fruits-express is a data-oriented, multi-language static site starter built with Eleventy (11ty) and TailwindCSS, created by tigersway for publishing lightweight sites to any static host. It takes structured data and markdown as input and produces a fully minified static website with an Atom feed, sitemap, and self-hosted fonts as output.
What is fruits-express?
fruits-express is an open-source Eleventy starter template that pairs TailwindCSS 3.x with Fontsource self-hosted fonts to build fast, multi-language static sites. It is maintained on GitHub by the user tigersway and can be cloned, customized, and built locally using the npm run build script. The template generates a static output containing minified HTML, RSS/Atom feed, sitemap.xml, and woff2 font files, and it has been tested on Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Render, Vercel, and GitHub Pages.
Key Features
- Eleventy 2.x — Uses Eleventy v2.0.0 (and earlier canary versions) with the new
eleventy.config.jsdefault config file and the HTML base plugin that removes the need for a separate url filter. - TailwindCSS 3.x — Integrates TailwindCSS v3.x for utility-first styling, with version updates tracked in the changelog.
- Fontsource self-hosted fonts — Employs Fontsource packages so fonts are served from your own domain; the config copies
@fontsource/sarabunwoff2 files for latin and thai subsets at weights 400 and 700 intocss/files. - Multi-language data model — Maintains a mono dataset with multi-language support and light markdown, letting you manage translations without duplicating templates.
- Generic builder with environment variables — The build script accepts
SITE_URL,PATHPREFIX, andCLOUDINARY_CDN_URLvariables, so you can produce configurations for different hosting paths (e.g.,SITE_URL=https://yourname.github.io PATHPREFIX=fruits-express npm run build). - Atom feed and sitemap — Outputs an RSS/Atom feed and sitemap.xml; a fix in v2.0.1 corrects feed links and minification.
- HTML minification — Runs html-minifier as part of the build to reduce output size.
- Multiple demo deployments — Live demos are available at fruits-express.netlify.app, fruits-express.pages.dev, fruits-express.onrender.com, fruits-express.vercel.app, and tigersway.github.io/fruits-express.
Who is it for?
- Static site developers who want a minimal, data-driven Eleventy starter with TailwindCSS already configured and no framework lock-in.
- Multilingual content teams who need to publish the same content in several languages from a single data set and want light markdown support for pages.
- Indie hackers and open-source maintainers who want a quick template to spin up a project site, documentation, or a small company page and deploy it to any host with a single build command.
What can you do with fruits-express?
- Deploy to multiple static hosts: Run the generic builder with
SITE_URLand optionalPATHPREFIX, then upload the generated output to Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Render, Vercel, or GitHub Pages — all have public demos. - Serve fonts locally: Replace external Google Fonts with Fontsource packages; the included passthrough copy automatically places Sarabun woff2 files in the output
css/filesdirectory. - Build multi-language sites: Keep your content in a mono dataset and use Eleventy's data cascade to render alternate language versions without duplicating layouts.
How does fruits-express work?
Clone the repository, install dependencies, and run npm run build with optional environment variables to generate the static site. The build uses Eleventy’s "For-free passthrough copy" to copy Fontsource asset files, processes templates and data, minifies HTML, and outputs an Atom feed and sitemap.
FAQ
What static site generator does fruits-express use?
fruits-express uses Eleventy (11ty), specifically version 2.0.0 in the latest release, with the eleventy.config.js configuration file. Earlier canary versions used the 2.0.0-canary.15 and canary.12 builds.
How can I set a custom site URL or path prefix?
Set the SITE_URL environment variable to your production URL and optionally PATHPREFIX if your site lives in a subpath. For example, SITE_URL=https://yourname.github.io PATHPREFIX=fruits-express npm run build generates a configuration suitable for GitHub Pages.
Is fruits-express deployable to Vercel?
Yes, a live demo is hosted at fruits-express.vercel.app. The build output is fully static, so it also works on Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, Render, and GitHub Pages, each of which has a public demo linked in the repository.
