Eleventy (software)
{{Self-published|date=May 2025}}
{{Short description|Static site generator, a software system for creating websites}}
{{distinguish|text = the number eleventy}}
{{Infobox software
| other_names = 11ty
| developer = Zach Leatherman
| released = {{start_date_and_age|2017|12|20}}{{cite web |title=Release v0.1.0 · 11ty/eleventy |url=https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/releases/tag/v0.1.0 |website=GitHub |accessdate=16 October 2024}}
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|P348}}
| latest release date = {{start_date_and_age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
| programming language = JavaScript
| operating_system = Cross-platform
| platform = Web
| genre = Blog publishing system
| license = MIT License
| website = {{Official URL}}
}}
Eleventy (abbreviated 11ty) is a static site generator, a software system for creating websites. It is open source software written in JavaScript. 11ty is noted for its simplicity, and for its support of a large number of template languages. Paired with other technologies, 11ty can be used as part of a Jamstack.
11ty was created in 2017 by Zach Leatherman. It was inspired by Jekyll.
Purpose
Like all static site generators, the purpose of Eleventy is to allow the user to create HTML documents more simply than by typing out the documents by hand. This is of particular value for multi-page static websites, which require making the same change to many HTML documents.
Eleventy uses a "static first" design philosophy, meaning that it specializes in creating HTML documents that do not need to be refreshed or updated each time they are viewed by a web browser. Although Eleventy may be configured to run on web servers at request time {{mdash}} creating dynamic web pages {{mdash}} this is not its primary purpose.{{rp|2}}
History
Eleventy was created by Zach Leatherman, a web developer in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2017. Leatherman was inspired by Jekyll, which is written in the Ruby language, to create a similar system in the JavaScript language.{{cite book |title=Eleventy by Example: Create Powerful, Performant Websites with a Static-first Strategy |isbn=9781804618622 |first=Bryan |last=Robinson |year=2023 |publisher=Packt Publishing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XAu6EAAAQBAJ }}{{rp|2}} Leatherman says he derived the name "Eleventy" from a story told to him, by his grandmother, about his own childhood mispronunciation of the number eleven.{{cite web |title=Happy Birthday Eleventy! |date=November 26, 2018 |last=Leatherman |first=Zach |website=ZachLeat.com |url=https://www.zachleat.com/web/eleventy-birthday/ }}
Among the users of 11ty is the US federal government via Cloud.gov and the US Web Design System.{{cite web |url=https://cloud.gov/pages/documentation/templates/ |website=Cloud.gov |title=Site Templates }}
11ty is distributed under the MIT License. Version 3.0.0 of 11ty was released in October, 2024.{{cite web |website=GitHub |title=Eleventy v3.0.0 |url=https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/releases/tag/v3.0.0 }}
Features
11ty comes with more than 10 templating engines. These may be used separately or together, giving 11ty flexibility to combine content from several sources or authors.{{rp|2}} Template languages supported include Markdown, Liquid, Nunjucks and HAML.{{cite book |title=The Jamstack Book: Beyond Static Sites with JavaScript, APIs, and Markup |first1=Raymond |last1=Camden |first2=Brian |last2=Rinaldi |year=2022 |publisher=Manning |isbn=9781617298882 |oclc=1319833583 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rw9sEAAAQBAJ }}{{rp|17}}
No front-end JavaScript framework is assumed by 11ty; it is "frontend agnostic."{{rp|3}} By combining 11ty with a JavaScript framework performing API integration, developers may form a Jamstack application.{{rp|15–40}}
Eleventy includes a local web server for use during development, activated with the --serve flag. It "hot-reloads" upon file changes, updating the web browser as the developer works.{{cite magazine |magazine=Smashing Magazine |title=A Deep Dive Into Eleventy Static Site Generator |first=Stephanie |last=Eckles |date=March 24, 2021 |url=https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2021/03/eleventy-static-site-generator/ }}
Eleventy also has many plugins available, taking advantage of the huge JavaScript ecosystem, there are plugins such as using Sass, helping with navigation, and a mini dev server.