Neat Starter

Neat Starter is a public GitHub repository and starter template that combines Netlify CMS, Eleventy, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS into a pre-configured static website project.

What is Neat Starter?

Neat Starter is a pre-configured static site template that gives you a working project out of the box: Netlify CMS for content management, Eleventy as the static site generator, Alpine.js for interactive UI, and Tailwind CSS for styling. It takes a fresh clone of the repository and produces a deployable static website with a CMS admin panel. The template was created by Surjith S M (@surjithctly) and the repository includes a live demo and a one-click Deploy to Netlify button.

Key Features

• Netlify CMS — A Git-based CMS that lets non-technical editors update site content through a browser interface, with changes committed back to the repository.
• Eleventy static site generator — Compiles templates and markdown into plain HTML, with no client-side JavaScript required for the final pages.
• Alpine.js — Adds lightweight interactivity such as dropdowns and modals using declarative attributes, without a full JavaScript framework.
• Tailwind CSS — Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in the markup, with the initial CSS generated on first build.
• One-click Netlify deploy — The README embeds a deploy button that automatically sets up a new Netlify site linked to the GitHub repository and the CMS stack.
• npm-based workflow — Setup uses standard commands: npm install, npm run build (required once to generate the first CSS), and npm run start to run the local dev server.
• Detailed author tutorial — Surjith S M's blog post walks through the entire NEAT stack, covering how the pieces work together.

Who should use Neat Starter?

• Freelance web developers — A quick starting point for client projects that need a CMS without a backend server.
• Technical bloggers — Write posts as markdown and edit them through Netlify CMS's admin panel.
• Static site beginners — Learn how Eleventy and Netlify CMS fit together by examining a minimal, working example.

Use cases

• Marketing sites: Compose landing pages with Tailwind utility classes, manage copy and images through Netlify CMS, and get fast static HTML output.
• Company blogs: Publish markdown articles, deploy automatically on every Git push, and let editors draft posts through the CMS interface.
• Portfolio sites: Use Alpine.js for filterable project galleries or other light interactions while keeping page weight low.

How does it work?

The template follows a standard Eleventy workflow. After cloning the repository, run npm install to install dependencies, npm run build to generate the first Tailwind CSS output, and npm run start to launch a local development server. Netlify CMS edits content stored in markdown files inside the repository; Eleventy compiles those files into static HTML when the site builds.