About SpaceClub!

What Is SpaceClub!?

SpaceClub! is a free, open-source way to make a website that you fully own - the files live on your computer (or in your GitHub account), you can edit everything, and you can host it wherever you like.

There’s no account to sign up for, no monthly fee, and no platform that can change the rules on you.

Who Is It For?

SpaceClub! is designed for two types of people:

Developers who want a clean, well-structured Eleventy starter with Bootstrap, search, events, posts, galleries, and forms already wired up - so they can skip the boilerplate and start customising immediately.
Non-developers who’ve been burned by website builders like Squarespace or Wix - unexpected price increases, features removed overnight, limited control - and now want to own their website for real. If that’s you: yes, there’s a small learning curve, but it’s very doable. The Walkthrough will guide you through every step, and AI tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot can help you along the way.

What’s It Built With?

You don’t need to deeply understand these to use SpaceClub!, but here’s what’s under the hood:

Technology	What It Does
Eleventy	The engine that turns your content files into a website. It’s a static site generator - you write simple text files (Markdown), and Eleventy builds them into HTML pages.
Markdown	The format you write your content in. It’s plain text with simple formatting like `# Heading` and `bold`. No HTML required for everyday editing.
Nunjucks	The templating language used for layouts and reusable components. You won’t need to write Nunjucks - it’s already set up - but you’ll see it in layout files.
Bootstrap 5	The CSS framework that makes the site look good and work on all screen sizes. SpaceClub! uses Bootstrap’s utility classes and components throughout.
Pagefind	Adds search to your site. It indexes your content at build time and provides fast, client-side search with no server required.
SpaceDash	The editor at `/admin/`, built on Decap CMS. It edits the same files you would. See SpaceDash.

What Is a Static Site?

A static site is a website made of plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files - no database, no server-side code, no WordPress. You write your content, run a build command, and get a folder of files that are your website.

Why this matters:

It’s fast - there’s no server processing each page load, just files being served directly.
It’s secure - there’s no database to hack, no admin panel to break into.
It’s portable - the output is just files. You can host them literally anywhere: Netlify, GitHub Pages, Vercel, a USB stick, your own server.
It’s yours - if your hosting provider shuts down tomorrow, you still have all your files. Upload them somewhere else and you’re back online.

The trade-off is that you don’t have a drag-and-drop visual builder. You edit text files, either directly or through SpaceDash. Those text files are Markdown, which is designed to be readable and simple - and once you get the hang of it, it’s faster than any visual builder.

How SpaceClub! Is Structured

SpaceClub! comes in two parts:

Your site - a small folder with your content and your settings. This is what you edit.
The spaceclub package - the layouts, styles, and features, installed into your site’s node_modules/. You don’t edit it, and npm update spaceclub brings you new versions of it.

Here’s what your site looks like:

my-site/
├── spaceclub.json        ← What your site has and how it looks
├── eleventy.config.cjs   ← One line that loads SpaceClub!
└── src/
    ├── pages/            ← Your pages: home.md, about.md, contact.md, 404.md
    ├── posts/            ← Blog posts (one .md file per post)
    ├── events/           ← Events (one .md file per event)
    ├── _data/
    │   ├── site.json     ← Site title, description, logo, timezone
    │   ├── navbar.json   ← Navigation links
    │   └── contentTypes.json ← Your own content types, made in SpaceDash
    ├── admin/            ← SpaceDash, the editor
    └── assets/images/    ← Your logo, favicon, and images

The key idea: you only work in your own folder. You edit .md files to change content, and .json files to change settings and appearance. Want to change a layout or a component? Copy it into your site with npx spaceclub customize and edit your copy - see Advanced Customisation.

Features at a Glance

✅ Pages - Create any page with Markdown. See Pages.
✅ Blog Posts - Write posts with dates, authors, and images. See Posts.
✅ Events - Full event system with dates, times, locations, upcoming/past sorting. See Events.
✅ Contact Forms - Data-driven forms with validation and URL prefilling. See Forms.
✅ Image Galleries - Per-page galleries with lightbox viewer. See Gallery.
✅ Search - Full-text search powered by Pagefind. See Search.
✅ Content Types - Make your own kinds of content, like Team or Projects. See Content Types.
✅ News Feeds - Posts, events, and each content type get a feed people can follow.
✅ AI-Friendly - AI assistants in the browser can search your site and read your pages (WebMCP).
✅ Customisation - Colours, light and dark mode, navbar, footer, and branding from a few settings files. See Customisation.
✅ SpaceDash - An editor at /admin/ for people who’d rather not edit files. See SpaceDash.
✅ Hosting - Deploy anywhere: Netlify, GitHub Pages, Vercel, and more. See Hosting and Deployment.

SpaceClub!

Explorer