I've been running WordPress for years. It works, but it's heavy, slow to update, and I spend more time managing plugins than building things.
This time I wanted something different: a static site that builds in seconds, looks exactly how I want it, and gives me full control over every pixel. Astro was the obvious choice.
Why Astro?
- Zero JavaScript shipped by default
- Component-first architecture
- Markdown content collections
- Framework-agnostic (use React, Vue, Svelte, or nothing)
- Static output that deploys anywhere
The migration path:
- Exported WordPress content
- Built a DESIGN.md token file (colors, fonts, spacing)
- Created components one at a time
- Composed pages from components
- Deployed to the existing self-hosted server
The whole rebuild took about a week of evenings. The result is a site that loads instantly, builds locally in under 5 seconds, and costs nothing to host.