Chobble Template
A free and open source Eleventy starter for business websites - a template you can build on (or employ me to work on) to create a website for your own business really easily.
- Live demo: example.chobble.com
- Source code: Github
- Source code: git.chobble.com
Background
While building static websites for local businesses in Manchester I realised I was creating the same type of components each time - I was making Eleventy sites, with features like a news system, a contact form, social media links, header images, per-page styles, etc etc.
I was keeping an informal repository of these code snippets on my computers, and realised I could provide some value to the open source community by compiling each of those snippets into a demo site, and releasing the source code under the AGPL3 license.
Examples
Nearly every static site listed on my examples page is using the Chobble Template, either partially or completely. Because I've built it all to be modular, it's easy to swap components in and out of other Eleventy sites.
For an example of a restaurant / cafe site fully using the template to list food items on menu pages, check out House of Desserts and for an ecommerce site listing products and categories, check out Southport Organics. Renegade Solar pre-dates the template but its development strongly influenced it.
The blocks layout
Template sites are aimed at looking like "landing page" style sites with lots going on on each page - the kind of thing an agency with a design team puts together - but every page is ultimately just a markdown file with frontmatter data, parsed by PagesCMS and Eleventy into a blocks layout. Pages get assembled from a variety of block types - cards, galleries, FAQs, sliders, product grids - which is what keeps them visually interesting without anyone designing each one from scratch.
The practical upshot is that it's really easy to create new designs using AI: the blocks structure means the code is easy for an LLM to understand, and each new site starts from the latest version of the template, which is always tending towards a more flexible but also more schematised and strict structure. The template generates a PagesCMS config that lines up perfectly with the way the collections are set up - generate-cms asks you questions about your site and writes the config for you.
What this does to costs is the interesting bit: nowadays the big expense in a site build is my time spent collating and reviewing content, not writing HTML. The LLMs handle the rest, and I check it.
Features
The template is adapted to the specific way I build websites. It's an "opinionated" template, designed to load quickly with great search engine optimisation potential, and to be hostable at low cost. For more on effective SEO strategies, check out my free guides.
Since I released the template it's grown a lot. The current version (accurate December 2025) includes pretty much everything a small business website needs:
Content management: The template has built-in collections for news posts, products with galleries, team member profiles, and multiple pages with automatic navigation. Products can have options (like size or colour) with individual pricing, FAQs, specifications, and features lists. If you're running a restaurant or cafe, there's a menu system with categories, items, pricing, and dietary flags (vegan, gluten-free). Events work with both one-off dates and recurring schedules, and generate subscribable iCal feeds. There's also a locations system for multi-site businesses, and a properties system for holiday lets. Reusable content blocks (snippets) can be included across pages.
Shopping and payments: The template includes a shopping cart that stores items in the browser. Customers can add products, adjust quantities, and check out via Stripe or PayPal. There's also a quote/enquiry mode where customers build a cart and submit it as a request. An optional Node.js backend handles payment processing, with Docker support for deployment. Products use auto-generated SKUs for tracking.
Design and presentation: Images are automatically responsive and lazy-loading, with base64 placeholders while loading. There are 10 pre-built themes: Default, Neon, 90s Computer, Floral, Hacker, Monochrome, Ocean, Old Mac, Rainbow, and Sunset. You can use different themes on different pages. The theme editor at /theme-editor/ lets you customise colours, fonts, borders, and layout, then download your changes as a file. Galleries have thumbnail navigation and full-size overlays. There's a slider component for horizontal scrolling, and scroll-fade animations (which respect reduced motion preferences).
Technical bits: The template uses semantic HTML and minimal CSS from MVP.css. instant.page prefetches links on hover for faster page loads. Contact forms use Formspark for delivery and Botpoison to block spam. Schema.org structured data covers products (with reviews and ratings), events, FAQs, and organisation details. SCSS support for styling, automatic navigation generation, and keyword-based search are included. Biome handles linting and there's duplicate code detection via jscpd. A test suite with 17+ test files runs in CI. It builds with Nix flakes and works with GitHub Actions and Forgejo Actions.
Business features: Opening hours display on every page. Social media links appear in the footer - the template supports 14 platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Mastodon, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more. Reviews link to specific products and show aggregate ratings. The RSS feed has instructions for subscribers, and there's a sitemap for search engines. Navigation can be horizontal or in a left sidebar, with sticky mobile nav as an option.
Hosting flexibility: The template works on different hosts. There are example sites running on Bunny.net, Pico.sh Pages, and other platforms. PagesCMS integration means you can update content without touching code.
I have a few ideas about future additions:
- Encrypted pages for login-only access
- YouTube and audio embeds
How can I use it?
Click here to read full-ish instructions for building and hosting a simple site with this template. You won't need to touch any code unless you want to edit the theme or customise the layouts. If you want to run the template locally you'll need to install Node - I've provided a Nix flake which sets that up and more.
Running it after me
You can take my site and run with it. That's the point of open sourcing everything: a Chobble site can be continued without me, whether that's you passing it to an AI or handing it to a local nerd - it's exactly the same job for either, and just as simple. This is deliberate: I'd like the "what happens if he gets hit by a bus" problem to have a boring answer.
And if you pay me for support, the monthlies include tweaks that many agencies would charge for. I might as well be open about how: those jobs get passed to the AI and I check the result, and as long as a job's reasonable, it's fair enough to ask for. I don't charge for small jobs any more thanks to AI.
If you want me to make a website for you based off this Eleventy starter, get in touch. I charge a totally transparent flat hourly fee for all job, and since much of the work of building a website has already been completed with this template you'll get great value for money.