# vagejs vs Hugo

> Compare vagejs and Hugo, two Markdown static site generators, on templates, SEO files, llms.txt, pre-publish checks and AI coding assistant support.

Hugo is one of the longest-running static site generators, written in Go and known for building very large sites quickly. vagejs is a new TypeScript framework with a narrower focus: checks, safety and working with AI coding assistants.

| Feature | vagejs | Hugo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in / templates | Node.js; TypeScript layout functions | Go; Go's `html/template` |
| Output | Static files | Static files |
| Content formats | Markdown | Markdown by default, plus HTML, Org, AsciiDoc, Pandoc and reStructuredText |
| Sitemap | Built in | Built in |
| robots.txt | Built in, with AI crawler settings | Built in, turned off by default (`enableRobotsTXT`) |
| SEO tags | Built in, with structured data | Built-in templates for Open Graph, X cards and Schema microdata |
| llms.txt | Built in | Possible with a custom output format |
| Checks before publishing | `vage check` | Not built in |
| Spam-injection protection | Link lock, hidden-link checks, `vage verify` | Not built in |
| AI coding assistants | `AGENTS.md`, `vage info --json`, JSON check results | No official guidance found |

## Where Hugo is stronger

-   **Large sites.** Hugo is built for speed with thousands of pages, and needs no Node.js at all: one binary.
-   **Maturity.** A long track record, many themes, multilingual sites and a big community.
-   **Content formats.** More than Markdown, if your content lives elsewhere.

## Where vagejs is stronger

-   **Familiar templates.** Layouts are TypeScript functions; many people find them easier than Go templates.
-   **Checks and safety.** Broken links, missing descriptions, invalid structured data and spam links stop the build, and deploys refuse to publish secrets.
-   **AI assistants.** Every project explains itself to coding agents.
-   **llms.txt and AI crawler settings** without custom templates.

## Which to choose

Choose **Hugo** for very large or multilingual sites, or if you want a single binary with no Node.js. Choose **vagejs** for small to medium content sites where you want guardrails and an AI-friendly workflow.

Sources: [Hugo on GitHub](https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo), [content formats](https://gohugo.io/content-management/formats/), [sitemap template](https://gohugo.io/templates/sitemap/), [robots.txt](https://gohugo.io/templates/robots/), [embedded templates](https://gohugo.io/templates/embedded/). Checked October 2026.