As a web agency, we’ve migrated dozens of WordPress sites to modern frameworks like Astro. Our own site, perelweb.be, was previously powered by WordPress before we migrated it to Astro. This experience taught us one essential thing: WordPress is no longer the best solution for most professional websites in 2025.

The WordPress Problem: The Snowball Effect

1. Plugin Accumulation Becomes Unmanageable

Here’s a scenario we see constantly:

You start with a clean WordPress site. Then, over time:

SEO Plugin (Yoast or Rank Math)
Cache Plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache)
Security Plugin (Wordfence, iThemes Security)
Form Plugin (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms)
Page Builder (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery)
Gallery Plugin
Slider Plugin
Migration Plugin
Image Optimization Plugin
Backup Plugin

And the list continues… Before you know it, you have 40, 50, or even 60+ plugins installed.

The Hidden Cost of This Accumulation

Each plugin adds:

Additional PHP files to load
Database queries on every page load
JavaScript scripts that slow down the browser
CSS stylesheets that bloat your site
Potential failure points (incompatibilities, security vulnerabilities)

Real client result:

WordPress site with 47 plugins
wp-content folder: 4.2 GB
Load time: 6.8 seconds
Lighthouse score: 34/100

After migration to Astro:

Total project size: 180 MB
Load time: 0.8 seconds
Lighthouse score: 98/100

Why Elementor and Page Builders Are a Nightmare for Automation

Page builders like Elementor seem attractive at first. Drag-and-drop, visual interface, no need to code. But here are the problems we constantly encounter:

1. Generated Code Impossible to Maintain

Page builders generate deeply nested HTML with auto-generated CSS classes. Real example from an Elementor section:

<div class="elementor-element elementor-element-abc123 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading">
  <div class="elementor-widget-container">
    <div class="elementor-heading-wrapper">
      <h2 class="elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default">
        Your Title
      </h2>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Compare with Astro:

<h2 class="heading">Your Title</h2>

2. Automation Is Virtually Impossible

Imagine you want to:

Automatically generate 100 service pages
Create personalized pages based on API data
Automatically optimize all your images
Generate content with AI

With Elementor: You have to manually recreate each page in the visual interface. Even with the WordPress API, accessing Elementor data is complex and fragile.

With Astro: Everything is in code. You can automate anything:

// Generate 100 pages automatically
export async function getStaticPaths() {
  const services = await fetchServicesFromAPI();
  return services.map(service => ({
    params: { slug: service.slug },
    props: { service }
  }));
}

Astro’s Strengths: Why It’s the Future

1. Framework-Agnostic: Absolute Freedom

Astro doesn’t lock you into a single frontend framework. You can use:

React for a complex component
Vue for another part
Svelte for lightweight interactivity
Vanilla JS when it’s sufficient

---
import ReactCalendar from './ReactCalendar.jsx';
import VueChart from './VueChart.vue';
---

<div>
  <ReactCalendar client:load />
  <VueChart client:visible />
</div>

The advantage: You only load the necessary code. If a page doesn’t use React, the React bundle is never downloaded.

2. Server-Side JavaScript Execution (Zero JS by Default)

WordPress sends JavaScript to the browser even to display static content. Astro reverses this paradigm:

---
// This code runs ONLY at build time or on the server
const posts = await fetch('https://api.example.com/posts').then(r => r.json());
const processedPosts = posts.map(p => ({
  ...p,
  readTime: calculateReadTime(p.content)
}));
---

{processedPosts.map(post => (
  <article>
    <h2>{post.title}</h2>
    <p>{post.readTime} min read</p>
  </article>
))}

Result: The browser receives pure HTML. Zero JavaScript. Maximum performance.

3. Server Islands: The Best of Both Worlds

Astro introduces the concept of “Server Islands” - dynamic parts rendered server-side on demand, integrated into a pre-rendered static shell.

Use case:

Static shell (header, footer, main content): pre-rendered and served instantly
Comments section: rendered on demand with latest comments
Real-time pricing widget: dynamically updated

---
// Static part (pre-rendered)
const content = await getContent();
---

<Layout>
  <article>{content}</article>

  <!-- Server Island (rendered on demand) -->
  <Comments server:defer />
</Layout>

4. File-Based Architecture

WordPress stores everything in a MySQL database. Your content is locked in, difficult to version, complex to migrate.

