Why we build with Astro instead of WordPress, and why it matters
WordPress powers 40% of the web, but it's slow, vulnerable, and expensive to maintain. Astro generates ultra-fast static websites with 95-100 Lighthouse scores.
Key Points
At serpixel, we make a technical decision that surprises many: we don’t use WordPress. Not for us, and not for our clients. In a world where WordPress powers 40% of the web, choosing a different technology might seem risky. But when you see the numbers, you understand why more and more professionals are leaving WordPress behind and choosing Astro.
WordPress: the king that got old
Don’t get us wrong: WordPress was revolutionary. It democratized web creation and allowed millions of people to have an online presence. But the technology that was cutting-edge in 2010 has become a liability in 2026.
The real problems with WordPress
1. Speed: too slow for Google
A typical WordPress website with a popular template (Divi, Elementor, Avada) and basic plugins (SEO, forms, security, cache) loads in 4-6 seconds on average.
Why? Because every time a visitor requests a page, WordPress has to:
- Execute PHP code on the server
- Query the MySQL database
- Load the theme with all its CSS and JavaScript
- Execute every installed plugin
- Generate the HTML page dynamically
All of this takes time. And Google, since 2021, uses loading speed as a direct ranking factor.
2. Security: 90,000 vulnerabilities per year
WordPress is the number 1 target for hackers on the internet. In 2025:
- Over 90,000 vulnerabilities were detected in plugins and themes
- 43% of website hacks were WordPress sites
- Every plugin is a potential entry point for an attacker
- Security updates must be applied weekly
If you don’t update, you’re vulnerable. If you do update, you risk breaking something. It’s an endless cycle.
3. Maintenance cost: the hidden trap
What nobody tells you when you choose WordPress is that the real cost isn’t the installation, it’s the maintenance:
- WordPress core updates: monthly
- Plugin updates: weekly
- PHP updates: annually
- Quality hosting: €20-50/month
- Premium security plugin: €10-30/month
- Premium cache plugin: €10-20/month
- Technician hours when something breaks: €50-100/hour
Annual WordPress maintenance cost: €1,500-4,000
Astro: the next generation of the web
Astro is a web creation framework born in 2021 that takes a radically different approach: it generates static HTML pages at build time, not at visit time.
How Astro works
When we build a website with Astro:
- We write the components and content
- Astro compiles everything into pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files
- These files are uploaded to a global CDN (Vercel)
- When a visitor requests a page, they receive the pre-generated HTML directly
There’s no server running code. No database to query. No plugins to load. The page is already built and just needs to be served.
The concrete advantages
Speed: <1 second load time
| Metric | WordPress (Divi) | Astro (serpixel) |
|---|---|---|
| First Contentful Paint | 2.8s | 0.4s |
| Largest Contentful Paint | 4.2s | 0.8s |
| Total Blocking Time | 1,200ms | 0ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | 0.25 | 0.01 |
| Lighthouse Performance | 42/100 | 98/100 |
These aren’t theoretical numbers. They’re real measurements from production websites.
Security: zero attack surface
An Astro website deployed on Vercel:
- Has no database to hack
- Doesn’t run PHP code on the server
- Has no plugins with vulnerabilities
- Has no exposed admin panel (/wp-admin)
- Serves static files from CDN with HTTPS
There’s nothing to attack. Security isn’t a feature you add. It’s an intrinsic property of the architecture.
Maintenance: virtually zero
Since there’s no WordPress core, plugins, or PHP to update, technical maintenance reduces to:
- Updating Node.js dependencies (automatic with Dependabot)
- Deploying changes with
git push(automatic with Vercel) - That’s it
Annual Astro maintenance cost: virtually €0 in technical maintenance.
The final comparison
| Criterion | WordPress | Astro |
|---|---|---|
| Load speed | 4-6 seconds | 0.5-1.5 seconds |
| Lighthouse | 35-65/100 | 95-100/100 |
| Vulnerabilities | 90,000+/year in ecosystem | 0 (static architecture) |
| Technical maintenance | €1,500-4,000/year | ~€0 |
| Hosting | €240-600/year | €0-20/month (Vercel free tier) |
| Technical SEO | Requires plugins | Native, built-in |
| Multilingual | Plugin (WPML: €99/year) | Native, no extra cost |
| Deploy time | 2-5 minutes | 30-60 seconds |
But I need a CMS to edit content…
The most common concern is: “If I don’t have WordPress, how do I edit content?”
The answer: with a headless CMS like Sanity. A headless CMS is a content management system that:
- Offers a visual, intuitive editing panel
- Stores content in the cloud (not on your server)
- Is not publicly exposed (no /wp-admin to attack)
- Sends content to Astro, which generates the static pages
The result: the same editing ease as WordPress, but with Astro’s speed and security.
At serpixel we configure Sanity for clients who need to edit content frequently. For those who prefer we manage updates, we work directly with Markdown files, which is even faster and simpler.
When WordPress still makes sense
Let’s be fair: WordPress isn’t bad for everything. It can be the best choice if:
- You need WooCommerce for a complex online store with hundreds of products
- Your internal team already knows WordPress and doesn’t want to switch
- You need very specific plugins that don’t exist outside the WordPress ecosystem
- You have a blog with thousands of published articles and don’t want to migrate
For corporate websites, landing pages, service websites, restaurants, local businesses, and professionals, Astro is objectively superior. Faster, more secure, cheaper to maintain, better for SEO.
Technology matters more than you think
Your website isn’t “just a website.” It’s your digital presence, the first impression you give to thousands of potential customers. The technology behind it determines:
- Whether Google ranks or penalizes you (speed)
- Whether visitors stay or leave (performance)
- Whether your business is vulnerable to attacks (security)
- How much you spend unnecessarily each year (maintenance)
At serpixel we build all our clients’ websites with Astro because we believe our clients deserve the best available technology, not the most popular one by inertia. Want to see the difference on your own website?
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Astro is a modern framework that generates ultra-fast static HTML pages. Unlike WordPress, it doesn't need a database, doesn't run PHP on the server, and doesn't depend on plugins. The result is a website that loads in under 1 second, is virtually invulnerable to attacks, and scores 95-100 on Lighthouse. At serpixel, we use Astro for all our projects.
Yes. Modern Astro websites connect to content management systems (CMS) like Sanity, which let you edit text and images through a very intuitive visual panel. The difference is that the CMS isn't publicly exposed like WordPress. It's a separate, secure system.
No. Everything WordPress does with plugins (forms, SEO, analytics, galleries, blog), Astro does natively or with lightweight integrations that don't affect performance. In fact, you gain features: better SEO, faster speed, native multilingual support.
WordPress can be suitable if you need complex e-commerce with WooCommerce, if your internal team is accustomed to WordPress, or if you need hundreds of specific plugins. For corporate websites, landing pages, blogs, and service websites, Astro is objectively superior in performance, security, and cost.