WordPress vs Astro - which one to pick for your blog

Until recently most of us were never going to pick anything other than WordPress for our next website. But times are changing and so is technology! So nowadays the famous CMS is not a guaranteed leader. There is a new player on the market that might just be the right pick for you! Or it might not - all depends on what you need and what type of user you are. In this post we will compare WordPress vs Astro (as this is the name of that so-called new player). By the end of it you will have an idea which of these is the right choice for you.

Before we dive into the comparison of WordPress vs Astro we should remember why and how WordPress became a leader.

In 2003 WordPress was born and the world web was never going to be the same! Eventually this was the go-to option for new users as well as for some hardcore web professionals for their projects. It was the same for me as well. And for many years WordPress was without real competition thanks to many reasons - SEO ready, dozens of plugins, stability, ease of use, beautiful free themes, etc.

However a WordPress based project (if not maintained properly) can soon grow big, slow, and… hard to maintain. And speaking of speed and SEO - how many WordPress sites can you tell me that reach a score above 90 on mobile on Google PageSpeed Insights or via Lighthouse locally? Not saying it is not possible, just saying it can be hard - so hard that some users might be discouraged to continue trying.

And there is another issue with WordPress - its new editor Gutenberg is powerful but might still be hard to use. You can easily struggle with proper block selection. And yes there are plugins for everything - but too many plugins turn one of WordPress's strengths into a weakness.

So at this point some users, who are not die-hard WordPress fans, decide it is time for a change.

Presenting Astro - a lightweight alternative to WordPress!

So, as mentioned in the disclaimer above, Astro is a lightweight developer-focused web framework for building ultra-fast static and server-rendered sites. What does this mean? Well it means that it builds pages into plain static HTML with zero JavaScript by default. These are going to render extremely fast on all hosting providers and with the right tweaks can reach even a 100 score for performance on mobile and desktop for Google PageSpeed Insights.

Astro is also extremely useful if you care about security as it reduces risks and server overhead by avoiding database vulnerabilities and heavy plugin stacks.

As for additional features Astro can have such features, but it may require development skills or vibe coding via AI. As for creation and editing of content - you will most likely need to use an IDE, unless you decide to go with Keystatic as content management utility for your site.

When to choose Astro? If technical SEO, speed and performance are your top priorities and you are aiming at building marketing sites, portfolios, or documentation, then Astro is something worth considering! It can also be used for blogs but might be a bit tricky. One thing worth mentioning here - Optibg.com was for many years a WordPress based website. But due to different circumstances I decided it was time to move away from the CMS I still love and to search for new technology. And recently I discovered Astro! So what you are seeing right now is a direct example of its usage. I am managing my content locally with Keystatic and Visual Studio Code. For drastic code changes and design I use Claude Code, Open Design and Ollama based open-source or open-weight models.

So to wrap it up - if you are not afraid of coding or using an IDE for content and you aim for lightning speed, then you should pick Astro!

When to stay on WordPress vs Astro then?

If you do not want to use additional tools or IDEs, want to build with drag & drop, want to be able to add new functionalities via plugins with several clicks, want to be able to choose from a sea of themes with gorgeous design and you want to use a CMS - then WordPress is the right tool for you! It can even be used as a CMS for content that your Astro project might utilize if you are feeling adventurous. :)

With WordPress you can build with relative ease all types of sites - from simple blog, to a detailed e-commerce website. WordPress will store your data in a database which might be another layer of protection as even if you simply delete your site and re-create it again, as long as the structure is similar and you connect to the same database, your content will still be there. As for Astro, your content stays as part of the project in the form of individual Markdown or MDX files.

Want to learn more about Astro and the possibilities of migrating to it?

In this case you can check some of these external materials:

• Migrating from WordPress
• How I Migrated From Wordpress to Astro: Boosted Pagespeed Scores to 100% and Cut 100% Hosting cost
• Astro or WordPress: which foundation for your next site

Featured image is AI generated.