The best CMS for Astro: How to choose CMS for Astro projects

Would you agree with this statement: Finding the best CMS for Astro is the easiest task ever?

I know this may sound like “lame marketing copy", which could only be believed by people with no coding skills or inexperienced developers. But all of you guys who have been coding every single day for years now know that this statement is nothing more than true.

Before I get into details I need to explain this statement. Astro is a framework-agnostic framework (🤪) that brings a high level of flexibility within any Astro project, but also makes the CMS choosing process way easier.  Why does this matter? Keep reading.

What Astro is a framework-agnostic means

The Astro framework is framework-agnostic in the sense that it allows developers to use components and libraries from multiple front-end frameworks (like React, Vue, Svelte, and others). In contrast to other JavaScript frameworks, Astro allows you to mix and match components without committing to a single one.

Three key elements allowed Astro to bring these innovations into web development:

Component islands architecture

Astro Islands architecture allows you to create isolated components, only loading JavaScript for the parts of the page that need interactivity.

In other words, the static content will load quickly without any extra JavaScript, and only the interactive parts =( islands) will load JavaScript when they need it.

Let me use the BCMS home page as an example:

Say the BCMS homepage has a mix of static content, like an introduction section with text, images, etc., and some interactive parts, like a header or CTA buttons.

With Astro islands, only the interactive parts—the "islands"—would load JavaScript. So, the text content loads almost instantly, while JavaScript is used only for the parts that need user interaction, such as clicking the CTA button to launch a form.

This approach keeps the initial page load lightweight and quick, while still allowing the interactive sections to function smoothly when they're needed.

Framework-agnostic rendering

By default, Astro compiles the project to static HTML, sending JavaScript only when necessary. Since Astro doesn't dictate a particular front-end framework, you can use anything you like, even pure HTML/CSS/JavaScript. As a result, it is easy to integrate any framework without excessive bundling or overhead.

Astro component syntax

If you know HTML, you already know enough to write your Astro component. The upgrade starts with .astro files being designed to support components from various frameworks in a single format, which Astro's compiler understands.

You can import components from different frameworks without compatibility issues, and Astro will render them correctly.

For full insights and understanding you can check out the Astro Syntax template.

Besides these elements, some features make Astro more and more popular.

Astro features that make website development easier

• Static site generation (SSG) and Server-side rendering (SSR

Even though being a static site generator by default, Astro also supports server-side rendering if necessary. Thanks to this support, SSR generates pages on the server in response to user requests. Users can access dynamic content directly, such as personalized data or frequently changing information.

How does Astro handle SSR?

As I said, Astro handles SSR by configuring it to generate HTML for each page on the server in response to individual requests.

To enable SSR in Astro, you’ll need to use an SSR-compatible adapter. Astro offers several official on-demand rendering adapters, such as:

• Vercel: @astrojs/vercel
• Netlify: @astrojs/netlify
• Node: @astrojs/node
• Cloudflare: @astrojs/cloudflare

These adapters allow you to deploy your Astro site to a server environment that supports SSR. For detailed information visit Astro docs guide.

In summary:

• SSG (default): Astro generates static HTML by default for high-performance sites.
• SSR (optional): Astro can also handle SSR, allowing for dynamic content.

This flexibility makes Astro versatile, letting you choose the best rendering strategy based on your needs.

• Flexible data fetching

Astro has a flexible fetch of data from multiple sources during the build process, including:

• REST APIs
• GraphQL endpoints
• Markdown files
• Custom data sources

This flexibility supports structured content by fetching it in one central location.

A major benefit of this feature is that Astro provides the freedom to integrate various data sources without restrictions, making it easy to pull data from a headless CMS or other external sources.

• Image optimization

Astro has built-in support for image optimization through its @astrojs/image package, which improves image loading and performance.

By using an <Image /> component when you add an image, Astro resizes, formats, and serves the image automatically, applies lazy loading, and generates responsive sizes.

This ensures that the appropriate image resolution is loaded for each user's device, resulting in faster loading times and better performance.

These features make Astro versatile and suitable for both static and dynamic sites, but what about content management systems? How to find the best choice? As I said at the beginning, this can be easier than you think.

What is the best CMS for Astro?

