So you’ve decided to start a blog. After weighing all the options — WordPress, Hugo, Gatsby, Ghost — you landed on Hexo. Smart choice.

Hexo is a Node.js static site generator that’s fast, flexible, and has a great ecosystem of themes. Paired with the Butterfly theme, you get a gorgeous, feature-packed blog with minimal effort.

Why Hexo?

Here’s what sold me on Hexo:

  • Markdown-first — Write posts in the format you already know
  • Blazing fast builds — Hundreds of posts generate in seconds
  • Rich plugin ecosystem — From search to SEO to image optimization
  • One-command deploy — Push to GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, or your own server

Setting Up

First, make sure you have Node.js installed. Then:

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npm install -g hexo-cli
hexo init my-blog
cd my-blog
npm install

Choosing a Theme

Butterfly is one of the most popular Hexo themes for a reason:

  • Built-in dark mode
  • Responsive design
  • Multiple post layouts
  • Typed.js effects
  • Local search support
  • Rich sidebar widgets

Install it:

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npm install hexo-theme-butterfly

Then edit your _config.yml and set theme: butterfly.

What’s Next

In upcoming posts, I’ll cover:

  1. Customizing Butterfly to match your brand
  2. Setting up Cloudflare Pages for free hosting
  3. Adding search, analytics, and comments
  4. Optimizing images with Cloudflare R2

The best part about owning your blog? Complete control. No platform algorithms, no content restrictions — just your words, your design, your rules.

Start writing. The web is waiting.