I've been using html within my markdown files and hugo without issue. Admittedly, I'm only inserting simple html like h2 elements, or simple links to other sites...but its still html in a markdown file, and hugo does not mind, and in fact processes it all just fine.
I came over from lektor to hugo. As much as I liked lektor's UI (via local website), hugo's binary is far better for me since I'm constantly jumping to different machines (windows, linux, OS X), and didn't want the hassle of set up on each.
That being said, the one thing that is annoying with hugo - and I DID see this with lektor as well though not as annoying as hugo - was wiring up your first template. Ugh, configuring templates - or perhaps more specifically variables - is a big time sink. Other than that, hugo is my generator of choice.
Seconding this -- I use HTML inside hugo all the time. The problem hugo has is that you cannot include _partials_ in your markdown, like you can with Jekyll.
And as parent5446 said, the shortcodes don't give you enough information in some cases.
I also think that people who aren't very technical will have a hard time getting started with the Go templating language, whereas Jekyll is dead obvious (super loose scoping, it looks like any other scripting language, etc.)
I came over from lektor to hugo. As much as I liked lektor's UI (via local website), hugo's binary is far better for me since I'm constantly jumping to different machines (windows, linux, OS X), and didn't want the hassle of set up on each.
That being said, the one thing that is annoying with hugo - and I DID see this with lektor as well though not as annoying as hugo - was wiring up your first template. Ugh, configuring templates - or perhaps more specifically variables - is a big time sink. Other than that, hugo is my generator of choice.