Riadh Chelbi
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Getting Started with Astro

Date —
July 15, 2026
Tags —
Astro, Frontend

I’ve built sites in Next.js, Remix, and plain HTML. When it came time to rebuild my portfolio, I wanted something different — a framework that ships zero JavaScript by default and only adds it where I actually need interactivity.

Astro’s island architecture fit that perfectly. Every component on this site is either a static HTML component or a small interactive island (like the theme toggle). The result is a site that loads fast without me having to think about bundle size.

What convinced me

  • Zero JS by default — the pages are just HTML and CSS
  • Content collections with Zod schemas for type-safe Markdown
  • View Transitions for smooth page navigation without a SPA runtime
  • The Font API self-hosts Google Fonts at build time, so there’s no runtime request to Google

If you’re building a content-heavy site and don’t need a full SPA, Astro is worth a serious look.