Final Thoughts on Astro

Things seem to go in cycles. We are moving beyond JavaScript frameworks. Moving back to simple websites with HTML and CSS. The difference is that we have new technologies under the hood.

The Importance of a Personal Website

I want to talk a bit about building a home for you on the web. There is a movement to bring back personal websites. This article from Matthias Ott discusses this in more detail. It is more than a mere discussion.

The Indie Web seeks to connect the internet between personal websites. They have brought back the blog ping in the form of webmentions. Using technology to bring comments from social media to your site. As well as written responses to your post. This way, there is a conversation happening that we can bring home.

They have developed a tool to implement this. Also, there is Bridgy, a way to import comments from social media.

Static site generators mimic the style of web development from earlier times. Let’s talk about this before digging more into Astro.

You Can Still Build The Old-Fashioned Way

There isn’t a need for a tool like Astro if you want to build things classically with HTML and CSS.

My personal site at SusanSilver.net uses this Linktree like style. I love this post from Salma Alam-Nayler. She asked people to share HTML-only websites.

It seems some developers are advocating the use of HTML and CSS more. While relying less on JavaScript. Using features native to the browser. It is surprising what you can do.

Small websites are also faster. Some news organizations have created alternative text-only sites for this reason. In emergencies, people can access this for immediate and crucial information. If you want to see more speedy sites check out the 1kb.club and 1mb.club. Yes! These websites are tiny.

Astro is all this and more. It is one of the first frameworks taking advantage of the browser native View Transitions API.

Why I Love Astro

I have a soft spot for small business owners. When I worked at an agency, we had access to tools far beyond their reach. I know why. Enterprise businesses and agencies can afford things like big data analysis. Giving them a competitive edge.

A tool like Astro is usually reserved for enterprise businesses and agencies. While writing this, Netlify has announced a composable web platform for enterprise developers. These technologies are the future.

Astro is free and open source. Small businesses can take advantage of this to their benefit. Customers are more likely to make a purchase if your website loads quickly. This is why Google uses mobile page speed as a metric.

Conclusion

You should take advantage of Astro for building a blog. It uses modern web development techniques for greater performance out of the box. People who should have personal websites include artists, job seekers, and college students. A blog can build the foundation of a career as it has worked out for me.