Eleventy vs Scully
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Eleventy | Scully |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 18 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 19,929 | ★ 2,527 |
| First released | 2018 | 2019 |
| Replaces | WordPress, Medium | Gatsby, WordPress |
What are Eleventy and Scully?
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
Scully
Scully is a static site generator designed for Angular projects that prerenders pages into static HTML for better performance and SEO. It adds blogging capabilities to Angular apps through its plugin system.
- Angular prerendering
- Static HTML output
- Blog plugin
- Improved SEO
Eleventy vs Scully: key differences
Eleventy is written in JavaScript, while Scully is built with TypeScript. Eleventy is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Scully. Eleventy has the considerably larger community, at 19,929 GitHub stars versus 2,527.
Why pick each one
Choose Eleventy if…
- Very flexible templating
- Lean output
Watch out for
- No built-in admin
- Requires Node tooling
Choose Scully if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Eleventy or Scully 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 Scully free and open-source?
Yes. Eleventy is licensed under MIT and Scully under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Eleventy and Scully with Docker?
Eleventy: check the project docs for container support. Scully: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Eleventy or Scully?
Eleventy has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Scully. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.