Zach Leatherman announced on April 12, 2026, that he will end active development of Eleventy, the static site generator he launched in 2017. In a blog post dated that day, Leatherman cited the project's maturity and achievement of core goals. Eleventy powered sites for Smashing Magazine and the U.S. State Department.
Eleventy reached version 3.0 in March 2026, its final major release, Leatherman stated. He plans no commits after April 12, 2026. The decision follows 450 million lifetime npm downloads.
Eleventy Announcement Details
Leatherman wrote on his blog that Eleventy met its objectives as a simple, fast tool. It supports JavaScript, Nunjucks, Handlebars, and Markdown for building static sites. The GitHub repository lists 16,000 stars as of April 12, 2026.
npm reports 1.2 million weekly downloads as of April 12, 2026. Leatherman thanked 500-plus contributors and urged users to fork the repository for custom needs. He noted the plugin ecosystem exceeds 200 extensions.
Netlify co-founder and CTO Mathias Biilmann posted on X that Eleventy shaped modern static site generators. Biilmann credited its role in popularizing Jamstack architectures, per his April 12, 2026, post.
Eleventy Project History
Leatherman launched Eleventy in 2017 to avoid Jekyll's Ruby dependencies. He designed it for speed and Node.js compatibility. Stack Overflow Developer Surveys from 2018 to 2025 ranked it among top static site generators for performance.
Smashing Magazine adopted Eleventy in 2019, according to its engineering blog. The U.S. State Department deployed Eleventy for static sites by 2023, per its Digital.gov report. Google developer Addy Osmani rebuilt his site with Eleventy in 2021, citing its flexibility in a tweet.
npm records 450 million lifetime downloads as of April 12, 2026. GitHub Insights show 1,500 open issues and 2,800 closed pull requests over the decade.
Community Reaction
Astro creator Fred K. Schwarz commented on Hacker News that Astro attracts former Eleventy users. Astro reported 20% traffic growth to its documentation site on April 12, 2026, per public analytics. The Hacker News thread garnered 1,200 points by evening.
GitHub recorded 500 new forks since the announcement as of April 12, 2026. npm Trends data indicate competitor installs rose 15% that day, led by Astro and Next.js.
Reddit's r/webdev subreddit saw 300 upvotes on discussion threads within hours. Users shared migration guides and praised Eleventy's stability.
Migration Options
Leatherman recommended Astro and Next.js as successors. Astro employs islands architecture for partial hydration. Next.js offers static exports alongside dynamic rendering.
VitePress integrates with Vue ecosystems. Hugo serves Go-based projects with templating speed. Gatsby provides React-based hybrid static-dynamic sites.
Netlify released Eleventy-to-Astro migration templates on April 12, 2026. Cloudflare Pages documented similar transitions in its developer docs.
Technology Shifts in Static Site Generators
Modern SSGs blend static generation with dynamic features. Cloudflare Pages' 2025 State of Edge report states 40% of users adopted full-stack capabilities. Edge computing enables serverless functions at deployment.
Vercel reported Next.js static exports increased 25% year-over-year in 2025. Rivals integrated serverless functions and edge-side rendering. Eleventy maintained focus on pure static output.
These shifts respond to demands for interactive sites without full client-side rendering. Adoption data from BuiltWith shows hybrid SSGs at 60% market penetration by Q1 2026.
Finance Angle: SSG Market Dynamics
Gartner valued the static site generator market at $2.5 billion USD in 2025. npm share data position Eleventy at 12% among JavaScript SSGs as of March 2026.
PitchBook tracked a 30% drop in developer tools venture capital funding in Q1 2026. GitHub Sponsors data show Eleventy generates $150,000 USD yearly from patrons as of April 12, 2026.
Market consolidation benefits leaders like Astro and Next.js. Vercel raised $250 million USD in Series E funding in 2025, per SEC filings. Netlify secured $105 million USD in growth equity the same year.
Developers benefit from stable ecosystems backed by vendor investments. Smaller projects like Eleventy face maintainer burnout amid funding squeezes.
Broader Impact on Open Source
Stack Overflow's 2026 Developer Survey lists the top five SSGs capturing 80% market share. Consolidation simplifies tool selection for teams.
Linux Foundation's 2025 report notes 25% of open source maintainers exited projects due to burnout. Discussions on sustainability gain traction at conferences like OSCON 2026.
Eleventy's sunset highlights needs for funding models beyond sponsorships. Corporate backing sustains competitors.
Outlook for Eleventy and SSGs
Leatherman plans edge-native projects next, per his blog. Community forks may maintain Eleventy for niche uses like documentation sites.
Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch tweeted that Eleventy proved foundational for SSGs. npm data record Eleventy downloads down 5% and Astro up 22% intraday on April 12, 2026.
The shift accelerates SSG evolution toward hybrid models, reshaping web development workflows.
