Trouble installing a theme

Hey everyone,

I honestly feel like I’m losing my mind here. Hugo is supposed to be easy—static sites, simple themes, fast deployment. And yet, after countless attempts, I still can’t even get a theme to install properly.

I’ve tried submodules, cloning directly, placing themes in subfolders, deploying on Netlify… you name it. I’ve gone through about 15 themes (including Meghna), and every single time, I run into some sort of issue—broken layouts, missing dependencies, config conflicts, or things just not working as expected.

At this point, I don’t know if the issue is me (which is seriously making me doubt myself) or if there’s a catch that isn’t obvious to newcomers. Are some themes just outdated? Do I need a very specific Hugo version? Is there something crucial that’s always left out in the documentation?

I’d really appreciate any guidance, insights, or even just reassurance that I’m not the only one struggling with something that’s supposed to be “easy.”

PS: If someone has a 100% foolproof, step-by-step guide that works in 2025, I’d be eternally grateful. :rocket:

Nope! It has a learning curve. See Requesting Help.

You jumped the gun here by trying too much at once. Go back to Quick start | Hugo and begin afresh.

Every theme has its own documentation on setting it up. Read up on that alongside the Quick Start guide.

Yes! Hugo is in constant development and authors don’t keep up.

Many themes will indicate the supported Hugo version, either in the readme file, documentation or config file.

Use the documentation as a reference rather than a tutorial.

The Quick Start guide!

Note that you might need to set up newer Hugo versions in Netlify via an environment variable.

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Thanks for your insight !

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