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Migrate from Forestry to Hugo

Complete guide to migrating your Forestry website to Hugo. Leave Forestry's discontinued behind and get blazing fast builds. Free migration tool included.

20-40 minutes

Medium

100% Free

Start Free Migration

TL;DR

You can migrate from Forestry to Hugo for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose Hugo as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.

Official docs: Hugo Documentation

Why Teams Leave Forestry

Git-backed CMS for Hugo, Jekyll, and static sites (now TinaCMS). Legacy projects — new projects should use TinaCMS instead, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.

Discontinued — users must migrate to TinaCMS

This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Forestry. Hugo eliminates this issue entirely.

No longer receiving updates or new features

With Hugo, blazing fast builds — renders 10,000 pages in seconds.

Limited scalability for large content volumes

Modern architectures like Hugo are designed to avoid this from the ground up.

Git-based workflow can be slow for non-technical editors

After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — Hugo takes a fundamentally different approach.

What Hugo Brings to the Table

Fastest static site generator, written in Go. Built with Go (Go templates), it's documentation sites and blogs where build speed and simplicity matter most.

Blazing fast builds — renders 10,000 pages in seconds

Single binary with zero dependencies

Built-in image processing, taxonomies, and i18n

Huge theme library for quick starts

Hugo is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports Go, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.

Forestry vs Hugo at a Glance

Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics

Metric	Forestry	Hugo
Ease of Use	⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5	⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Performance	⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Flexibility	⭐⭐⭐ 3/5	⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Cost	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Scalability	⭐⭐ 2/5	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Ecosystem	⭐⭐ 2/5	⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Language	JavaScript (Git-backed)	Go (Go templates)
Pricing	Discontinued — migrated to TinaCMS	Free (open-source)
Open Source	No	Yes

Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.

What Gets Migrated

A detailed breakdown of how your Forestry content maps to Hugo

Content Types from Forestry

markdown files
data files
images

Technical Details

Export Method: Files are already in your Git repo
Source Language: JavaScript (Git-backed)
Destination Format: Markdown/MDX files with frontmatter, organized by content type
URL Handling: 301 redirect map generated automatically to preserve SEO equity

What may need manual attention

Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in Hugo. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.

How It Works

Migrate your content in three simple steps

Connect

Enter your Forestry site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.

Configure

Select Hugo as destination and choose content options.

Export

Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.

Is Forestry to Hugo the Right Move for You?

Migrating from Forestry to Hugo makes the most sense if you're experiencing discontinued — users must migrate to tinacms or outgrowing Forestry's architecture. Hugo is best for documentation sites and blogs where build speed and simplicity matter most.

You should migrate if: your Forestry site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.

You might want to stay if: your Forestry site benefits from clean, user-friendly admin ui for git-based content and you don't have Go developers on your team. Forestry is genuinely easy to use, and that simplicity has value.

The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Forestry URL, select Hugo, and download your content. The more important question is whether Hugo's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to migrate from Forestry to Hugo?

Most migrations from Forestry complete in 20-40 minutes. Content is exported from Forestry, then structured for Hugo. Complex sites with extensive custom fields may take longer.

Will I lose my SEO rankings when migrating from Forestry?

No. We help you set up proper 301 redirects from your old Forestry URLs to preserve search rankings. Hugo actually tends to improve Core Web Vitals scores, which can boost rankings over time.

What Forestry content can be migrated to Hugo?

Forestry content types like markdown files, data files, images are all migrated to Hugo. Content is converted to Markdown/MDX files or structured for your chosen headless CMS.

Do I need Go experience to migrate?

No coding experience is required for the migration itself — LeaveWP handles the export and conversion automatically. However, customizing your Hugo site afterward will benefit from Go (Go templates) knowledge. For teams without that expertise, the generated code is well-structured and documented, making it approachable for developers of any level.

How much does it cost to host a Hugo site after migrating from Forestry?

Hugo sites can be deployed to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or any Node.js host — often on generous free tiers. static Hugo sites can be hosted for free on Vercel or Netlify (up to generous bandwidth limits), which is significantly cheaper than running a Forestry instance.

Can I migrate Forestry custom fields and metadata to Hugo?

Yes. Custom fields, metadata, and taxonomies from Forestry are preserved during migration. In Hugo, these become frontmatter fields in your Markdown/MDX files, which you can extend or restructure to fit your content model.