Astro

Brief Overview

Astro is an all-in-one web framework for building fast, content-focused websites.

Astro was designed for building content-rich websites. This includes most marketing sites, publishing sites, documentation sites, blogs, portfolios, and some ecommerce sites.

Astro leverages server-side rendering over client-side rendering as much as possible. This is the same approach that traditional server-side frameworks — PHP, WordPress, Laravel, Ruby on Rails, etc. — have been using for decades. But you don’t need to learn a second server-side language to unlock it. With Astro, everything is still just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (or TypeScript, if you prefer).

Astro’s goal is to be accessible to every web developer. Astro was designed to feel familiar and approachable regardless of skill level or past experience with web development.

Installation

create astro is the fastest way to start a new Astro project from scratch. It will walk you through every step of setting up your new Astro project. It allows you to choose from a few different official starter templates or you can use any existing project on GitHub with the --template argument.

Run the following command in your terminal to start our handy install wizard:

npm create astro@latest

You can run create astro anywhere on your machine, so there’s no need to create a new empty directory for your project before you begin. If you don’t have an empty directory yet for your new project, the wizard will help create one for you automatically.

If all goes well, you should see a “Liftoff confirmed. Explore your project!” message followed by some recommended next steps. cd into your new project directory to begin using Astro.

Key Features

• Component Islands: A new web architecture for building faster websites.
• Server-first API design: Move expensive hydration off of your users’ devices.
• Zero JS, by default: No JavaScript runtime overhead to slow you down.
• Edge-ready: Deploy anywhere, even a global edge runtime like Deno or Cloudflare.
• Customizable: Tailwind, MDX, and 100+ other integrations to choose from.
• UI-agnostic: Supports React, Preact, Svelte, Vue, Solid, Lit and more.

Conclusion

Astro, a versatile web framework, brings a refreshing approach to web development, emphasizing speed and content-centric design. It’s designed to excel in creating content-rich websites, making it an ideal choice for marketing sites, blogs, portfolios, documentation sites, and more.

One of Astro’s standout features is its preference for server-side rendering over client-side rendering, akin to traditional server-side frameworks like PHP or Ruby on Rails. However, Astro keeps everything within the familiar realm of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (or TypeScript), eliminating the need to learn a new server-side language.