Nederburg is a Hugo blog theme ported from the Tracks WordPress theme by competethemes, designed to build fast, secure static sites with built-in support for Disqus comments, Google Analytics, Gravatar author bios, and multiple authors on one blog.
What is the Nederburg theme for Hugo?
Nederburg is a responsive Hugo theme for blogs and content sites. It takes a Hugo site with config.toml and Markdown content and produces a static HTML site. The theme was ported from the Tracks WordPress theme and is maintained by Appernetic; the repository lives at appernetic/hugo-nederburg-theme. It uses the minified production stylesheet from the WordPress version and supports customization through static/css/custom.css.
Key Features
- Disqus comments — Enable threaded comments by setting
disqusShortnamein config.toml; leave it empty to disable comments entirely. - Google Analytics with GDPR privacy options — Add a tracking ID via
googleAnalytics, and configure privacy settings including anonymizeIP, respectDoNotTrack, and useSessionStorage for GDPR compliance. - Gravatar author photos — Associate an email in config to show an author image in the bio after posts; with multiple writers, each writer's email drives their own Gravatar.
- Multiple Writers Feature — Define writers in config.toml with link, email, bio, and social profile URLs (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GitHub, Instagram, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, Google+), then set a
writervalue in front matter to assign the post's author. - Formspree contact form — A static contact form works through formspree.io as a proxy, allowing up to one thousand submissions per month free.
- Custom CSS — Add site-specific styling by creating static/css/custom.css; the base theme uses the minified production stylesheet from the original WordPress theme.
- Example site included — The repo ships an exampleSite directory with a working config.toml you can copy as a starting point.
- Responsive layout — The layout adapts to mobile and desktop; pagination on the front page and a default favicon are already implemented.
Who should use the Nederburg theme?
- Individual bloggers who want a simple, static Hugo site with comments and analytics.
- Multi-author publications needing per-author bios and social links from a single config.
- Developers who want a port of the Tracks WordPress design without managing WordPress; they can set it up with git clone and Hugo's built-in server.
What can you do with it?
- Bloggers: Publish posts in Markdown, add a writer name in front matter, and get an author bio with Gravatar and social links after each post.
- Site owners: Enable Disqus and Google Analytics by adding two config values, and stay GDPR-aware with the built-in privacy flags.
- Portfolio/content creators: Customize the look by dropping a custom.css into the static folder.
How does the Nederburg theme work?
Clone the repo into your Hugo site's themes directory, copy the exampleSite contents, and edit config.toml with your site settings. Then run hugo server and visit localhost:1313 to preview. Deployment is standard Hugo static output.
FAQ
Is the Nederburg theme free?
Yes. The theme is released under the GPL license, either version 2 or any later version, and the source is public on GitHub under appernetic/hugo-nederburg-theme.
Does the Nederburg theme support multiple authors?
Yes. Add a writers section in config.toml with each writer's name, email, bio, and social URLs; set the writer key in a post's front matter to assign that author. If no writer is set, the post defaults to the site author.
Can I use a contact form with this static theme?
Yes. It uses formspree.io as a proxy. Enter your email in config.toml, upload the site, send one dummy email, and confirm the link from Formspree. The free tier allows up to one thousand emails per month.
What features are missing or planned?
According to the repository, category descriptions, a dropdown menu for the left sub menu, previous/next pagination in blog posts, a search function, and SEO/page-speed checks are not yet implemented. Front-page pagination and a default favicon were added.
