Migrating My Blog from Hugo to Astro

After a long journey of experimenting with different static site generators, I have finally landed on Astro this time. This post is a follow-up to my previous migration from Gatsby to Hugo. While Hugo served me well for a while, I encountered a few challenges that eventually led me to explore better options. Here’s why I migrated again, and why Astro feels like a solid choice going forward.

From Gatsby to Hugo: A Recap

Gatsby was my initial choice for blogging due to its powerful React ecosystem and GraphQL integration. However, as my focus shifted more towards simplicity and performance, I decided to switch to Hugo, a blazing-fast static site generator written in Go.

Migrating from Gatsby to Hugo was smooth overall, and I detailed that transition in this post. Hugo offered speed and simplicity, which was great, but it wasn’t without its own set of challenges.

Why I Left Hugo

It’s not because of hugo, it’s mainly with theme which I used.

I initially chose Hugo-PaperMod as my theme. It’s fast, lightweight, and visually pleasing. However, when the theme got a major update recently, it introduced several breaking changes that were time-consuming to fix.

Some pain points I faced:

• Theme coupling: Updates in the theme broke my existing setup.
• Customization: Customizing themes in Hugo is not very intuitive if you want to go beyond what the theme offers.
• Limited frontend flexibility: I missed component-based architecture for better control over UI and interactivity.

Why Astro?

After researching alternatives, Astro stood out for several reasons:

• Component-based architecture: Supports React, Vue, Svelte, and more-but only where you need it.
• Zero-JS by default: Pages load fast with no client-side JavaScript unless explicitly added.
• Markdown and MDX support: Fits perfectly with how I write and organize blog content.
• Great theming and customization: Easy to build or adapt themes without tight coupling.
• Excellent developer experience: Clear documentation, fast hot reload, file-based routing, and modern tooling.

The Migration Process

Migrating from Hugo to Astro involved:

• Converting my Markdown content to Astro’s src/content directory with content collections.
• Rebuilding layouts using .astro components and partials.
• Replacing Hugo shortcodes with Astro slots or components.
• Setting up image optimization using @astrojs/image.
• Configuring SEO tags, RSS, sitemap, and analytics via integrations and components.

The Result

I now have a blog that is:

• Easier to maintain
• More customizable
• Fully under my control (no more unexpected breaking changes!)
• Fast, modern, and more fun to work on

Final Thoughts

Astro strikes a great balance between flexibility and performance. If you’re looking for a modern static site generator that doesn’t compromise on customization or speed, I highly recommend trying Astro.

Once again, If this is also not going well, definitely I will migrate again like as always. Only change is constant.