Engineering
Why I Switched to Astro for Content Sites
A practical comparison of Astro vs Next.js for portfolio and documentation sites, with real performance benchmarks.
by Alex Morgan
The Performance Gap
After building dozens of sites with React frameworks, I noticed a pattern: content-heavy pages were shipping unnecessary JavaScript. Astro’s islands architecture solves this by defaulting to zero JS.
Real Benchmarks
On a typical portfolio site with 20 pages:
| Metric | Next.js (SSG) | Astro |
|---|---|---|
| JS shipped | 85 KB | 0 KB |
| First Contentful Paint | 1.2s | 0.4s |
| Lighthouse Performance | 87 | 99 |
When Astro Wins
Astro excels for:
- Portfolio and CV sites
- Documentation portals
- Marketing landing pages
- Blogs with minimal interactivity
When to Use Something Else
If your site needs heavy client-side interactivity (real-time dashboards, complex forms), a full SPA framework may be a better fit. Astro’s islands let you add React/Vue components only where needed.