diff --git a/commands/version.go b/commands/version.go
index 88ea941f7..24a900cad 100644
--- a/commands/version.go
+++ b/commands/version.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/kardianos/osext"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"github.com/spf13/hugo/helpers"
 	"github.com/spf13/hugo/hugolib"
 )
 
@@ -38,9 +39,9 @@ var version = &cobra.Command{
 			formatBuildDate() // format the compile time
 		}
 		if hugolib.CommitHash == "" {
-			fmt.Printf("Hugo Static Site Generator v%s BuildDate: %s\n", hugolib.Version, hugolib.BuildDate)
+			fmt.Printf("Hugo Static Site Generator v%s BuildDate: %s\n", helpers.HugoVersion(), hugolib.BuildDate)
 		} else {
-			fmt.Printf("Hugo Static Site Generator v%s-%s BuildDate: %s\n", hugolib.Version, strings.ToUpper(hugolib.CommitHash), hugolib.BuildDate)
+			fmt.Printf("Hugo Static Site Generator v%s-%s BuildDate: %s\n", helpers.HugoVersion(), strings.ToUpper(hugolib.CommitHash), hugolib.BuildDate)
 		}
 	},
 }
diff --git a/helpers/hugo.go b/helpers/hugo.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab840a2d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/hugo.go
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+// Copyright © 2015 Steve Francia <spf@spf13.com>.
+//
+// Licensed under the Simple Public License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+// http://opensource.org/licenses/Simple-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package helpers
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+// this should be the only one
+const hugoVersionMain = 0.14
+const hugoVersionSuffix = "-DEV" // blank this when doing a release
+
+// HugoVersion returns the current Hugo version. It will include
+// a suffix, typically '-DEV', if it's development version.
+func HugoVersion() string {
+	return hugoVersion(hugoVersionMain, hugoVersionSuffix)
+}
+
+// HugoReleaseVersion is same as HugoVersion, but no suffix.
+func HugoReleaseVersion() string {
+	return hugoVersionNoSuffix(hugoVersionMain)
+}
+
+// NextHugoReleaseVersion returns the next Hugo release version.
+func NextHugoReleaseVersion() string {
+	return hugoVersionNoSuffix(hugoVersionMain + 0.01)
+}
+
+func hugoVersion(version float32, suffix string) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%.2g%s", version, suffix)
+}
+
+func hugoVersionNoSuffix(version float32) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%.2g", version)
+}
diff --git a/helpers/hugo_test.go b/helpers/hugo_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..90b63d403
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers/hugo_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+package helpers
+
+import (
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestHugoVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	assert.Equal(t, "0.15-DEV", hugoVersion(0.15, "-DEV"))
+	assert.Equal(t, "0.17", hugoVersionNoSuffix(0.16+0.01))
+}
diff --git a/hugolib/hugo.go b/hugolib/hugo.go
index 17ca1c237..da08b93b9 100644
--- a/hugolib/hugo.go
+++ b/hugolib/hugo.go
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 package hugolib
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
+	"github.com/spf13/hugo/helpers"
 	"html/template"
 )
 
-const Version = "0.14-DEV"
-
 var (
 	CommitHash string
 	BuildDate  string
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ type HugoInfo struct {
 
 func init() {
 	hugoInfo = &HugoInfo{
-		Version:    Version,
+		Version:    helpers.HugoVersion(),
 		CommitHash: CommitHash,
 		BuildDate:  BuildDate,
-		Generator:  `<meta name="generator" content="Hugo ` + Version + `" />`,
+		Generator:  template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<meta name="generator" content="Hugo %s" />`, helpers.HugoVersion())),
 	}
 }