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Migrate from Butter CMS to Jekyll

Complete guide to migrating your Butter CMS website to Jekyll. Leave Butter CMS's less flexible content modeling than sanity or contentful behind and get native github pages integration. Free migration tool included.

20-40 minutes
Medium
100% Free
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TL;DR

You can migrate from Butter CMS to Jekyll for free using LeaveWP. Enter your site URL, choose Jekyll as the destination, and download your content — posts, pages, and media — in minutes. No API keys, passwords, or CLI tools required. Difficulty: Medium. Estimated time: 20-40 minutes.

Why Teams Leave Butter CMS

Headless CMS focused on ease of use for marketers. Marketing teams wanting headless CMS with a WordPress-like editing experience, but these limitations push teams toward modern alternatives.

Less flexible content modeling than Sanity or Contentful

This is the most common reason teams migrate away from Butter CMS. Jekyll eliminates this issue entirely.

Pricing jumps significantly after the free tier

With Jekyll, native github pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo.

Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations

Modern architectures like Jekyll are designed to avoid this from the ground up.

Advanced features like localization cost extra

After migrating, you'll no longer need to worry about this — Jekyll takes a fundamentally different approach.

What Jekyll Brings to the Table

Ruby-based SSG that powers GitHub Pages. Built with Ruby (Liquid templates), it's developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.

Native GitHub Pages integration — deploy by pushing to a repo

Mature and battle-tested for blogs and documentation

Large library of themes and plugins

Simple mental model — content in Markdown, layouts in Liquid

Jekyll is open-source and free to use. You own your code and data with no vendor lock-in. Deploy to any host that supports Ruby, or use managed platforms like Vercel and Netlify for zero-config deployments.

Butter CMS vs Jekyll at a Glance

Side-by-side comparison based on real platform characteristics

MetricButter CMSJekyll
Ease of Use⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Performance⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Flexibility⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
Cost⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Scalability⭐⭐⭐ 3/5⭐⭐ 2/5
Ecosystem⭐⭐ 2/5⭐⭐⭐ 3/5
LanguageAPI-based (any frontend)Ruby (Liquid templates)
PricingFree / $83+/monthFree (open-source)
Open SourceNoYes

Ratings are based on publicly available data, documentation, and community consensus as of 2026. Individual experience may vary.

What Gets Migrated

A detailed breakdown of how your Butter CMS content maps to Jekyll

Content Types from Butter CMS

  • blog posts
  • pages
  • collections
  • media

Technical Details

Export Method
Content API
Source Language
API-based (any frontend)
Destination Format
Markdown/MDX files with frontmatter, organized by content type
URL Handling
301 redirect map generated automatically to preserve SEO equity

What may need manual attention

Custom server-side logic, third-party integrations, and platform-specific plugins will need equivalent solutions in Jekyll. The core content (text, images, metadata) transfers cleanly.

How It Works

Migrate your content in three simple steps

1

Connect

Enter your Butter CMS site URL — LeaveWP connects automatically.

2

Configure

Select Jekyll as destination and choose content options.

3

Export

Download your migrated content or preview it in your browser.

Is Butter CMS to Jekyll the Right Move for You?

Migrating from Butter CMS to Jekyll makes the most sense if you're experiencing less flexible content modeling than sanity or contentful or outgrowing Butter CMS's architecture. Jekyll is best for developer blogs hosted on github pages with minimal setup.

You should migrate if: your Butter CMS site is slow, your hosting costs are climbing, you need developer flexibility, or you want to adopt a modern JAMstack architecture.

You might want to stay if: your Butter CMS site benefits from extremely easy for non-technical editors — feels like wordpress and you don't have Ruby developers on your team. Butter CMS is genuinely easy to use, and that simplicity has value.

The migration itself is straightforward with LeaveWP — enter your Butter CMS URL, select Jekyll, and download your content. The more important question is whether Jekyll's architecture fits your team's skills and your project's long-term needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to migrate from Butter CMS to Jekyll?
Most migrations from Butter CMS complete in 20-40 minutes. We pull content via Butter CMS's Content API, then structured for Jekyll. Complex sites with extensive custom fields may take longer.
Will I lose my SEO rankings when migrating from Butter CMS?
No. We help you set up proper 301 redirects from your old Butter CMS URLs to preserve search rankings. Jekyll supports clean URL structures that maintain your existing SEO equity.
What Butter CMS content can be migrated to Jekyll?
Butter CMS content types like blog posts, pages, collections, media are all migrated to Jekyll. Content is converted to Markdown/MDX files or structured for your chosen headless CMS.
Do I need Ruby experience to migrate?
No coding experience is required for the migration itself — LeaveWP handles the export and conversion automatically. However, customizing your Jekyll site afterward will benefit from Ruby (Liquid templates) knowledge. For teams without that expertise, the generated code is well-structured and documented, making it approachable for developers of any level.
How much does it cost to host a Jekyll site after migrating from Butter CMS?
Jekyll sites can be deployed to Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or any Node.js host — often on generous free tiers. Compared to Butter CMS's Free / $83+/month pricing, static Jekyll sites can be hosted for free on Vercel or Netlify (up to generous bandwidth limits), which is significantly cheaper than running a Butter CMS instance.
Can I migrate Butter CMS custom fields and metadata to Jekyll?
Yes. Custom fields, metadata, and taxonomies from Butter CMS are preserved during migration. In Jekyll, these become frontmatter fields in your Markdown/MDX files, which you can extend or restructure to fit your content model.

Related Migration Guides

Explore more migration paths from Butter CMS or to Jekyll

Butter CMS to Jekyll Guides

In-depth guides and tutorials to help with your migration

Ready to Migrate?

Start your free migration from Butter CMS to Jekyll today.

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