Building a Blazing-Fast Website with Eleventy and Netlify

As a UI designer with a passion for minimal and brutalist design, I’m always on the lookout for tools that offer simplicity, speed, and flexibility. Two of my favorite platforms to achieve this are Eleventy (11ty) and Netlify. Together, they create a seamless workflow for building fast, modern, and ultra-lightweight websites.

Why Eleventy?

Eleventy (or 11ty) is a simple yet powerful static site generator. It takes plain text files (like Markdown, HTML, or Nunjucks) and transforms them into a fully static website. It’s minimal, fast, and highly customizable — a perfect fit for those of us who appreciate clean, no-frills design.

Key Benefits of Eleventy:

No Build Bloat: It doesn't force you into a specific framework, keeping things lean and fast.
Supports Multiple Template Languages: Markdown, Nunjucks, Liquid, and more — use what you love.
File-based Routing: Simplicity at its finest — no complex route configurations.
Minimal Tooling: No big dependencies, just raw speed and flexibility.

Why Pair It with Netlify?

While Eleventy is great for generating sites, Netlify makes deployment a breeze. Just link your GitHub repo, and every time you push a new commit, Netlify automatically rebuilds and redeploys the site. No manual deployments, no servers, no headaches.

Key Benefits of Netlify:

CI/CD Built-In: Push your changes to GitHub, and Netlify handles the rest.
Custom Domains & SSL: No more worrying about certificates.
Serverless Functions: Need dynamic functionality? You can extend a static site with Netlify Functions.
Form Handling & Edge Functions: Build contact forms with no backend code.

How to Set It Up

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to get started:

1. Install Eleventy

If you haven’t already, you’ll need Node.js installed. Then, run:

npm init -y 
npm install @11ty/eleventy --save-dev

To start your development server:

npx eleventy --serve

2. Create Your First Pages

Add an index.md file with this content:

---
layout: layout.njk
title: Welcome
---

# Welcome to My Eleventy + Netlify Site!  
This site is built with **Eleventy** and deployed with **Netlify**.

3. Configure Eleventy

You can customize Eleventy by adding an .eleventy.js config file. Here’s a simple setup:

module.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {
  return {
    dir: {
      input: "src",
      output: "dist"
    }
  };
};

This tells Eleventy to process files in the src/ folder and output them to a dist/ folder.

4. Deploy to Netlify

Push your code to GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.
Log in to Netlify, create a new project, and link your repo.
Set the build command as:
```
npx eleventy
```
And the output directory as:
```
dist
```

With this setup, every commit triggers a fresh build, and your site goes live automatically.

Example Use Cases

Portfolios: Eleventy’s speed and simplicity make it ideal for minimalist portfolios.
Blogs: Customizable templates with Markdown support make blog creation effortless.
Landing Pages: Fast-loading, static pages with no heavy frameworks required.

Conclusion

If you love fast, minimalist design and hate unnecessary complexity, Eleventy + Netlify is a dream team. Eleventy gives you the creative freedom to design without limits, and Netlify makes sure it’s always live and fast.

If you’re a fan of brutalist design, simplicity, and speed (like I am), this setup is a no-brainer. Ready to build your next site? Get started with Eleventy and Netlify today.