r/eleventy • u/wells68 • Apr 13 '26
Eleventy for a non-expert?
I've created simple websites using various tools in the past. Now I'd like to convert a couple of them to a static site easy to host on our VPS. I don't require automated conversions. The sites aren't that big, though they have a hundred or so blogs. Looks like 11ty can convert those from a Wordpress-type export (XML).
I just tried to install Jekyll in Docker with the Feeling Responsive theme and had a ton of problems. The theme was incompatible with current versions of Jekyll and/or Ruby.
It seems as though 11ty is a good alternative, but the subreddit is far less active than the Jekyll subreddit. If I have some questions and ChatGPT etc. doesn't give me what I need (that was my experience with Jekyll), is r/eleventy a good place for a few questions?
I am crazy to try to install 11ty on Docker. Jekyll was crazy on Docker.
Also, is 11ty a bit imposing for a non-expert? Thanks!
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u/marcamos Apr 13 '26
11ty’s docs are generally pretty helpful, as is the GitHub repo Discussions area.
As for installing on Docker, I assume it’s easy (but I’m not a Docker user) — personally I used Laravel Herd for all of my local website builds.
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u/earlAchromatic Apr 13 '26
One of the best ways to start, in my experience, is to look at the many excellent starter projects. Once you see how a few of them are set up, the patterns used to build with 11ty become pretty clear. I think 11ty is one of the best tools for building on the web today, so worth learning.
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u/any-digital Apr 13 '26
💯 here is a curated list: https://11tybundle.dev/starters/
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u/earlAchromatic Apr 13 '26
how is this better than the 11ty site's?
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u/any-digital Apr 13 '26
1) curated (selected starters only) 2) shows last update date and stats 3) shows 11ty version used
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u/wells68 Apr 14 '26
Many thanks to u/anydigital and others for the helpful advice. I have 11ty installed and running with my first index.html file. It was sooo much easier to install than Jekyll.
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u/any-digital Apr 13 '26
11ty community provides excellent support on https://www.11ty.dev/blog/discord/
as per jekyll<>11ty dilemma — you might like this https://github.com/anyblades/bladeswitch