Soho is a minimalist two-column Hugo theme, derived from Hyde, that turns a standard Hugo site config into a mobile-first blog with built-in SEO metadata and optional Disqus and Google Analytics integration.
What is Soho?
Soho is an open-source Hugo theme created by alexandrevicenzi, the same author who made the Flex Hugo theme. It takes a standard Hugo site configuration such as config.toml and renders a responsive two-column blog layout with semantic HTML, pagination, and customizable navigation menus. The theme outputs static HTML through Hugo and is released under the MIT License, so it can be freely used and modified.
Key Features
- Mobile First — the layout is designed for small screens first and scales up responsively, so no separate mobile theme is needed.
- SEO Best Practices — includes Open Graph, Schema.org microdata and JSON-LD, and Twitter Card markup automatically in page heads to help search engines understand content.
- Pagination — built-in pagination for post listing pages, controlled through Hugo's standard template configuration.
- Customizable — supports a custom theme color (for example, themeColor = "#fc2803"), custom CSS and JS files, a profile picture or Gravatar, copyright, license text, and social icons for LinkedIn, GitHub, Twitter, and more.
- Integrations — native Disqus for comments and Google Analytics for traffic tracking, both optional and enabled via the site configuration.
- Hugo Internals — supports all Hugo internal templates, including RSS, sitemap, and related metadata, making it compatible with standard Hugo workflows.
- TOML Configuration — set the theme, menus, taxonomies (categories, tags, series), and syntax highlighting style such as monokai directly in config.toml.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers — static site authors who want a minimal, fast blog with clean semantic HTML and SEO metadata included out of the box.
- Hugo users — developers comfortable editing config.toml who want a Hyde-inspired two-column layout with mobile-first design and easy customization.
- Privacy-conscious publishers — people who want a self-hosted static blog where Disqus and Google Analytics can be completely omitted to avoid third-party trackers.
What can you do with Soho?
- Personal bloggers: publish posts organized by categories, tags, and series taxonomies configured through the taxonomies block in config.toml.
- Technical writers: create an About page and a Posts menu using the built-in menu system, with weight values controlling the order of menu items.
- Open-source maintainers: customize the site appearance by adding custom CSS and JavaScript and setting a theme color, then license content under CC BY-SA 4.0 using the license parameters.
How does Soho work?
Install the theme as a git submodule into the themes directory, set theme = "soho" in config.toml, then configure params such as author, profilePicture, and socialIcons. Hugo then generates the static site from your content using the theme's layouts.
FAQ
Is Soho free?
Yes, Soho is released under the MIT License, so it is free to use, modify, and distribute for personal or commercial projects.
How do I install Soho?
Clone the repository as a submodule into your Hugo project's themes folder, then add theme = "soho" to your config.toml. The full steps are documented in the theme's README.
Does Soho support comments and analytics?
Yes, Soho integrates with Disqus for comments and Google Analytics for traffic tracking. Both are optional and can be enabled or disabled in the site configuration.
Can I set a custom theme color?
Yes, add a themeColor parameter in the params section of config.toml, such as themeColor = "#fc2803", to override the default theme color with your own.
