Eleventy vs Middleman
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
VS
Middleman
Ruby static site generator with modern tooling
| Feature | Eleventy | Middleman |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 19,929 | ★ 7,111 |
| First released | 2018 | 2009 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Medium | Jekyll, WordPress |
What are Eleventy and Middleman?
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
Middleman
Middleman is a static site generator using all the shortcuts and tools in modern web development, including templating, asset pipelines, and helpers. Its blogging extension turns it into a full static blog engine.
- Asset pipeline
- Blogging extension
- Helpers and partials
- Static output
Eleventy vs Middleman: key differences
Eleventy is written in JavaScript, while Middleman is built with Ruby. Middleman is the more established project (first released 2009), while Eleventy arrived in 2018. Eleventy has the considerably larger community, at 19,929 GitHub stars versus 7,111.
Why pick each one
Choose Eleventy if…
- Very flexible templating
- Lean output
Watch out for
- No built-in admin
- Requires Node tooling
Choose Middleman if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 7.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Eleventy or Middleman 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 Eleventy and Middleman free and open-source?
Yes. Eleventy is licensed under MIT and Middleman under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Eleventy and Middleman with Docker?
Eleventy: check the project docs for container support. Middleman: check the project docs for container support.