SK3 (Skeleton 3) is a full-feature Hugo blog theme by J-Siu that extends hugo-theme-sk2 with Google AdSense (UA/GA4) support, social sharing, and donation buttons.
What is Hugo Theme SK3?
SK3 is a static blog theme for the Hugo site generator. It takes Markdown content from the site's content/ directory plus a TOML config file and produces a responsive multi-column blog with list pages, individual post pages, social links, and comment support. The theme is maintained by John Sing Dao Siu and is the third in the SK family: SK1 has no CSS or JavaScript, SK2 adds minimal CSS, and SK3 is the full-feature version with ad and analytics integrations. A live demo is available at sk3.jsiu.dev with sample content from the hugoBasicExample repository.
Key Features
- Google AdSense (UA/GA4) — Configure the
AdSenseIdunder[Params.google]; an optionalenablePageLevelAdtoggle turns on page-level ads. - Google Analytics — Connect a GA property through the standard Hugo
[services.googleAnalytics]idsetting. - Social network links —
[Params.sociallink]shows buttons for Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, and two YouTube formats, plus an RSS toggle. - Social share buttons —
[Params.socialshare]controls per-network share buttons (Facebook, LinkedIn, Telegram, VK, and others) shown at the bottom of posts. - Custom CSS and JavaScript —
customCssandcustomJsarrays in site config load extra files (e.g./css/abc.css,/js/abc.js) from the static folder into every page. - PayPal donation button —
[Params.paypal]displays a donate button with configurable amount, currency, business ID, and a recurring checkbox. - Disqus comments — Set
shortnameunder[services.disqus]to add comment threads to posts. - Theme colors and layout controls —
[Params.color]changes background, border, link, and text colors (default is a dark theme);[Params.card]controls list-page column count via width percentages like 32% for three columns.
Who is it for?
- Hugo bloggers — Write posts in Markdown and get a responsive blog with built-in RSS, Open Graph, and Twitter Card tags configured through site params.
- Developers who monetize content — Add an AdSense ID and Google Analytics property in the TOML config to start earning ad revenue and tracking traffic without templates or partials.
- Content creators seeking donations — Set up a PayPal business ID so every post can show a donation button with a fixed or recurring amount.
- Site owners with compliance needs — Enable Iubenda GDPR/CCPA support and control Open Graph, Twitter Card, and canonical meta links per site.
What can you do with it?
- Personal bloggers: Publish a clean, fast static blog with social share buttons at the end of every article.
- Indie tech writers: Use the card-based list layout with configurable column widths (3-column default at 32%) to present posts visually.
- Marketing or portfolio microsites: Customize colors and typography through the theme color table and add custom CSS/JS without modifying theme files.
- English and Chinese sites: The theme's config and sample site demonstrate multi-language-friendly static output with Hugo's standard structure.
How does the theme work?
Installation is either git clone or git submodule add into themes/sk3, then specify theme = "sk3" in your config. The site config [Params] table controls most behavior, and per-page front matter flags (comment = false, prevnext = false, related = false, toc = false) disable those elements on individual posts. The repo also includes a fa-svg-extract.sh script that extracts Font Awesome brand icons from sprite files into sk3-fa.svg.
Pros and cons
- Pros: Free under the MIT License; heavily documented configuration tables for every feature; no build tooling beyond Hugo itself.
- Con: Upgrading from v1.x to v2.x changes many config field names, so you must update existing config files after upgrading.
Pricing
SK3 is free and open source under the MIT License. Anyone can use, copy, modify, and redistribute it, including commercially, with attribution.
Alternatives
- Binario — the Hugo theme that SK3's design was inspired by, also a minimalist blog theme with social features.
- hugo-theme-sk1 and hugo-theme-sk2 — the simpler predecessors in the same SK family.
FAQ
Is Hugo Theme SK3 free?
Yes, SK3 is published under the MIT License, which permits free use, modification, and redistribution, including in commercial projects.
Does SK3 support Google AdSense?
Yes. Set the AdSenseId field under [Params.google] in your site config. An optional enablePageLevelAd boolean turns on page-level ads.
How do I change the theme color?
Modify [Params.color] in your config. The default is a dark theme with bg = "#181a1b", text = "white", and link = "#3d84ff"; the doc table lists light-theme values to switch to.
Can I disable comments or the table of contents on a single post?
Add front matter flags: comment = false, toc = false, prevnext = false, and related = false to the specific post's front matter to hide those elements.
