Eleventy vs Roq

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.

Roq is a free, open-source static site generator built with Java and Quarkus. It creates websites and blogs from Markdown and outputs static files for GitHub Pages, Netlify, or another static server. The project is aimed at AI users and coders, including developers who want zero configuration with customization in Java. Development mode provides a local preview server and live reload, while a browser WYSIWYG editor supports content editing and previewing. Markdown works by default, with plugins for AsciiDoc, tagging, search, diagrams, series, and sitemaps. The default theme includes a blog layout, dark mode, sidebar navigation, responsive design, and social links. Roq bundles CSS, JavaScript, and web assets with esbuild and can use npm packages through mvnpm without Node.js. A GitHub Action supports publishing, and GitLab CI is documented. The CLI installs through JBang on Linux, macOS, and Windows.