Hugo vs Quartz
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Hugo
Blazing fast static site generator for blogs and sites
VS
Quartz
Publish a digital garden from Markdown notes
| Feature | Hugo | Quartz |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 75 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 89,914 | ★ 13,281 |
| First released | 2013 | 2021 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Medium | Notion, Medium |
What are Hugo and Quartz?
Hugo
Hugo is one of the fastest open-source static site generators, written in Go. It builds blogs, documentation, and websites from Markdown content with thousands of available themes.
- Extremely fast builds
- Markdown content
- Huge theme library
- Single binary install
Quartz
Quartz is a static site generator that transforms Markdown notes, including Obsidian vaults, into a fast, searchable digital garden website. It supports backlinks, graph views, and full-text search out of the box.
- Digital garden publishing
- Backlinks and graph view
- Full-text search
- Obsidian compatible
Hugo vs Quartz: key differences
Hugo is written in Go, while Quartz is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Hugo versus MIT for Quartz. Hugo is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Quartz. Hugo is the more established project (first released 2013), while Quartz arrived in 2021. Hugo has the considerably larger community, at 89,914 GitHub stars versus 13,281.
Why pick each one
Choose Hugo if…
- Outstanding build speed
- No server-side runtime needed
Watch out for
- Templating has a learning curve
- No built-in admin UI
Choose Quartz if…
- Great for note publishing
- Fast static output
Watch out for
- Static-only
- Build step required
Frequently asked questions
Is Hugo or Quartz better?
Neither is universally better. Hugo has the larger community, while Quartz is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hugo and Quartz free and open-source?
Yes. Hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Quartz under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hugo and Quartz with Docker?
Hugo: check the project docs for container support. Quartz: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hugo or Quartz?
Hugo has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Quartz. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.