Before I go any further with the explanation I must tell you one big truth: you can use Astro without a CMS thanks to built-in support for Markdown, which lets you build entire sites.

For smaller sites or blogs, managing content directly through Markdown files keeps things simple and lightweight, perfect if you prefer keeping everything within the codebase. You can also use JSON, YAML, or fetch content from APIs, giving you control without adding a CMS.

But why is it better to use CMS for Astro

For simpler sites or smaller projects, managing content directly within Astro might be sufficient, but as the project grows (and to be honest all online grow these days), a CMS becomes inevitable.

Here’s when a CMS is most beneficial:

• Scalability

As websites grow, handling content can become difficult if managed directly in Markdown or JSON files. A CMS makes it effortless since it provides a structured environment for managing, editing, and organizing content without requiring direct code changes.

• Easier for non-tech teams

Don’t forget about marketers and others in the content creation process. Most of them never used Markdown or JSON files to create blogs, articles, etc. Another reason, marketing teams need more content types that Markdown doesn’t support such as images, videos, tables, and on and on.

• Different content statuses:

CMS platforms offer versioning, staging, and publishing workflows. These workflows help content teams review and approve content changes before publishing, track past edits, and roll back changes. They're essential for larger teams or organizations that want to check and balance the published content, especially when updating content frequently.

• API integrations and dynamic content:

CMS can serve content via API, making it easy to dynamically load content into Astro pages at build time or on-demand. Also, you can serve content to multiple channels (like web, mobile, and apps) and fetch dynamic data by Astro principles.

• What about SEO?

The markdown can be SEO-friendly, particularly when used correctly in the context of static site generators like Astro ( clean HTML output, easy formatting, inclusion of metadata). As for dynamic content, a CMS improves SEO by providing built-in tools to manage structured data, optimize content for search engines, and update content easily.

Headless vs Traditional: Which one is the best CMS for Astro

For Astro sites, a headless CMS takes a win over traditional ones. Here’s why:

Performance and static site optimization

Traditional CMS platforms often require dynamic page rendering, where each request pulls data in real-time, which can slow things down.

On the other side, by pairing Astro with headless, you’ll get a compatible platform that allows Astro to pre-render pages into static HTML, allowing for ultra-fast load times while headless delivers content through APIs, which Astro can fetch at build time, ensuring a faster performance.

Flexible front-end choices

This is more than obvious, traditional CMSs prevent Astro from being framework agnostic since requires working within CMS templates and themes.

Headless on the other hand, improves Astro’s agnosticism by decoupling the content entirely from the front end, giving Astro the freedom to render data in whatever way fits best and for you to choose front-end development tools for your stack.

Content delivery

Traditional platforms are typically web-centric, making it challenging to share content beyond the website. Since headless platforms deliver content via API, you can push content to any device, from websites to mobile apps, and even IoT devices.

Smooth development workflow

Traditional CMS systems often come with extra overhead like plugins, themes, and customization, which can complicate the codebase, (limited to PHP or a monolithic setup), and bring complexities when integrating with Astro’s build process.

Thanks to webhooks, an API-driven structure that can trigger rebuilds in Astro whenever the content is updated, headless support automatic content deployment.

For more differences and deep understanding check out: Traditional CMS vs. Headless CMS - Full Comparison

Why is BCMS the best CMS for Astro

Besides being headless (obviously) BCMS is the best choice for Astro due to its compatibility with Astro's unique architecture and the following BCMS features:

• API-first design: BCMS’s API-first approach aligns with Astro's islands architecture, loading data only for interactive components and reducing JavaScript load.
• Flexible rendering options: Works seamlessly with Astro’s static site generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR), providing optimized load times and improved SEO.
• Content modeling: Allows the creation of reusable content types that integrate easily with Astro’s component-driven structure.
• Responsive image handling: BCMS optimizes images and uses lazy loading to ensure responsiveness and fast performance.
• User-friendly interface: Simple for marketers and non-developers, allowing them to edit and publish content independently.

All in all, BCMS is a perfect match for Astro. Developers can focus on building great features, while BCMS takes care of the content and performance.

Speaking about developers' building, you can give a try with BCMS Astro code starters, choose a blog code starter, and follow all the instructions from this tutorial: Building Astro Blog with BCMS.