Why I Chose a Static Site Generator

When building this portfolio site, I had many options to choose from. In the end, I went with Eleventy, a static site generator. Here's why.

The Case for Static Sites

Static site generators transform templates and content into plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This approach offers several benefits:

1. Performance - No server-side processing means lightning-fast page loads
2. Security - No database or backend means fewer attack vectors
3. Simplicity - Easy to host anywhere, no complex infrastructure
4. Cost - Free hosting on platforms like Netlify, Vercel, or GitHub Pages

Why Eleventy?

There are many excellent static site generators: Hugo, Jekyll, Gatsby, Next.js (in static mode), and more. I chose Eleventy because:

• Zero-config - Works out of the box with sensible defaults
• Flexible templating - Supports Nunjucks, Markdown, JavaScript, and more
• Data-driven - Easy to pull in data from YAML, JSON, or JavaScript
• Lightweight - No client-side JavaScript shipped by default

The Setup

Here's a quick look at how I structured the site:

src/
├── _data/          # YAML files for projects, talks, etc.
├── _includes/      # Layout templates
├── blog/           # Markdown blog posts
├── assets/         # CSS, images
└── *.njk           # Page templates

The beauty of this setup is that adding new content is as simple as creating a new Markdown or YAML file. No database updates, no CMS, just files in a Git repository.

Conclusion

For a portfolio site that changes infrequently and doesn't need dynamic features, a static site generator is hard to beat. The combination of performance, simplicity, and free hosting makes it an excellent choice.

What static site generator do you prefer? Let me know!