NexT
A clean, customizable theme for the Hexo static blog generator. No longer maintained.iissnan/hexo-theme-next
- Stars
- 15.7k
- Forks
- 3.5k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 4.0 years ago
- Type
- Other
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
NexT is a visual theme for Hexo, a tool that turns text and Markdown files into a static website such as a blog. It controls how the site looks, including layout, menus, comment systems, social links, and code highlighting. The README says this original repository is no longer maintained, and points to a community-maintained fork (NexT v6 and v7).
- Publish a personal blog built with Hexo using the NexT look
- Add a tags page or categories page to organize posts
- Connect Disqus or DuoShuo comments to blog posts
- Show links to social media profiles such as GitHub and Twitter
- Switch the site language, for example to Simplified Chinese or Japanese
Great for
- Bloggers who already use Hexo and want an attractive, configurable theme
- People who want multilingual sites, since the README lists many supported languages
- Users who want built-in comment and social media links without writing custom code
Not ideal for
- Anyone who needs an actively maintained theme: the README says this repository is no longer maintained, so use the community fork (theme-next/hexo-theme-next) instead
- People not using Hexo, since this theme only works inside a Hexo site
- Beginners who have never used a command line or Node.js, since installation involves terminal commands
How to get it
- 1
Clone and build from source
You'll need: Hexo site (README shows Hexo 3 or above for the data-file feature, Hexo 2.x still supported) · Node.js and npm (for installing Hexo and dependencies) · Git (for the git clone install option)
Change to your Hexo root directory and create the themes/next folder
mkdir themes/nextClone the theme from GitHub (master branch)
git clone https://github.com/iissnan/hexo-theme-next themes/nextClone a specific tagged release (example v5.1.2)
git clone --branch v5.1.2 https://github.com/iissnan/hexo-theme-next themes/next - 2
Run it
- Set the theme in your Hexo root _config.yml by adding: theme: next
- Start or generate your site with Hexo using your normal Hexo commands
- Open the local preview address shown in the terminal in your browser
- Adjust theme options in the theme or site configuration to change appearance
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use a data file at source/_data/next.yml to keep all theme options in one place, which makes future updates easier
- Create tags and categories pages by setting type: "tags" or type: "categories" and adding them to the menu
- Add social links (GitHub, Twitter, Weibo, DouBan, ZhiHu) under the social setting
- Choose a code highlight theme among the five Tomorrow Theme options
- Pick one of the four visual schemes (Muse, Mist, Pisces, Gemini) to match your style
Downloads
Strengths
- Mature theme with a large user base, shown by about 15,700 GitHub stars
- Supports many languages and five built-in code highlight themes
- Configuration is done through YAML settings files, with no need to edit theme code
Trade-offs
- The original repository is no longer maintained, so it may not work with newer Hexo versions
- Last push was November 2022, and the README mentions update conflicts when using git pull
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hexo-theme-next (this) | 15.7k | Other | intermediate | 4.0 years ago | Bloggers who already use Hexo and want an attractive, configurable theme |
| hexo | 41.8k | Framework | intermediate | 10 days ago | Bloggers who want a fast static site they fully control |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.