I’ve been using and developing my personal website on Astro for quite a while now. Astro has been fantastic — sleek, modern, and incredibly powerful. The case for moving from Astro to 11ty boils down to one thing: simplicity. Don’t get me wrong—Astro is fantastic. It’s sleek, modern, and its component-based approach makes building dynamic, beautiful sites a breeze. But for me, it started to feel like too much. I wanted something leaner, something that didn’t make me think too hard about build processes or framework intricacies. Enter 11ty, the static site generator that’s as straightforward as it gets.

If you’re curious, you can still visit my old Astro-based site here (though it’s now deprecated and no longer updated):

👉 View my previous Astro website

Astro’s Not the Problem—It’s Just Not My Vibe

Astro.js architecture is brilliant for rendering only what’s needed, and its ability to mix frameworks like React or Vue is a dream for some. But with that power comes complexity. Configuring Astro, tweaking its integrations, and managing its build pipeline felt like more overhead than I wanted for my projects. I’m not building a sprawling web app; I just want a fast, clean site that’s easy to maintain.

11ty, on the other hand, is like the minimalist’s dream. It’s a static site generator that doesn’t try to do everything. It takes your Markdown, HTML, or templates, spits out a site, and gets out of your way. No fuss, no bloated node_modules folder, no wrestling with a dozen dependencies. It’s not that Astro’s doing anything wrong—it’s just that I don’t need all its bells and whistles.

The Beauty of Simplicity

The tipping point for me was realizing I was spending more time configuring Astro than actually writing content. With 11ty, I can spin up a site in minutes, throw in some Markdown files, and have a fully functional, blazing-fast site ready to deploy. Its templating system is flexible enough to handle my needs without forcing me to learn a whole new paradigm. Liquid, Nunjucks, or even plain HTML? Pick one and go. No framework fatigue, no overthinking.

There’s also something refreshing about 11ty’s lack of opinionation. Astro’s ecosystem, while powerful, leans heavily into modern JavaScript frameworks, which can feel like overkill for a blog or portfolio. 11ty doesn’t care if you’re using the latest JS hotness or just static HTML—it just works. And in a world where web development often feels like chasing trends, that simplicity is a breath of fresh air.

Adding Visuals with Ease

One thing I’ve loved about 11ty is how easy it is to incorporate images into my site. Whether it’s a hero image for a blog post or a gallery for a portfolio, 11ty’s lightweight setup makes it simple to manage assets. I can just drop images into a folder, reference them in my Markdown or templates, and they’re good to go—no complex asset pipelines required. For example, adding a screenshot of my new 11ty site was as simple as:


This kind of straightforward approach to visuals means I can focus on making my site look good without getting bogged down in configuration.

Less Trouble, More Focus

Switching to 11ty has let me focus on what matters: the content. I’m not debugging build errors or tweaking server-side rendering settings. I’m writing, designing, and shipping. The lightweight nature of 11ty means I can deploy to Netlify or GitHub Pages with zero hassle, and the sites are lightning-fast because they’re just static files.

A special shoutout goes to Yinka and their amazing Eleventy Duo starter. It gave me a clean, well-structured base to kick things off, saving me hours of setup while keeping things minimal. If you’re diving into 11ty, I highly recommend checking it out.

Conclusion: Simplicity Wins

Switching to 11ty wasn’t about Astro failing me—it was about finding a tool that matched my needs. Astro’s power is undeniable, and I’ll likely revisit it for projects that demand its dynamic capabilities. But for now, 11ty’s simplicity, flexibility, and ease of use have won me over. It’s like trading a Swiss Army knife for a perfectly sharp pocket knife: sometimes, less is more.

By embracing 11ty, I’ve rediscovered the joy of building websites without the overhead. It’s reminded me that the best tools are the ones that let you create without getting in your way.

Credits

• Thanks to Yinka for creating Eleventy Duo, a fantastic starting point for my 11ty website.
• Images used in my site are sourced from my own screenshots or free-to-use libraries like Unsplash.