Why did Anything choose the Astro Framework?

At Anything, we’ve never been tied to a single technology, whether it’s a framework or a CMS. Our priority is always to choose the best solution for our customers, rather than relying on our own preferences.

Before beginning work on Amtico’s new platform in 2023, we carefully evaluated several frameworks, including Next.js, Nuxt, Gatsby, Astro, and 11ty, to ensure we made the best choice. While we were already familiar with 11ty and appreciated its performance, we started encountering some limitations. For instance, with our choice of Storyblok CMS, achieving a live preview wasn’t really feasible with 11ty. This is something we wanted to provide for Amtico and future clients, so we were quick to rule 11ty out as a potential framework.

Next.js, Nuxt, and Gatsby all supported live preview in Storyblok and provided a robust set of features. However, when compared to the newcomer Astro, it was Astro that truly stood out. Despite being a relatively new framework, Astro already had extensive support and documentation within the Storyblok community, allowing us to quickly build a proof of concept.

We loved how quickly Astro felt familiar, allowing us to write standard HTML and CSS without needing to learn new JavaScript-specific methods.

We knew Amtico would need interactive features like advanced real-time searching, a shopping basket, and a store locator—elements that thrive with reactive JavaScript frameworks. What really impressed us about Astro was its Astro Islands feature. This allowed us to integrate a JavaScript library like React, Vue, or, in our case, Svelte, without the need to build the entire website around it. An Island only loads the necessary JavaScript when it's needed, allowing us to implement sophisticated JavaScript functionality while keeping the page weight to a minimum.

After developing our proof of concepts in various frameworks, we moved on to performance testing, which has always been a top priority for us. Our very first client, Netmums, a high-traffic parenting website with over 30 million page views each month, needed a platform that could handle massive traffic spikes while maintaining lightning-fast page loads. Regardless of the client, we’ve always placed the same emphasis on performance—a fast website not only enhances user experience but is also crucial for SEO.

We were incredibly impressed with Astro's performance, it completely outshone the other frameworks.

Even though Astro was the newest framework we tested, it didn’t feel that way. It offered a robust set of features, comprehensive documentation, and a clear roadmap, which was great to see.

Once we were confident that Astro could not only meet Amtico's current needs but also support future requirements, we moved forward with building the new platform. It launched successfully, delivering excellent performance.

Since launching Amtico, we've continued to choose Astro for our website builds. It has evolved with exciting new features like View Transitions, keeping it at the forefront of our development toolkit.

By combining Astro with the headless CMS Storyblok and Algolia for search, we've created a powerful trio that enables us to deliver future-proof solutions for our clients. We've taken our approach even further, and what's interesting is that we rarely need to use a JavaScript framework as an Island. Instead, we achieve most of our goals with Vanilla JavaScript or the lightweight Alpine JS. We've also refined our approach to CSS, using Tailwind for key utility classes and localising the bulk of the CSS within each component in Astro.

If you're concerned about the performance of your current website or have any questions, I'd love to help! Feel free to book a 30-minute consultation with me.