: MIT

43. Diary

Diary Hugo theme screenshot

A simple and elegant blog theme, ported from the Hexo theme Journal.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: amazingrise
License: MIT

44. Hugo Future Imperfect

Hugo Future Imperfect Hugo theme screenshot

A responsive theme tailored for blogging, and ported — with added features — from HTML5 UP’s theme of the same name.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Julio Pescador
License: MIT

45. Geekdoc

Geekdoc Hugo theme screenshot

A simple theme for documentation, intentionally designed to be fast and lean.

Use case(s): Documentation
Author: Robert Kaussow
License: MIT

46. m10c

m10c Hugo theme screenshot

A responsive and minimalistic (m10c) theme for bloggers.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: vaga
License: MIT

47. Hugo Future Imperfect Slim

Hugo Future Imperfect Slim Hugo theme screenshot

A slimmed-down version of Hugo Future Imperfect, modernized with CSS Grid and modern Hugo functions.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Patrick Collins
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

48. Blackburn

Blackburn Hugo theme screenshot

A clear and responsive theme constructed using Yahoo's Pure CSS (v1.0.0).

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Yoshiharu Yamashita
License: MIT

49. Notepadium

Notepadium Hugo theme screenshot

A theme built for speed — 100% JavaScript-free.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: lvv
License: MIT

50. Codex

Codex Hugo theme screenshot

A minimalist blog theme with KaTex support for mathematical notations.

Use case(s): Blogging, Portfolio
Author: Jake Wiesler
License: MIT

Takeaways for Hugo theme designers

In short, blogging isn't dead, and less is more.

Most of these themes are for personal blogging or portfolios, with few notable exceptions — a couple of documentation themes, and several full-featured site themes. Why? Probably for a few reasons: there are simply more personal site themes around; professional (full featured) site themes are less likely to be offered publicly on GitHub; and many developers frequently refresh their personal sites, meaning they're likely to star multiple theme projects.

Use cases aside, you'll notice that the majority of these top themes are minimalist, with well defined color palettes and simple layouts. Typography clearly matters to GitHub users, as does spacing between page elements.

Where to from here?

Once you've selected your theme, CloudCannon's CMS for Hugo will take all the pain out of adding and editing content. And with our open-source component browser Bookshop, you'll be ready to offer instant live editing on the page. (You can read the Hugo Bookshop Reference Guide for prerequisites and a full guide to getting set up.)