Deploy Anywhere
Static HTML output that runs on any CDN. No servers, no runtime, no vendor lock-in.
Static HTML Output
When you run npm run build, Ink compiles your entire site into a folder of static HTML, CSS, and image files. There is no server-side runtime, no database connection, and no application server. The output is plain files that any web server can deliver.
npx ink build
# ✓ Built 47 pages in 0.38s
# ✓ Output: _site/
The _site/ directory contains everything. Upload it anywhere and your site works.
Supported Hosting Providers
Ink works with every static hosting platform. Here are the most common options:
Cloudflare Pages -- Connect your Git repo and Cloudflare builds and deploys on every push. Free tier includes unlimited bandwidth and requests.
Netlify -- Drop your _site/ folder or connect a Git repo. Build command: npm run build. Publish directory: _site.
Vercel -- Same Git-based workflow. Zero-config detection for Eleventy projects.
GitHub Pages -- Push to a gh-pages branch or use GitHub Actions to build and deploy. Free for public repos.
Any CDN or server -- Because the output is static files, you can host on AWS S3 + CloudFront, DigitalOcean Spaces, Firebase Hosting, Surge, or even a basic Apache/Nginx server.
Zero Server Dependencies
Your production site requires:
- No Node.js runtime
- No database
- No server-side language
- No container orchestration
- No process manager
This eliminates entire categories of operational concerns -- no security patches for server software, no database backups, no scaling configuration, no uptime monitoring for application servers.
Global Edge Delivery
Static files are the fastest thing a CDN can serve. When your site lives on a CDN edge network, every visitor gets responses from the nearest data center. Typical time-to-first-byte is under 50ms worldwide.
Deploy Workflow
A complete deploy workflow for Ink:
# Build the site
npm run build
# Preview the output locally
npx serve _site
# Deploy (example: Cloudflare Pages via Wrangler)
npx wrangler pages deploy _site --project-name=my-site
Or just push to Git and let your hosting provider's CI handle it.
No Vendor Lock-In
Because Ink outputs standard HTML files, switching hosting providers is a matter of pointing the build output to a different service. There is no proprietary deployment format, no serverless functions to rewrite, and no platform-specific configuration to migrate. Your site is portable by default.