Migrating from Gridsome to Astro: A Developer Journey

After using Gridsome for my personal blog for several years, I decided it was time for a change. The Vue.js-based static site generator had served me well, but I was curious about the new generation of static site generators and their performance benefits.

Why I Chose Astro

Astro caught my attention for several reasons:

Performance: The “zero JavaScript by default” approach promised better Core Web Vitals
Flexibility: Support for multiple frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte) while maintaining performance
Modern DX: Built-in TypeScript support and excellent developer experience
Content Collections: A powerful way to manage and type-check content

The Migration Process

1. Content Structure

The first challenge was mapping my existing Gridsome content structure to Astro’s content collections. Gridsome uses GraphQL for data management, while Astro provides a more direct approach with content collections.

// Astro content collection schema
const blog = defineCollection({
  schema: ({ image }) =>
    z.object({
      title: z.string(),
      description: z.string(),
      pubDatetime: z.coerce.date(),
      modDatetime: z.coerce.date().optional(),
      heroImage: z.string().optional(),
    }),
});

2. Component Migration

Converting Vue components to Astro components was straightforward for most cases. Astro’s component syntax is similar to Vue’s template syntax, making the transition smooth.

Astro’s file-based routing system is intuitive and similar to Gridsome’s approach. The main difference is in how dynamic routes are handled, but the learning curve was minimal.

Performance Improvements

The most noticeable improvement was in performance metrics:

Lighthouse Score: Improved from 85 to 98
First Contentful Paint: Reduced by 40%
Largest Contentful Paint: Reduced by 35%

Lessons Learned

Plan Your Content Structure: Take time to design your content collections before starting the migration
Test Incrementally: Migrate one section at a time to catch issues early
Leverage Astro’s Features: Use content collections, image optimization, and other built-in features
Performance Monitoring: Keep track of metrics throughout the process

Conclusion

The migration from Gridsome to Astro was a positive experience that resulted in better performance and developer experience. While Gridsome is still a solid choice for Vue.js developers, Astro offers compelling benefits for those looking to optimize performance and explore modern static site generation techniques.

The process reinforced my belief that choosing the right tool for the job is crucial, and sometimes that means being willing to migrate and learn new technologies.