Getting Started with Astro — Complete Beginner's Guide

Introduction: Modern Framework for Fast Websites

Astro is a modern framework for building fast, high-performance websites. With its island architecture, you can send less JavaScript to the browser while keeping interactive parts functional. Astro is ideal for developers who want to optimize websites without sacrificing features.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Astro and Why it Matters
• How Astro Differs from Other Frameworks
• Benefits of Using Astro
• Installation: Step-by-Step
• Quick Example: Hello World
• Best Practices
• SEO & Performance Tips
• Deployment Options
• Resources & References
• FAQ
• Next Steps

What is Astro and Why it Matters

Astro is a static site generator that lets you build modern websites using frameworks like React, Vue, or Svelte — without shipping those frameworks to the browser. This yields much faster load times and a better user experience.

How Astro Differs from Other Frameworks

Traditional frameworks such as React or Next.js often send significant JavaScript to the client. Astro ships mostly static HTML and only hydrates the interactive parts you choose.

Benefits of Using Astro

• Performance-first output (static HTML)
• Framework-agnostic components (React, Vue, Svelte)
• Island architecture for selective hydration
• SEO-friendly server-rendered HTML
• Great developer experience with fast dev server

Installation: Step-by-Step

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18.17.1 or later
• npm or yarn
• A code editor

Install

Run the following commands:

npm create astro@latest my-site
cd my-site
npm run dev

The dev server will run on http://localhost:4321.

Project Structure

src/
├── pages/
├── components/
└── layouts/

astro.config.mjs

Quick Example: Hello World

Create src/pages/index.astro:

---
layout: ../layouts/Layout.astro
---

<h1>Hello from Astro!</h1>
<p>This page is rendered at build time.</p>

<!-- For interactivity, add hydrated components -->

Best Practices

1. Optimize images using Astro Image or modern formats (AVIF/WebP).
2. Reduce bundle size: use dynamic imports and only hydrate needed components.
3. Add proper metadata (title, description, open graph) to every page.
4. Design mobile-first and test performance with Lighthouse.

SEO & Performance Tips

• Ensure each page has title, meta description, and OG tags.
• Use optimized and lazy-loaded images.
• Minimize client-side JS hydration and prefer client:idle or client:visible.
• Generate sitemap.xml and robots.txt and add schema.org markup.

Deployment Options

• Vercel — seamless integration and CDN
• Netlify — build hooks and serverless functions
• Static host + CDN — npm run build then upload to S3/Cloudflare Pages/GitHub Pages

Build commands:

npm run build
npm run preview

Resources & References

• Official Astro docs: https://docs.astro.build
• Example projects on GitHub
• Astro community on Discord

FAQ

• Is Astro good for blogs? Yes — static output and performance optimizations make Astro ideal for blogs.
• Can I use React or Vue? Yes — Astro supports components from multiple frameworks.
• How about SEO? Astro renders HTML server-side, which is SEO-friendly.

Next Steps

Start building your Astro site and explore advanced features like API routes, static generation, CMS integrations, and edge deployments.