Aug 2026 · Mariatta
Introducing Popular
A warm, community-first theme for Hugo and Astro, built from ten years of organizing: events, docs, importers, and one-block …
For Hugo & Astro
Built to make your community seen and famous
Popular is a warm, community-first theme for meetups, clubs and fan communities, created by a serial conference organizer who's run the real thing. Events, blog, organizers, an ops handbook with persistent checklists, multi-author posts, and every colour and font set from one config file.
2
frameworks: Hugo & Astro
4
demo sites, in Hugo & Astro
100%
re-themeable from config
MIT
licensed, fork-friendly
Capabilities
Everything a community site needs
Built from years of organizing real conferences and meetups, not a generic blog theme with an events page bolted on. Every feature exists because a community needed it.
Events, done right
Events split automatically into upcoming and past, with speaker cards, venue pages carrying arrival notes and step-free, transit and parking access, check-in details, RSVP buttons, and a one-click calendar subscribe so every meetup lands in members' calendars.
A talk archive, not a dead list
Attach a recording and slides to an event or to individual talks, and past events become a library members come back for. An optional /talks/ index gathers every talk, newest first, filterable by topic.
Recaps that prove it happened
Gallery and pull-quote shortcodes for photo recaps and testimonials, no lightbox and no JavaScript. The social proof lurkers look for before they show up.
The between-events bridge
A community-chat call to action, a 'Start here' script for first-timers, a 'Speak with us' call for speakers, and a notice banner for when the season is on pause, the glue that keeps a community alive between meetups.
Found by search and AI
Structured data, sitemaps and Open Graph out of the box, plus a build-time llms.txt summary, so search engines and AI agents alike understand who you are and when you next meet.
Handbook & runbooks
A docs layout with a scroll-tracking table of contents and checklists that remember progress in the browser, turning your ops knowledge into a living playbook.
Multi-author blog
Author profiles with bio, photo and socials; multiple authors per post; one-off guest writers inline, all with linkbacks to profile pages.
Organizers & community
Team pages, get-involved flows, a code of conduct, a land-acknowledgement slot, and a warm voice throughout.
Batteries included
Command-line tools import your events, speakers and venues from the platforms you already plan in. Not copy-paste, not magic: the busywork, scripted.
Config-first theming
Change primary colour, fonts, surfaces and radii in one config block. Soft tints and hovers derive automatically, no CSS edits.
Alt text, required
Accessibility is not optional here: CI builds every site and fails the moment any image ships without meaningful alt text.
Hugo & Astro, in parity
Two implementations, one contract: identical CSS, JS, content model and demos, documented in PARITY.md and enforced by CI.
From the blog
Read the blog Latest from our community
Maintainers
Who maintains Popular
Popular is maintained in the open, for Hugo and Astro alike.
Creator & maintainer
Multi-award-winning open source contributor and serial conference organizer. Started Popular after one too many community sites rebuilt from scratch: it's everything she's learned about what a community needs from its website, in one theme.
Get started
Your community's site, live this afternoon
Copy a demo, change one config file, add your content. That's the whole workflow.