Bridgetown vs Eleventy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Eleventy
Simpler static site generator for fast websites
| Feature | Bridgetown | Eleventy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,366 | ★ 19,929 |
| First released | 2020 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, WordPress | WordPress, Medium |
What are Bridgetown and Eleventy?
Bridgetown
Bridgetown is a Ruby-based static site generator and full-stack web framework that grew out of the Jekyll ecosystem. It supports component-based design, plugins, and optional dynamic rendering for blogs and websites.
- Component-based design
- Plugin ecosystem
- Front-end bundling
- Static and hybrid rendering
Eleventy
Eleventy is a flexible open-source static site generator written in JavaScript that works with many templating languages. It is popular for blogs and documentation due to its simplicity and speed.
- Supports many template languages
- Fast incremental builds
- Zero client-side JavaScript by default
- Flexible data cascade
Bridgetown vs Eleventy: key differences
Bridgetown is written in Ruby, while Eleventy is built with JavaScript. Eleventy is the more established project (first released 2018), while Bridgetown arrived in 2020. Eleventy has the considerably larger community, at 19,929 GitHub stars versus 1,366.
Why pick each one
Choose Bridgetown if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Eleventy if…
- Very flexible templating
- Lean output
Watch out for
- No built-in admin
- Requires Node tooling
Frequently asked questions
Is Bridgetown or Eleventy better?
Neither is universally better. Eleventy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bridgetown and Eleventy free and open-source?
Yes. Bridgetown is licensed under MIT and Eleventy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bridgetown and Eleventy with Docker?
Bridgetown: check the project docs for container support. Eleventy: check the project docs for container support.