Eleventy (11ty) vs Jekyll — which one wins for your brief, in 2026
Two static site generators, side by side. Eleventy (11ty) is zero-config js-based ssg. templates only, no client-side js framework. Jekyll is the original ssg. liquid templates, ruby, markdown. github pages' backbone. The verdict, the criteria, and the honest take below.
ALL COMPARISONS →Verdict in one paragraph
Eleventy is the JavaScript-flavoured Jekyll for the modern era. Same shape (templates, Markdown, no UI framework) but in JavaScript instead of Ruby, with an active maintenance pace and modern features (incremental builds, plugin ecosystem, WebC). For most teams in 2026 the right migration off Jekyll is to Eleventy or Astro, not to a newer Jekyll.
Score across the criteria: Eleventy (11ty) 3 · Jekyll 2
Side by side
Decision criteria
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Which is the right pick for a new project?
Eleventy (11ty)
Eleventy has the active maintenance and JS toolchain alignment that most modern teams want.
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Which has GitHub Pages support out of the box?
Jekyll
Jekyll is the GitHub Pages default. Eleventy needs a GitHub Actions workflow.
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Which builds faster?
Eleventy (11ty)
Eleventy is meaningfully faster than Jekyll at any scale. Incremental builds (added in 1.0) further widen the gap on iterative development.
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Which has more recent feature work?
Eleventy (11ty)
Eleventy 3.x added WebC, ESM, edge support, plugin improvements. Jekyll has been mostly stable.
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Which has more historical inertia?
Jekyll
Jekyll has 15 years of themes, posts about it, and existing sites. Eleventy is younger.
What Eleventy (11ty) is best for
- Personal blogs and small content sites
- Sites where the team explicitly does not want a UI framework
- Replacing Jekyll while staying in the JS ecosystem
- Speedy builds on small to medium catalogues
Read the full Eleventy (11ty) entry: /static-site-generators/eleventy/
What Jekyll is best for
- Existing Jekyll sites with no reason to migrate
- GitHub Pages projects where Jekyll is the default
- Personal blogs with low post counts
Read the full Jekyll entry: /static-site-generators/jekyll/
The easy half is the SSG choice — your build is the hard one
If your project is shipping in the next 6 months, the 30-min call is where the comparison becomes a real plan — your stack, your build phases, your SEO transport, your price range. Describe your project; I tell you whether Eleventy (11ty) or Jekyll (or something else) is genuinely your fit.