Hugo vs Pelican: What are the differences?

Introduction

Hugo and Pelican are both static site generators used to build websites. They differ in certain aspects, which are outlined below.

1. Development Language: Hugo is developed in Go, while Pelican is developed in Python. This means that developers who are more proficient in one language than the other may prefer one over the other. Additionally, the availability of plugins and community support can vary based on the popularity of the language.
2. Performance and Speed: Hugo is known for its speed and performance. It uses a single executable file written in Go, enabling it to process and build websites quickly, even with a large number of pages. On the other hand, Pelican may be slower when dealing with larger websites or sites with complex features due to its reliance on Python and its dependencies.
3. Customization and Themes: Both Hugo and Pelican offer a range of themes and templates to choose from. However, Hugo provides more customization options out of the box, with a wider selection of pre-built themes. It also has a powerful templating language that allows for easy customization and flexibility. Pelican, on the other hand, may require more manual configuration and coding to achieve similar levels of customization.
4. Content Organization: Hugo organizes content using a section and page hierarchy, allowing for easy categorization and navigation. This makes it suitable for larger websites with complex content structures. Pelican, on the other hand, organizes content using a category, tags, and articles structure, which may be more suitable for smaller websites or personal blogs with simpler content organization needs.
5. Plugin Ecosystem: Hugo has a growing and active plugin ecosystem, with a wide range of community-developed plugins available for extending its functionality. On the other hand, Pelican has a smaller plugin ecosystem, with fewer available plugins. This may limit the extensibility and flexibility of Pelican compared to Hugo in certain cases.
6. Community and Documentation: Both Hugo and Pelican have active communities and provide comprehensive documentation. However, Hugo has gained popularity more recently and has a larger user community, which may result in more extensive community support and resources available online.

In Summary, Hugo and Pelican differ in their development language, performance, customization options, content organization, plugin ecosystem, and community support.