WordPress vs Astro: which is right for your business website?
An honest comparison of WordPress and Astro for small business websites, covering speed, editing, security, cost and when each one makes sense.
WordPress runs a huge share of the web, and for good reason: it’s flexible, familiar and there’s a plugin for almost everything. Astro is a newer way to build websites that focuses on speed. We build with Astro, but WordPress is still the right choice for some businesses. Here’s how they compare.
How they work
WordPress is a content management system. When someone visits a page, the server usually pulls content from a database, runs it through your theme and plugins, and builds the page on the spot. Caching can store a copy to save time, but the setup is built around a live server and database.
Astro is a framework that builds your pages ahead of time. Content comes from Markdown files or a headless CMS such as Sanity, and Astro turns it into plain HTML when the site is published. Visitors are sent finished pages straight from a CDN, with JavaScript added only to the parts that need it.
Side by side
| WordPress | Astro | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Depends heavily on theme, plugins and hosting. Often slow on mobile without careful tuning. | Fast by default, because pages are pre-built HTML with little or no JavaScript. |
| Editing | Familiar dashboard that many people already know. | Edited through a headless CMS like Sanity, which can be set up to be just as simple. |
| Security | Plugins and the admin login are common targets, so updates need regular attention. | No public database or plugin layer on the live site, so there’s much less to attack. |
| Maintenance | Core, theme and plugin updates, with the occasional conflict. | Few moving parts once it’s live. |
| Hosting | Needs a server running PHP and MySQL. | Static files on a CDN such as Cloudflare, which is often free or very cheap. |
| Plugins | Thousands of ready-made plugins. | Fewer off-the-shelf add-ons, so some features need building. |
When WordPress makes sense
- You want to build and change the site yourself with a page builder.
- You rely on a specific plugin that would be expensive to replace, such as a complex membership or learning platform.
- Your budget is very tight and you’re happy to use a ready-made theme.
When Astro makes sense
- Speed matters to you, for search rankings, ad landing pages or mobile customers.
- You want a site that doesn’t need constant plugin updates and security patches.
- You’d like a design that’s built for your business rather than adapted from a theme.
- Your site is mostly content, such as service pages, case studies, a blog or a menu, with a few interactive parts like forms or booking.
Moving from WordPress to Astro
If you already have a WordPress site, moving doesn’t mean starting your search rankings again. In a well-run migration, every existing page is mapped to its new address and redirected, titles and descriptions are carried across, and the old site stays live until the new one is ready.
Content can come with you too. Pages and blog posts can be exported from WordPress and brought into a headless CMS, where your team keeps editing them.
The short version
If you want the most flexibility to tinker yourself, WordPress is a reasonable choice. If you want a site that’s fast, secure and low-maintenance, Astro is usually the better fit, and that’s why we build with it.
Not sure which suits you? Run our free speed check on your current site, or get in touch and we’ll talk it through.