Holo Alfa is a minimalist, mobile-first Jekyll theme created by Stijn (steinvc) for building content-focused blogs and personal websites. It takes standard Jekyll content—posts and pages—and outputs a static site with responsive design, automatic Open Graph metadata, plugin-free archive pages, and built-in sitemap and RSS generation. Distributed as an open-source GitHub repository under the MIT license, the theme is no longer actively maintained but the author notes it will probably still work fine.
What is Holo Alfa?
Holo Alfa is a mobile-first Jekyll theme designed around readability and content presentation. As input it accepts the usual Jekyll directory structure with Markdown posts and pages; as output it produces a fully static website with a responsive layout, automatic social metadata, and several integrated features. The theme runs on Jekyll and is available on GitHub, created by Stijn under the handle steinvc. It is published with an MIT license and has a demo at http://steinvc.github.io/holo-alfa/.
Key Features
- Mobile first design — The layout is built for small screens first and scales up, ensuring content remains readable on any device.
- Extensive content styling — Includes detailed typography and styling for headings, paragraphs, quotes, code, and other content elements.
- Responsive videos — Integrates FitVids.JS so embedded videos (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) automatically resize to fit the container.
- Authors and guest authors — Supports both regular authors and guest authors, useful for multi-contributor blogs.
- Read time — Displays an estimated reading time on each article, helping readers gauge the length.
- Disqus comments — Built-in integration with Disqus enables discussion on posts.
- Language localization — The theme can be translated, allowing sites to be presented in multiple languages.
- Automatic og metadata — Generates Open Graph tags for each page, improving link previews on social media.
- Automatic archive page — Builds an archive page without requiring any Jekyll plugins.
- Automatic sitemap and RSS feed — Creates a sitemap and an RSS feed automatically, aiding search engine discovery.
- Contact page — Includes a working contact form with email delivery, plus a separate "thanks" page after submission.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers who want a clean, minimalist blog with a focus on reading experience, without a lot of visual noise.
- Developers who need a lightweight base to build their own Jekyll theme, since the code is open and documented.
- Writers and content teams who publish articles with multiple authors and want guest author support plus reading time.
- Multilingual sites that need a theme with built-in localization support.
What can you do with Holo Alfa?
- Personal bloggers: set up a fast, static blog with automatic sitemap, RSS, and social share metadata, all without extra plugins.
- Small publications: manage multiple authors using the guest author feature and enable audience discussions with Disqus.
- Developers: customize the theme by editing
_config.yml(all options are explained there), and modify page templates like About, Contact, and Archive. - Organizations: use the included contact form to receive messages from site visitors directly via email.
How does Holo Alfa work?
- Fork the repository on GitHub and clone it to your local machine.
- Edit
_config.ymlfor site settings and customization options; use_config_dev.ymlwhen running locally to keep development URLs separate. - Run
bundle exec jekyll serve --config _config_dev.ymlto preview the site athttp://localhost:4000. - Replace placeholder favicons and the default Open Graph image before going live.
Pricing
Holo Alfa is free and open source under the MIT license. There are no paid tiers or hidden costs; you can use and modify it freely.
Pros and cons
- Pros: Free and open source; mobile-first; plugin-free archive and sitemap; strong content styling; many customization options documented in
_config.yml. - Cons: The project is no longer actively maintained, so it may not receive updates for future Jekyll versions; support and bug fixes are not guaranteed.
FAQ
Is Holo Alfa free?
Yes, Holo Alfa is released under the MIT license, which means it is completely free to use, modify, and distribute. There are no fees or premium features.
Is Holo Alfa still maintained?
No. The author states that the project is no longer maintained, but it will probably still work fine. Potential users should be aware that there may not be fixes for issues that arise with future Jekyll updates.
Does Holo Alfa require Jekyll plugins?
No. The theme generates archive pages, sitemap, and RSS feed automatically without any plugins, which makes it easier to deploy on GitHub Pages where plugin support is limited.
Can I customize the arrangement of pages?
Yes. You can edit the navigation menu in \_includes\navigation.html, and customize the About, Contact, and Archive pages directly. Many other options are available in _config.yml.
