shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use 11ty?

A simpler static site generator - 11ty.dev

Depends. Buy if you are a developer (or have one) building a fast content site and want zero licence cost. Skip it if you need a website builder, WYSIWYG editing, paid support, or an app with user logins.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets truncated and no G2/G2-style ratings exist for this free project.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityCommunity-only help; no vendor SLA evidence.
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Open source

ModelDonations
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Developer-built marketing sites
  • Blogs and documentation
  • Headless CMS front ends
  • Performance-critical static sites

Not for

  • Non-technical teams wanting a drag-and-drop builder
  • Buyers who need vendor support or an SLA — none exists
  • Apps with user accounts and server-side data
  • Teams unwilling to maintain Node tooling

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

No paid support or SLA exists; help is docs, forums, and community goodwill.

medium

Sustainability fundraising shows funding is fragile; long-term roadmap can wobble.

medium

Migrating from WordPress means rebuilding templates yourself; no importer is mentioned.

low

Buyers ask whether the project is actively managed; verify activity before betting a business site.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free and open source; no licence or seat costs.
  • Supports many template languages, including Nunjucks and custom ones.
  • Users report fast output; static sites scaled well against in testing.
  • Developer reviews are largely positive: 'I used 11ty and... It's awesome'.
  • Official npm publishing hardening and a private vulnerability reporting policy.

Cons

  • Requires Node and coding skills; community says adopt 'only if' you're a developer.
  • No company behind it; roadmap depends on donations and sponsors.
  • Community unease about project direction and rebrand ('The End of Eleventy').
  • Content editing requires wiring up a separate headless CMS.
  • One ecosystem npm plugin was flagged as malicious.

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/26/2026 - 14 sources - Core project maintains a security policy and hardened npm publishing; no core breaches found, but one malicious third-party plugin and dependency audit warnings exist.

official x6review x5security x2news x1
  • Malicious npm plugin '11ty-simple-page-post-creator', Snyk flagged this third-party ecosystem package as malicious; it is a plugin, not core Eleventy.
  • Dependency audit warnings (prototype pollution in async), npm audit raised prototype pollution in the async dependency; tracked in repo issue #2327.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 14

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free forever; your only cost is time.
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Smooth for developers; steep for non-coders.
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Multiple template languages, plugins, on-demand rendering.
  • Support quality. Community-only help; no vendor SLA evidence.
  • Security posture: 3/5. Hardened core processes; ecosystem plugins carry risk.
  • Free Price Open-source project, no paid tiers
  • Donations Business model Open Collective and GitHub Sponsors
  • Since 2022 Full-time OSS funding Sponsored development announced Feb 2022

Pricing

Open source

Free

  • Full static site generator
  • All plugins and template languages
  • Donation-funded; no paid tier exists

Security

Core project maintains a security policy and hardened npm publishing; no core breaches found, but one malicious third-party plugin and dependency audit warnings exist.

  • Malicious npm plugin '11ty-simple-page-post-creator'Snyk flagged this third-party ecosystem package as malicious; it is a plugin, not core Eleventy.12
  • Dependency audit warnings (prototype pollution in async)npm audit raised prototype pollution in the async dependency; tracked in repo issue #2327.13

Alternatives

Compare 11ty with each alternative.

  • Hugo

    Free, extremely fast static generator; no Node toolchain required.

    11ty vs Hugo
  • Astro

    Developer SSG with components; the most frequent Eleventy comparison.

    11ty vs Astro
  • WordPress

    Better for non-technical editors; heavier and needs paid hosting.

Full analysis

Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets truncated and no G2/G2-style ratings exist for this free project.

Free, donation-funded static site generator. Great for developers; wrong for non-technical teams or anyone needing vendor support.

Methodology

Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets truncated and no G2/G2-style ratings exist for this free project.

Sources

  1. official
  2. official
  3. official
  4. official
  5. Eleventy on Open Collectiveopencollective.com
    official
  6. official
  7. review
  8. review
  9. review
  10. review
  11. review
  12. security
  13. security
  14. news

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.