Deploy / Hugo

Deploy Your Hugo Site to EU Infrastructure

Hugo is the fastest static site generator available — it builds 10,000 pages in approximately one second. deploybase auto-detects your Hugo project, runs hugo --minify, and deploys the public output to a global CDN. No Node.js required, no build pipeline to configure, no US data transfers. Hugo's sub-second builds paired with deploybase's EU-hosted infrastructure means your site goes from Git push to live URL faster than any other static site framework.

Last updated: April 2026

Deploy Hugo in Three Steps

1

Connect your repository

Link your GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Codeberg repository. deploybase detects hugo.toml (or hugo.yaml, config.toml) and identifies your project as Hugo automatically. The build command (hugo --minify) and output directory (public) are pre-filled. If your theme uses Git submodules, deploybase clones them recursively.

2

Push your code

Push to your default branch to trigger a production deployment, or push to any feature branch for an automatic preview URL. deploybase builds your site in a dedicated hugomods/hugo:0.139.0 container — the extended edition with Go and SCSS support included. Real-time build logs stream in the dashboard.

3

Your site is live

The built output from public/ is uploaded to Bunny.net storage and served via their global CDN with 100+ points of presence. Your site gets a .sites.deploybase.eu URL immediately — add a custom domain with automatic TLS whenever you're ready. For a typical Hugo site, the entire deploy completes in under one minute.

Hugo Build Configuration

These defaults are auto-detected when deploybase identifies a Hugo project. Override any value in your project settings.

SettingDefault ValueNotes
Build commandhugo --minifyMinifies HTML, CSS, JS, JSON, SVG, and XML
Output directorypublicHugo's default output location
Install commandHugo is a single binary — no install step needed
Docker imagehugomods/hugo:0.139.0Extended edition with Go + SCSS support
Hugo ModulesSupportedGo is included in the build image for module resolution

What You Get with Hugo on deploybase

Branch Previews for Content Reviews

Every feature branch gets a unique CDN-backed preview URL at {branch}-{slug}.previews.deploybase.eu. This is particularly useful for Hugo sites with editorial workflows — content editors can review new posts, layout changes, or theme updates on a live URL before merging to the main branch. With Hugo's sub-second builds, preview deployments complete almost instantly after push.

Instant Rollback for Content Sites

Every Hugo deployment is an immutable snapshot stored on the CDN. Published a blog post with an error? Re-point production to the previous build in seconds — no rebuild needed. Hugo sites with hundreds of pages still rebuild in under a second, but instant rollback means you don't even need to wait for that. Especially useful for high-traffic blogs and documentation sites where downtime visibility matters.

EU Data Residency by Architecture

Your Hugo source code is cloned and built on Scaleway infrastructure in Paris. Build artifacts are stored in Bunny.net's EU-origin storage. Sites are delivered globally via 100+ CDN PoPs, but the origin data never leaves the EU. No AWS, no GCP, no Azure in the chain. Hugo is popular with government agencies and enterprise teams — organizations that often have strict data residency requirements that deploybase satisfies by architecture, not just by contract.

Global Performance, EU Origin

Hugo already produces the smallest possible output — static HTML with no client-side framework overhead. Serve that output through Bunny.net's global CDN with 100+ points of presence and your visitors get sub-100ms response times worldwide. Automatic TLS certificates via DNS-01 ACME. Custom domains with wildcard support. 99.99% uptime SLA from an EU-headquartered CDN provider based in Slovenia.

Why Hugo and deploybase Are a Natural Fit

Hugo is the most popular static site generator by GitHub stars (87,600+) and has been the go-to choice for content-heavy sites since 2013. Unlike Node.js-based generators like Gatsby or Eleventy, Hugo is a single Go binary with zero runtime dependencies. It builds 10,000 pages in roughly one second — 250x faster than Gatsby for equivalent content. Smashing Magazine and Cloudflare's developer documentation both migrated to Hugo specifically for build performance.

deploybase complements Hugo's speed with simplicity and compliance. We use a dedicated Hugo Docker image (hugomods/hugo:0.139.0) with the extended edition and Go included, so Hugo Modules and SCSS work out of the box. No Node.js in the build chain unless your project explicitly needs it. Flat EUR pricing with no per-seat fees, no bandwidth overages, and no US data transfers. If you're evaluating hosting options, see how deploybase compares to Vercel or Netlify — especially for teams that don't need serverless functions or edge compute.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Hugo version does deploybase use?

deploybase builds Hugo projects using hugomods/hugo:0.139.0, which includes the extended edition with SCSS/Sass compilation support. This version is pinned for build reproducibility. If your project requires a specific Hugo version, you can override the Docker image in your project settings.

Does deploybase support Hugo Modules?

Yes. The hugomods/hugo Docker image includes Go, which is required for Hugo Modules. If your project uses go.mod and go.sum for module management, deploybase resolves them during the build. Git submodules for themes are also supported — deploybase performs a recursive clone of your repository.

Do I need the Hugo extended edition for my site?

You need the extended edition if your site or theme uses SCSS/Sass for styling. The deploybase build image (hugomods/hugo:0.139.0) includes the extended edition by default, so you don't need to configure anything. If your site uses only plain CSS, the extended features are simply unused.

How fast are Hugo builds on deploybase?

Hugo is the fastest static site generator available — it builds 10,000 pages in approximately 1 second. On deploybase, total deployment time includes cloning your repository, running hugo --minify, and uploading the output to the CDN. For a typical Hugo site with a few hundred pages, the entire process completes in under one minute. Most of that time is network transfer, not the Hugo build itself.

Can I use a custom Hugo configuration file?

Yes. Hugo supports hugo.toml, hugo.yaml, and hugo.json configuration files, and deploybase doesn't interfere with any of them. Your configuration is read by Hugo during the build step as usual. You can also use Hugo's built-in environment variable support (e.g., HUGO_PARAMS_KEY) by setting environment variables in your deploybase project settings.

Deploy your Hugo site in under a minute

Free plan includes 1 site, 100 GB bandwidth, custom domains, and automatic TLS. No credit card required.