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Eleventy

Eleventy is a simpler static site generator

Stable
2.0.1
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Quick Start

Eleventy requires Node.js 18. You can check whether or not you have Node installed by running node --version in a Terminal. (Well, wait—what is a Terminal?) If node is not found or it reports a version number below 18, you will need to install Node.js before moving on.

Now we’ll create an index.md Markdown file. You can do this in the text editor of your choice or by running one of these commands in your terminal:

echo '# Heading' > index.md
echo '# Heading' | out-file -encoding utf8 'index.md'

If the out-file command is not available in your Windows Terminal window (it’s PowerShell specific), use the Cross Platform method.

npx @11ty/create index.md "# Heading"

Learn more about @11ty/create (requires Node.js 18 or newer).

Run Eleventy using npx, an npm-provided command that is bundled with Node.js.

npx @11ty/eleventy --serve
pnpm dlx @11ty/eleventy --serve

pnpm is an optional alternative to npm that needs to be installed separately.

yarn dlx @11ty/eleventy --serve

Yarn is an optional alternative to npm that needs to be installed separately.

Eleventy compiles any files in the current directory matching valid file extensions (md is one of many) to the _site output folder. It might look like this:

[11ty] Writing _site/index.html from ./index.md (liquid)
[11ty] Wrote 1 file in 0.03 seconds (v3.0.0)
[11ty] Watching…
[11ty] Server at http://localhost:8080/

The --serve option also starts a local development server. Open up http://localhost:8080/ in your favorite web browser to view your web site.

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News from the Blog

Why should you use Eleventy?

  • Eleventy has fast builds and even faster web sites.
    Name Building ×4000 Markdown Files
    Eleventy 1.93s == 🏁
    Astro 22.90s ======================= 🏁
    Gatsby 29.05s ============================== 🏁
    Next.js 70.65s ======================================================================= 🏁
  • Eleventy is production ready and trusted by:
    • Trusted by
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://www.nasa.gov/NASA
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://home.web.cern.ch/Cern
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://tc39.es/TC39
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://www.w3.org/W3C
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://about.google/Google
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://www.mozilla.org/Mozilla
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://www.cloudcannon.com/CloudCannon
    • IndieWeb Avatar for https://www.jetbrains.com/JetBrains
    • …and more
    Eleventy has been downloaded over 8 million times and is used on 70,000+ repositories on GitHub.
  • Eleventy offers full control over your project’s output. We don’t inject our own markup into your pages.
  • Eleventy has a lovely community of folks that really care about what they build. What is IndieWeb Avatar for https://andy-bell.co.uk/Andy Bell saying about Eleventy?
  • Eleventy is stable. We’ve shipped 57 releases going back to the first version in December 2017 and only two of those releases have had Eleventy-specific changes requiring developer changes.

    a11yproject.com launched with version 1.0.0 of Eleventy. […] It's been a little under three years and I haven't had to make any adjustments to its dependencies, and it can still install and run from a cold start with no complications. When I update the site to use version 2.0.0 I'll actually be removing dependencies, and not adding more. […] That's rare and special.—IndieWeb Avatar for https://ericwbailey.design/ Eric Bailey

  • Eleventy doesn’t track you. We don’t have or use telemetry nor require you to opt-out of data collection.
  • Eleventy is zero-config to start and can be extended with flexible configuration options.
  • Eleventy works with multiple template languages. You can pick one or use them all together in a single project:
  • Eleventy uses independent template languages. We don’t want to hold your content hostage with a custom format. If you decide to use a different syntax later, having your content decoupled in this way will make migration easier.
  • Eleventy does not require that you use a JavaScript framework—that means zero client-side JavaScript by default across the board. We’re thinking long-term to opt-out of the framework rat race. The tool chain, modules, and components you use in your front end stack are decoupled from this tool. Work from a solid foundation of pre-rendered templates that suit your project’s progressive enhancement baseline requirements.
  • Eleventy works with your project’s existing directory structure. The tool doesn’t require an app directory or a pages directory. Use the structure that you want.
  • Eleventy allows incremental adoption. We only look for the files and directories you specify. Further, with even more precision you can opt-out or ignore specific files in your project. You don’t need to start an Eleventy project from scratch. Eleventy is flexible enough to allow conversion of only a few templates at a time. Migrate as fast or as slow as you’d like.

Get started with Eleventy today! or read more about Eleventy’s project goals.

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Documentation

Todd and Bruce said this button should be bigger and as you can see they were right.

Built With Eleventy

Sample of 110 authors shown. View the full list of 1098 web sites.

Don’t take my word for it Rainbow

Listen to what these happy developers are saying about Eleventy:

“I use Eleventy on almost every project at this point and I love it.” IndieWeb Avatar for https://lea.verou.me/Lea Verou

“Eleventy + Netlify have become my new workflow for static sites. I think I'm in love.” Mina Markham’s Twitter PhotoMina Markham

“Don’t tell Zach I said it but Eleventy is seeming fresh as hell so far” Mat Marquis’s Twitter PhotoMat Marquis

“I looked into and actively tried using various static site generators for this project. Eleventy was the only one I could find that gave me the fine-grained control I needed at blazingly fast build times.” Mathias Bynens’s Twitter PhotoMathias Bynens

“Eleventy is almost fascinatingly simple.” Chris Coyier’s Twitter PhotoChris Coyier

“Jekyll is dead to me” IndieWeb Avatar for https://andy-bell.co.uk/Andy Bell

“Eleventy is a killer static site generator. That’s all.” Sara Soueidan’s Twitter PhotoSara Soueidan

“I heard Eleventy was good” Lach Zeatherman’s Twitter PhotoLach Zeatherman

“2022 winner of the Google Open Source Peer Bonus Award” IndieWeb Avatar for https://google.com/Google

“#1 Product of the Day (May 2022)” IndieWeb Avatar for https://producthunt.com/Product Hunt

“Eleventy is absolutely wonderful. It’s by far the nicest static site generator I’ve used in what feels like forever.” Addy Osmani’s Twitter PhotoAddy Osmani

…and many more!

Alternatives

This project aims to directly compete with all other static site generators. We encourage you to try out a few others: