Astro 5 in 2026 — what to use for a marketing site
Astro 5 has settled in as the default for landings and blogs. What is actually useful from the new features — Server Islands, Content Layer, View Transitions.
Astro 5 shipped at the end of 2024 and through 2025 became the default for marketing sites and blogs. It does not compete with Next.js for product front-ends — it competes for landings and content projects where you do not want a React runtime in every pixel.
What to know from the recent releases
- Server Islands. Part of the page ships as static from a CDN, specific blocks render on the server per request. You can keep personalization (username, cart) without trashing LCP elsewhere
- Content Layer API. Content from any source (markdown, headless CMS, DB) lands in a single typed layer. Before, every collector had to be hand-rolled
- View Transitions stable. Smooth page transitions without an SPA router, using the native browser API. Works in Chromium, Safari 18+, behind a flag in Firefox
- Faster builds. A large project (1000+ pages) builds 2-3× faster than Astro 4
- Astro DB — sqlite/libsql edge database. Convenient for forms, simple auth, analytics. Not for production load
For a marketing site
- JS payload on the page is genuinely 0 bytes unless you opt-in to React/Vue islands
- LCP on Cloudflare Pages tests at 0.5-0.9 seconds — comparable to plain HTML for a landing
- Built-in image optimization: WebP/AVIF, lazy loading, multiple sizes via the `
` component - SEO meta, sitemap, robots, schema.org — done through integrations in 3-4 lines of config
When not to pick it
- You need an interactive SPA with routing and state — pick Next.js or Nuxt
- You have 10 000+ content pages with frequent updates — full rebuilds are still slow, look at ISR / on-demand
- Your team stack is Python/Django/Rails — Hugo or a native SSG in that ecosystem fits better
What we use at the studio
Astro 5 is the primary SSG for marketing sites and blogs. Every "turnkey site in 2 days" build sits on it: branded layout, image optimization, baseline SEO, contact form via Astro DB or an external endpoint. Hosting goes on Cloudflare Pages on the free tier or Netlify/Vercel when edge functions are required.