Eleventy vs Hugo

Eleventy is a free static site generator that compiles templates into HTML. It starts with zero configuration and also allows flexible configuration as project needs change. Content can come from Markdown, and templates can use HTML, JavaScript, WebC, Liquid, Nunjucks, Handlebars, Mustache, EJS, Haml, Pug, TypeScript, JSX, MDX, Sass, and custom formats. Eleventy does not require a JavaScript framework and produces zero client-side JavaScript by default. It can fit into an existing directory structure, letting teams convert selected templates rather than an entire site. The tool includes a local preview server, CMS integration, and multilingual support. It requires JavaScript and recommends Node.js version 18 or newer; quick-start commands are provided for macOS, Linux, and Windows, and for npm, pnpm, and Yarn. Its documentation says it probably is not the right tool for single-page applications, given its defaults and full-page navigation. Eleventy supports self-hosted use and is marked MIT licensed. The homepage reports a build time of 1.93 seconds for 4,000 Markdown files.

Hugo is a free, open-source static site generator that builds sites from Markdown. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, supports multilingual content, and includes a local preview server for development. Its taxonomy system organizes site content, while asset tools cover image processing, JavaScript bundling, and Sass; TailwindCSS is also supported. Hugo is written in Go and distributed under the Apache 2.0 License. The project lists documentation, corporate, government, nonprofit, education, news, event, and project sites among its uses. Large sites often render in seconds. Hugo is actively maintained and has a fast release cycle. The listed supported languages are Go, Ruby, and Python. Hugo is free to use, and its pricing model is listed as free; no price is listed for the Hugo Open Source plan. The listed pricing page returns a page-not-found response.