Eleventy vs Nikola
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
Nikola
Static site and blog generator with rich content support
| Feature | Eleventy | Nikola |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 75 · Good |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 19,929 | ★ 2,743 |
| First released | 2018 | 2012 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Medium | WordPress, Medium |
What are Eleventy and Nikola?
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
Nikola
Nikola is a feature-rich static site and blog generator written in Python that supports many markup formats, including reStructuredText, Markdown, and Jupyter notebooks. It produces fast static sites with multilingual and feed support.
- Many markup formats
- Jupyter notebook support
- Multilingual sites
- Plugin ecosystem
Eleventy vs Nikola: key differences
Eleventy is written in JavaScript, while Nikola is built with Python. Nikola is the more established project (first released 2012), while Eleventy arrived in 2018. Eleventy has the considerably larger community, at 19,929 GitHub stars versus 2,743.
Why pick each one
Choose Eleventy if…
- Very flexible templating
- Lean output
Watch out for
- No built-in admin
- Requires Node tooling
Choose Nikola if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Configuration heavy
- Build times grow with content
Frequently asked questions
Is Eleventy or Nikola 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 Nikola free and open-source?
Yes. Eleventy is licensed under MIT and Nikola under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Eleventy and Nikola with Docker?
Eleventy: check the project docs for container support. Nikola: check the project docs for container support.