Heads-up
If you need fully offline builds (e.g. a totally air-gapped doc site), in-repo images are still the right call. Otherwise, externalising image storage usually pays off.
Step by step
1. Upload from the CLI
The @swiftimg/cli package lets you upload from a shell — drop it into a build script or a hotkey.
Shell swiftimg upload hero.png --title "Homepage hero"2. Reference it from your template
Use the direct image URL anywhere you'd reference a local image. Hugo / Jekyll / 11ty / Astro all accept absolute URLs without configuration.
Template <img src="https://i.swiftimg.com/abc123.png" alt="Homepage hero" />3. Serve a responsive set
On the Developer plan, generate width variants with on-the-fly resize and pass them as a srcset.
Responsive srcset srcset="https://i.swiftimg.com/abc123.png?w=480&sig=... 480w, https://i.swiftimg.com/abc123.png?w=960&sig=... 960w, https://i.swiftimg.com/abc123.png?w=1920&sig=... 1920w"
Static sites (Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy) — FAQ
Will offline / preview builds still work?
Yes — they fetch images at HTTP request time, not build time. CI builds need network access (almost always available).
How does this compare to using raw object storage directly?
Object storage stores the file; swiftimg adds on-the-fly transforms, signed URLs, an upload UI/API, and a hosted viewer page. If all you need is raw storage, a bucket alone is fine.
Is there a Hugo / Jekyll plugin?
Not yet — the API and CLI are explicitly framework-agnostic. A short build hook usually replaces a plugin in a few lines of shell.
See also
Image hosting for Hugo
Reference swiftimg URLs from Hugo templates and content. Permanent URLs, automatic WebP, and no Hugo image processing on every build.
Image hosting for Eleventy (11ty)
Reference swiftimg URLs from Eleventy templates and Markdown. Permanent URLs, automatic WebP, and no @11ty/eleventy-img runtime needed.
Image hosting for Astro
Reference swiftimg URLs from Astro's <Image /> component. Permanent URLs, automatic WebP variants, on-the-fly resize, and global delivery.
swiftimg vs Cloudflare Images
A Cloudflare Images alternative: equivalent global delivery, without the per-image and per-delivery line items.
Ready to host your Static sites (Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy) images?
Start free, then unlock the full API, transforms, signed URLs, and a custom domain on the Developer plan.