Build a site you actually own.
In one chat.
Hugo Chat is the AI website builder that outputs plain Markdown files you own — not React code only an AI can maintain. Describe what you want; Hugo Chat builds the whole site. Edit by hand, host anywhere, take it with you.
TL;DR
- Generates a complete site from one prompt — landing page, blog, portfolio, lab site, docs.
- Outputs Markdown, not React. Source files are yours from minute one — host anywhere, no platform lock-in.
- Free to start, no credit card. Built on Hugo + HugoBlox — open source, 150K+ live sites.
Hugo + HugoBlox in production at
- Anthropic
- Meta
- Cloudflare
- OpenAI
- NVIDIA Research
- Stanford
- MIT
- Imperial College
The difference
One of these you can actually edit.
Most AI site builders generate React or JavaScript. You get a working site — but the source is unreadable by humans. Only the AI can maintain it. Hugo Chat outputs plain Markdown. Open it in any text editor. Change a word. It just works.
import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button';
import { motion } from 'framer-motion';
import { useMemo } from 'react';
import { cn } from '@/lib/utils';
export function Hero({ variant = 'default' }: HeroProps) {
const classes = useMemo(
() => cn(
'relative isolate overflow-hidden',
variant === 'dark' && 'bg-zinc-950 text-white',
),
[variant],
);
return (
<motion.section initial={{ opacity: 0 }} animate={{ opacity: 1 }}>
<div className={classes}>
<h1 className="text-5xl font-bold">
Welcome to Acme
</h1>
{/* …another 180 lines of JSX… */}
</div>
</motion.section>
);
}- You cannot meaningfully edit this without the AI.
- Site is locked to their hosting + build pipeline.
- Exporting gives you a ZIP of unmaintainable code.
---
title: Welcome to Acme
sections:
- block: hero
headline: Welcome to Acme
cta: Get started
style: dark
- block: features
items:
- title: Fast
body: Loads in under a second.
- title: Yours
body: Markdown source, no lock-in.
- block: pricing
- block: testimonials
---- Open in VS Code. Edit any line. Save.
- Host on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, Netlify — anywhere.
- Open-source format. Migrate freely. Always.
Same site. Different source. One you control. One controls you.
What you take home
After Hugo Chat builds your site, the files are already yours.
There's nothing to export. The Markdown files the chat produced land directly in your GitHub repo. Open them in any editor. We have no claim on them. You can fork everything and leave — we'd still think you made the right call.
You describe the site in chat
Plain English. The same way you'd brief a designer.
Hugo Chat writes Markdown files
Plain .md files, pushed straight to your GitHub repo.
You can edit them by hand. Forever.
No AI required. No platform required. Just a text editor.
headline: Welcome to Acme Inc.Cancel your subscription tomorrow — your site keeps running. Switch to a different framework next year — your content moves with you. That's the difference between owning a site and renting one in disguise.
Pick the closest one
What will you build?
Ship a landing page this afternoon.
Describe your product. Get a polished hero, feature grid, pricing, and testimonials — ready for your first customers.
The lab site your department deserves.
Publications, team bios, news, grants — generated from a prompt, with proper academic metadata. Free for academics.
A portfolio that loads in 600ms.
Projects, writing, contact — a clean personal site that ranks, loads fast, and never needs a CMS.
Own your audience, not Substack.
A Markdown-based blog with RSS, categories, and email signup — no platform that can deplatform you.
Spin up a conference site in 5 minutes.
Speakers, schedule, call-for-papers, sponsors — one prompt, one site, no Eventbrite tax on attendees.
Stop renting your website.
Describe the site you have today. Hugo Chat rebuilds it as Markdown you own — host wherever, never pay platform rent again.
The honest comparison
Hugo Chat vs. the other AI builders.
Every row is verifiable. The differences come down to one question: after the AI is done, can you walk away with your site?
| What matters | Hugo Chat | Lovable / v0 / Bolt | Wix / Squarespace / Framer AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own the source files | Markdown | React (AI-only editable) | |
| Host anywhere | Their platform | ||
| Edit by hand without AI | |||
| Take your site and leave | Files are yours | ZIP of code only AI can maintain | |
| Open-source foundation | Hugo + HugoBlox | ||
| Lighthouse 100/100 | |||
| Free tier without credit card | Some |
The other tools build you a site. We build you a site that's yours.
Trusted by people who ship.
From PhD students in Singapore to founders in San Francisco — Hugo Chat is how people get the site out the door.
“I described my lab's research areas and Hugo Chat generated the entire site - publications page, team profiles, news section. What would have taken a week took an afternoon.”
“We went from 'we need a site' to a live landing page with pricing and testimonials in a single session. Hugo Chat wrote every block we needed.”
“My grad students use Hugo Chat to generate their academic profile pages and conference talk listings. It is the TA that actually knows the tool.”
“I tried Lovable first - got a working site but the source was a React mess I couldn't edit. Hugo Chat gave me Markdown I can actually maintain. Same site quality, completely different deal.”
“We were debating hiring a freelancer to fix our marketing site. Instead I asked Hugo Chat to generate the pages and debug the build. Paid for our annual Pro plan in its first hour.”
“I import 200+ publications every year. The ORCID, BibTeX, and Zotero integrations turned a two-day job into fifteen minutes. The Markdown handling alone is worth the Pro tier.”
Who's behind this
Built by the HugoBlox team.
We make HugoBlox — the open-source Hugo framework powering 150,000+ live sites across research labs, startups, and universities since 2016. Hugo Chat is the AI we wished we had when we were configuring our own first Hugo site.
- 9,426 GitHub stars on the underlying framework — third-party verifiable.
- 150,000+ sites in production — across NASA labs, Stanford, MIT, Imperial, NVIDIA Research, and 150K more.
- 200+ contributors on the open-source framework. Real maintainers, real release cadence.
- MIT licensed. Audit the framework. Fork it. Run it without ever talking to us again.
“The reason we built Hugo Chat is exactly the reason we built HugoBlox: your site, your files, your call. AI should speed you up, not lock you in. If we vanish tomorrow your Markdown is still there, your site still runs, and you can fork the whole stack on GitHub.”
Start free · Upgrade when you need more
Free to try. Plans for every level.
Every plan ships the same ownership promise — your Markdown, your repo, your call.
Try Hugo Chat today.
- Free messages every day
- Markdown output you own
- No credit card
Serious site building.
- Unlimited chat
- Higher Build allowance
- Frontier-class models
- Push-to-GitHub from chat
Everyday productivity.
- Unlimited Hugo Chat
- Standard Build allowance
- Image and file attachments
Need team or institution pricing? Compare all plans →
Questions, answered
Still curious? Just ask Hugo Chat.
Type a prompt. Get a site.
Markdown source. Yours forever. Free to start.
No credit card · Free every day · MIT-licensed foundation