Back to Basics with Hugo

The Jekyll adventure: the start of freedom (and headaches)

I started this blog in 2013 on a whim — I wanted my own blog and especially wanted to get my hands dirty building my own theme. I started by setting up a static site generator with Jekyll . If you’re not familiar with static site generators, the simple version is: you write text files, the generator converts them to HTML, and that’s your site — no database, nothing complex to maintain, and it’s nearly impossible to hack.

The downside of static sites is that they’re simple in theory, but the workflow for writing and publishing an article is complicated. Even more so when you want to upload files, manage images, etc. Since there’s no admin interface — there’s no server — everything has to be done on your own machine.

A static site generator is a bit like Linux: you have to be willing to get your hands dirty, take the time to build everything yourself to get optimal results. As a result, you end up spending more time building your site than actually publishing on it, which is why I ended up abandoning Jekyll and migrating to WordPress like most people who run a blog. Then I got hacked — because you always have to keep it and its plugins updated… So I’d gone back to a static site, this time with Hugo, which I found incredibly fast to compile (makes sense, it’s built in Go, which is designed for speed). And then once again I realized that the friction of publishing meant I stopped publishing… I was using Amazon S3 to store my images, so I was paying a few euros a month, and that quickly got on my nerves.

Exile at WordPress 🎢

When I decided to de-Google myself (see this article ) I moved to Infomaniak, the Swiss provider — there was an €80/year offer with unlimited WordPress hosting and an email address included. So I took the plunge: no more Gmail, no more Amazon S3, and back to WordPress! This time the WordPress instance was managed by Infomaniak so I didn’t get hacked since they handle updates automatically — a pretty great solution for getting started.

Hugo made easy by AI 🤖

So what’s the point of all this? I’ve come back to Hugo — again! But why, you ask? Because a lot has changed in recent years. With the arrival of AI, all the technical problems are solved very easily, so I was able to set up a publishing workflow that actually works! No more need for my Ulysses subscription, replaced by Obsidian .

I built the theme in a single day with AI tools (Gemini CLI ) without touching a single line of code — I’ll be honest, I didn’t even look out of curiosity, though I’ll dig into it when the time comes to optimize things. I’ve implemented everything that’s complicated to set up on your own, like search, comment management, a contact form… I’ve built a theme that suits me with all the features I need ❤️.

I’ll put together a detailed guide soon for anyone interested — we need to take back control of our digital and communication tools. Get off social media! Build yourself a blog: you won’t be censored and your data belongs to you.

If you’re interested or need a hand, feel free to reach out.