The React ecosystem has been right at the top of web development for many years, powering everything from dynamic single-page apps to enterprise platforms. However, as the needs for speed, SEO, and accessibility continue to grow, default React configurations can't always keep up, which is where modern frameworks like Astro come in.
Astro is a static site generator that changes the game when it comes to building the web. It is capable of combining React's flexibility with its unique performance-focused architecture, so developers can create faster, lighter, and significantly better SEO-optimized websites without having to sacrifice interactivity.
I started to use Astro last year for some of my projects so read on to find out why Astro deserves a spot in your React toolkit.
What makes Astro unique?
It would be unfair to say that Astro is just "another JavaScript framework" because it's a pattern breaker for developers who are looking for the best of static and dynamic worlds.
As you can see in this diagram, Astro is very good at optimising a website, which is why it rapidly grew in popularity in 2024, with many companies adopting it as their choice of framework.
Astro's page-loading performance is boosted by the fact that it uses zero JavaScript by default and only provides JavaScript when needed.
You can read more about this data and compare it in the dataset.
With the Wappalyzer Chrome extension, we are able to see some popular websites using Astro, including:
- Porsche
- NordVPN
- Jamie Oliver
- Startlight
- Firebase Blog
- Trivago
- Netlify
- Netlify Developer Hub
- thinkmill
- theguardian.engineering
You can find many more websites on the Astro showcase page.
Three things set Astro apart from other React frameworks and libraries:
Island Architecture
Astro pre-renders your whole page to static HTML and CSS natively. For interactive elements (such as a React search bar or shopping cart), it renders only the JavaScript for those stand-alone "islands." This avoids unnecessary client-side hydration, reducing your bundle size and making your pages load faster.
Framework-Agnostic Flexibility
Use React, Vue, Svelte, or vanilla JavaScript components, all within the same project. Astro's component model makes it easy to combine and switch tools.
Zero JavaScript by Default
Unlike normal React applications, Astro delivers the browser zero JavaScript until it's intentionally needed. The pages load extremely fast and have their search-engine-indexed content fully rendered.
What are the key benefits of using Astro with React?
Using Astro with React leads to many worthwhile benefits which are worth considering.
Super Fast Performance
Astro pre-renders pages during build time, providing static HTML that loads in close to zero time. Add automatic code-splitting and asset optimisation like for example lazy-loaded images, and Lighthouse scores go through the roof. Migrating a React blog to Astro can reduce load times from 3s to below 500ms.
Improved SEO Out of the Box
Client-side rendering (CSR) in a React application can degrade SEO scores as web crawlers struggle to parse JavaScript-heavy pages. Astro's static HTML makes content more crawlable immediately, which is ideal for blogs, documentation, and marketing websites.
Simplified Developer Experience
Astro eliminates messy setups. Need Markdown or MDX for a blog article? There is built-in support. Need to add React components? Just add @astrojs/react and use them in your Astro files. There is no need for Webpack bloat or SSR headaches.
Cost Effectiveness
Static websites are cheap to host, so it's possible to host an Astro website on Vercel or Netlify without costs, even for heavy traffic.
When should you use Astro + React?
Astro is great to use when you need a content-heavy website. Blogs, portfolios, and documentation are also optimised in speed and SEO with Astro. Hybrid applications can utilise Astro via the combination of static product pages and dynamic React components, such as a checkout process. In SEO defined projects, Astro prevents the downsides of client-side rendering so that content can be made searchable.
How does Astro complement React?
When we use Astros partial hydration, it allows React components to hydrate on demand, optimising for performance, like in the case of a static landing page that might hydrate a newsletter form on scroll. Astro also supports integration with no friction, making it easy for programmers to create React components alongside the more usual HTML-like syntax, which we are all familiar with.
---
import ReactCart from '../components/Cart.jsx';
---
<h1>Welcome to My Store</h1>
<ReactCart client:load /> <!-- Hydrates on page load -->
This means that, essentially, there is no lock in, and we are able to migrate our codebase incrementally while also keeping our previous React code as we choose to adopt Astro at our own choosing.
Migrating from React to Astro requires us to convert our pages to .astro files and the easiest way to go about this would be to start rebuilding our current React pages as Astro templates. Then, we can use directives like client:load or client:idle to hydrate our React islands.
Despite Astro's advantages, there are some potential limitations worth considering.
- Not for full single-page applications: If you need complex client-side routing then it might be better to stick with a JavaScript framework like Next.js which is better optimised for it.
- The learning curve: Astro’s component syntax and hydration rules require a lot of thinking and forces you to change your mindset when it comes to building apps as new syntax is required that sets it apart from other React frameworks. ## Conclusion
Astro isn’t a replacement for React but an enhancement. Combining React’s interactivity with Astro’s performance optimisations allows developers to build websites that are fast, SEO-friendly, and cost-effective. So, if you are launching a blog or reworking a current webpage, Astro offers a future-proof path to better web experiences.
Starting a new Astro project is fairly straightforward and can be done in minutes with this command:
npm create astro@latest -- --template with-react
For a full overview, check out the official documentation.
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Top comments (1)
“Another JavaScript framework, without JavaScript” 😎
Astro is a fantastic tech for static website, I love it 🫶🏻
React, Vue, Next, ecc are for web applications, for static website are too much.