Hugo is a general-purpose website framework. Technically speaking, Hugo is a static site generator. Unlike systems that dynamically build a page with each visitor request, Hugo builds pages when you create or update your content. Since websites are viewed far more often than they are edited, Hugo is designed to provide an optimal viewing experience for your website's end users and an ideal writing experience for website authors.
Hugo has a virtual file system and only the main project (not third-party components) is allowed to mount directories or files outside the project root.
Hugo is a static site generator. By using Hugo you are already standing on very solid ground. Static HTML files on disk are much easier to reason about compared to server and database driven web sites.
Hugo boasts blistering speed, robust content management, and a powerful templating language making it a great fit for all kinds of static websites.
Improved performance, security and ease of use are just a few of the reasons static site generators are so appealing.
A static site generator needs to extend beyond front matter and a couple of templates to be both scalable and manageable. Hugo was designed with not only developers in mind, but also content managers and authors.
Hugo assumes that the same structure that works to organize your source content is used to organize the rendered site.
Shortcodes are simple snippets inside your content files calling built-in or custom templates.
Hugo supports sites with multiple content types and assumes your site will be organized into sections, where each section represents the corresponding type.
Hugo includes support for user-defined taxonomies to help you demonstrate logical relationships between content for the end users of your website.
Hugo boasts blistering speed, robust content management, and a powerful templating language making it a great fit for all kinds of static websites.