The previous incarnation of my website was powered by Hugo. This time I wanted to try a different tool, something solid but also flexible —if that makes sense.
After doing some research, I eventually found 11ty. I took it for a spin without expecting too much, and boy was I surprised! It felt like a breath of fresh air.
Eleventy is a simpler static site generator.
Yep, it definitely is! 11ty doesn't get in the way of the project's structure, it actually adapts to it! And it doesn't depend on the new-shiny-js-framework-of-the-week, which is great for longevity! The separation between content and style gives you full control for customization and configuration.
I wrote some HTML and CSS to build a custom "theme", then I defined a basic structure for the website. I used Nunjucks for layout and Markdown for content. Eleventy then processed the files and generated a static site without any issues.
This website is now powered by Eleventy, and it's been a great experience so far. Working with Eleventy feels like freestyling over a timeless classic. It is exactly what I needed: "a simpler static site generator".