Astro

Astro is a modern static site and server-driven framework optimised for content-heavy websites (blogs, marketing sites, documentation, portfolios) where JavaScript is minimised. The core philosophy: render components on the server, send lightweight HTML to browsers, and add JavaScript only where interactivity is needed (via "Islands" architecture). This approach eliminates the JavaScript bloat of single-page applications (SPAs), resulting in faster page loads, better Core Web Vitals scores, and superior SEO. The framework supports mixed component systems: developers use Astro components (server-rendered), React, Vue, Svelte, Preact, and Solid components (client-rendered only where necessary). Built-in features include file-based routing, middleware, optimised image handling, view transitions, and content collections for type-safe blog posts and documentation. Deployment adapters support Node.js, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel, Netlify, AWS Lambda, Deno, and traditional web hosts. The Islands architecture automatically optimises which components run client-side; static content renders as HTML, interactive widgets load JavaScript on demand. Performance data shows Astro sites achieve 66% Core Web Vitals pass rate compared to WordPress (48%), Gatsby (47%), Next.js (30%), and Nuxt (28%). This performance advantage makes Astro ideal for marketing sites, documentation, and e-commerce where page speed impacts conversions and SEO ranking. Content flexibility allows sourcing from filesystems (Markdown, MDX), APIs, CMS platforms (Contentful, Sanity), or hybrid combinations. Astro competes with Next.js (requires JavaScript-heavy SPA patterns), Gatsby (static generation limited by build time), Hugo (static but limited templating), and traditional WordPress. The free, open-source framework under MIT licence requires no licensing.