hosting-on-netlify.md (7911B)
1 ---
2 title: Host on Netlify
3 linktitle: Host on Netlify
4 description: Netlify can host your Hugo site with CDN, continuous deployment, 1-click HTTPS, an admin GUI, and its own CLI.
5 date: 2017-02-01
6 publishdate: 2017-02-01
7 lastmod: 2017-03-11
8 categories: [hosting and deployment]
9 keywords: [netlify,hosting,deployment]
10 authors: [Ryan Watters, Seth MacLeod]
11 menu:
12 docs:
13 parent: "hosting-and-deployment"
14 weight: 10
15 weight: 10
16 sections_weight: 10
17 draft: false
18 aliases: []
19 toc: true
20 ---
21
22 [Netlify][netlify] provides continuous deployment services, global CDN, ultra-fast DNS, atomic deploys, instant cache invalidation, one-click SSL, a browser-based interface, a CLI, and many other features for managing your Hugo website.
23
24 ## Assumptions
25
26 * You have an account with GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
27 * You have completed the [Quick Start][] or have a Hugo website you are ready to deploy and share with the world.
28 * You do not already have a Netlify account.
29
30 ## Create a Netlify account
31
32 Go to [app.netlify.com][] and select your preferred signup method. This will likely be a hosted Git provider, although you also have the option to sign up with an email address.
33
34 The following examples use GitHub, but other git providers will follow a similar process.
35
36 
37
38 Selecting GitHub will bring up an authorization modal for authentication. Select "Authorize application."
39
40 
41
42 ## Create a New Site with Continuous Deployment
43
44 You're now already a Netlify member and should be brought to your new dashboard. Select "New site from git."
45
46 
47
48 Netlify will then start walking you through the steps necessary for continuous deployment. First, you'll need to select your git provider again, but this time you are giving Netlify added permissions to your repositories.
49
50 
51
52 And then again with the GitHub authorization modal:
53
54 
55
56 Select the repo you want to use for continuous deployment. If you have a large number of repositories, you can filter through them in real time using repo search:
57
58 
59
60 Once selected, you'll be brought to a screen for basic setup. Here you can select the branch you wanted published, your [build command][], and your publish (i.e. deploy) directory. The publish directory should mirror that of what you've set in your [site configuration][config], the default of which is `public`. The following steps assume you are publishing from the `master` branch.
61
62 ## Configure Hugo Version in Netlify
63
64 You can [set Hugo version](https://www.netlify.com/blog/2017/04/11/netlify-plus-hugo-0.20-and-beyond/) for your environments in `netlify.toml` file or set `HUGO_VERSION` as a build environment variable in the Netlify console.
65
66 For production:
67
68 {{< code file="netlify.toml" codeLang="toml" >}}
69 [context.production.environment]
70 HUGO_VERSION = "0.83.1"
71 {{< /code >}}
72
73 For testing:
74
75 {{< code file="netlify.toml" codeLang="toml" >}}
76 [context.deploy-preview.environment]
77 HUGO_VERSION = "0.83.1"
78 {{< /code >}}
79
80 The Netlify configuration file can be a little hard to understand and get right for the different environment, and you may get some inspiration and tips from this site's `netlify.toml`:
81
82 {{< code file="netlify.toml" nocode="true" >}}
83 {{< readfile file="netlify.toml" highlight="toml" >}}
84 {{< /code >}}
85
86 ## Build and Deploy Site
87
88 In the Netlify console, selecting "Deploy site" will immediately take you to a terminal for your build:.
89
90 
91
92 Once the build is finished---this should only take a few seconds--you should now see a "Hero Card" at the top of your screen letting you know the deployment is successful. The Hero Card is the first element that you see in most pages. It allows you to see a quick summary of the page and gives access to the most common/pertinent actions and information. You'll see that the URL is automatically generated by Netlify. You can update the URL in "Settings."
93
94 
95
96 
97
98 [Visit the live site][visit].
99
100 Now every time you push changes to your hosted git repository, Netlify will rebuild and redeploy your site.
101
102 See [this blog post](https://www.netlify.com/blog/2017/04/11/netlify-plus-hugo-0.20-and-beyond/) for more details about how Netlify handles Hugo versions.
103
104 ## Use Hugo Themes with Netlify
105
106 The [`git clone` method for installing themes][installthemes] is not supported by Netlify. If you were to use `git clone`, it would require you to recursively remove the `.git` subdirectory from the theme folder and would therefore prevent compatibility with future versions of the theme.
107
108 A *better* approach is to install a theme as a proper git submodule. You can [read the GitHub documentation for submodules][ghsm] or those found on [Git's website][gitsm] for more information, but the command is similar to that of `git clone`:
109
110 ```
111 cd themes
112 git submodule add https://github.com/<THEMECREATOR>/<THEMENAME>
113 ```
114
115 It is recommended to only use stable versions of a theme (if it’s versioned) and always check the changelog. This can be done by checking out a specific release within the theme's directory.
116
117 Switch to the theme's directory and list all available versions:
118
119 ```
120 cd themes/<theme>
121 git tag
122 # exit with q
123 ```
124
125 You can checkout a specific version as follows:
126
127 ```
128 git checkout tags/<version-name>
129 ```
130
131 You can update a theme to the latest version by executing the following command in the *root* directory of your project:
132
133 ```
134 git submodule update --rebase --remote
135 ```
136
137 ## Next Steps
138
139 You now have a live website served over https, distributed through CDN, and configured for continuous deployment. Dig deeper into the Netlify documentation:
140
141 1. [Using a Custom Domain][]
142 2. [Setting up HTTPS on Custom Domains][httpscustom]
143 3. [Redirects and Rewrite Rules][]
144
145
146 [app.netlify.com]: https://app.netlify.com
147 [build command]: /getting-started/usage/#the-hugo-command
148 [config]: /getting-started/configuration/
149 [ghsm]: https://github.com/blog/2104-working-with-submodules
150 [gitsm]: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules
151 [httpscustom]: https://www.netlify.com/docs/ssl/
152 [hugoversions]: https://github.com/netlify/build-image/blob/master/Dockerfile#L216
153 [installthemes]: /themes/installing/
154 [netlify]: https://www.netlify.com/
155 [netlifysignup]: https://app.netlify.com/signup
156 [Quick Start]: /getting-started/quick-start/
157 [Redirects and Rewrite Rules]: https://www.netlify.com/docs/redirects/
158 [Using a Custom Domain]: https://www.netlify.com/docs/custom-domains/
159 [visit]: https://hugo-netlify-example.netlify.com