Astro uses files:

src/
  content/
    blog/
      article-1.md
      article-2.md
    services/
      web-development.md
      seo.md

Advantages:

✅ Version control with Git
✅ Easy to backup
✅ Search and replace with your editor
✅ Simplified migration
✅ Automation with scripts

The Automation and AI Advantage

This is where Astro really shines. Because everything is in code and files, you can:

1. Generate Content with AI

import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';

const anthropic = new Anthropic();

export async function generateBlogPost(topic) {
  const message = await anthropic.messages.create({
    model: "claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022",
    max_tokens: 4096,
    messages: [{
      role: "user",
      content: `Write a blog post about: ${topic}`
    }]
  });

  // Automatically create the markdown file
  await fs.writeFile(
    `src/content/blog/${slugify(topic)}.md`,
    formatBlogPost(message.content)
  );
}

2. Automatically Optimize Images

import sharp from 'sharp';

// Astro can automatically:
// - Convert to WebP
// - Generate multiple sizes
// - Smart lazy loading
// - Optimize for Core Web Vitals

3. Create Dynamic Pages from Data

---
// Automatically generate pages for each product
import { getCollection } from 'astro:content';

export async function getStaticPaths() {
  const products = await getCollection('products');

  return products.map(product => ({
    params: { slug: product.slug },
    props: {
      product,
      relatedProducts: findRelatedProducts(product),
      aiDescription: await generateDescription(product)
    }
  }));
}
---

The Migration Process: Simpler Than You Think

Step 1: Current Site Audit

# Export your WordPress content
wp export --dir=./wordpress-export

# Analyze your structure
wp plugin list
wp theme list

Step 2: Astro Project Setup

npm create astro@latest
cd my-new-site
npm install

# Install necessary integrations
npx astro add mdx
npx astro add sitemap
npx astro add tailwind

Step 3: Content Migration

For blog posts, create a conversion script:

// convert-wordpress-to-astro.js
import TurndownService from 'turndown';
import fs from 'fs';

const turndown = new TurndownService();

function convertWordPressPost(wpPost) {
  const markdown = turndown.turndown(wpPost.content);

  const frontmatter = `---
title: "${wpPost.title}"
description: "${wpPost.excerpt}"
pubDate: ${wpPost.date}
author: "${wpPost.author}"
category: "${wpPost.category}"
tags: ${JSON.stringify(wpPost.tags)}
image: "${wpPost.featured_image}"
---

${markdown}`;

  return frontmatter;
}

Step 4: Design Recreation

Astro works perfectly with Tailwind CSS. Your WordPress design can be recreated quickly:

---
// components/Hero.astro
interface Props {
  title: string;
  subtitle: string;
}

const { title, subtitle } = Astro.props;
---

<section class="bg-gradient-to-r from-cyan-500 to-blue-600 py-20">
  <div class="max-w-7xl mx-auto px-4">
    <h1 class="text-5xl font-bold text-white mb-4">
      {title}
    </h1>
    <p class="text-xl text-white/90">
      {subtitle}
    </p>
  </div>
</section>

Step 5: Feature Integration

Contact Forms:

<form action="https://formspree.io/f/YOUR_ID" method="POST">
  <input type="email" name="email" required />
  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

SEO:

---
// components/SEO.astro
import { SEO } from "astro-seo";
---

<SEO
  title="Your Title"
  description="Your description"
  openGraph={{
    basic: {
      title: "OG Title",
      type: "website",
      image: "/og-image.jpg",
    }
  }}
/>

Performance Comparison: Real Data

Before (WordPress + Elementor)

Metric	Result
Load time	6.8s
Lighthouse Performance	34/100
First Contentful Paint	3.2s
Time to Interactive	8.1s
Total Blocking Time	2,340ms
Cumulative Layout Shift	0.42
Page size	4.2 MB
HTTP requests	127

After (Astro)

Metric	Result	Improvement
Load time	0.8s	-88%
Lighthouse Performance	98/100	+188%
First Contentful Paint	0.6s	-81%
Time to Interactive	0.9s	-89%
Total Blocking Time	0ms	-100%
Cumulative Layout Shift	0.02	-95%
Page size	180 KB	-95%
HTTP requests	12	-91%