My thoughts on Astro joining Cloudflare

Hey, what's up? My name is Chris and welcome to Coding and Public. Okay, it's time to do the thing. Let's talk about Astro Technology Company joining Cloudflare. Okay, so I've had a couple people ask me what I think about this and honestly, I don't know. Um, I think like a lot of us, anytime a huge company gets involved, we're a little unsure about what's going on. So, this is kind of a version of Chris Reed's things where we'll walk through this blog post and I'll give a few of my thoughts along the way. As a whole, I trust the people at Astro and I don't think they would have done this if they didn't think it was a sustainable future for the exact kind of project they've labor labored for for such a long time, which is truly open source, which doesn't have kind of the greedy fingers of a company inside. But time will tell, right? So, that's my quick take. Now, let's actually walk through the post. Okay. The Astro Technology Company joins Cloudflare. This is by Fred Scott, one of the uh like maintainers and the creators of of Astro. All right. All right, the Astro Technology Company, the company behind Astro Web framework, is joining Cloudflare. Adoption of the uh the Astro Web continues to double every year. Astro 6 is right around the corner, which I'm assuming is going to be very soon here. With Cloudflare support, we have more resources and fewer distractions to continue our mission to build the best framework for contentdriven websites. Okay, so sounds good on the front of it. And again, I don't think I'm like massively skeptical. I think I just, you know, we'll see. Uh you don't know till you know. And uh so I like the way they're talking but the proof will be in the doing. Astro stays open source and MIT license. They continue to be active maintained. Astro continues to support a wide set of deployment targets not just cloudflare which I think is important to say. Astro's own uh open governance and continue current roadmap remain in place which is super important. Um and then all full-time employees of which I think there are only a few like four uh join cloudflare. everyone else continues to work on Cloudflare or on Astro as like um uh donating their time and being reimbursed by the the sponsorships. Um donating might be a little strong. There are several people who do this full-time that are maintained by the sponsorships and that's actually one of the things I want to talk about. All right, but as as how Astro got started in 2021, Astra was born out of frustration. I get that the trend at the time was very very much that every website should be architected as an application and then shipped to the user's browser to render. This was not very performant. We spent the last decade coming up with more and more complex solutions to solve for that performance problem. Serverside rendered, ISR, RSC, PPR, TTI, lots of acronyms, optimizations, via code splitting, tree shaking, lazy loading, all to generate a blocking double data hydration payload from a pre-warmed server running halfway around the world. So, what if we just went back to HTML? And that's the promise of Astro. Our mission to design a web framework specifically for building websites, what we call contentdriven websites to better distinguish from datadriven stateful web applications resonated. Astron now is downloaded uh almost a million times per week and it's been used by hundreds of thousands of developers to build fast beautiful websites. Today you'll find Astro all over the web power powering major websites and even developer platforms for companies like web flow, Wix, Microsoft and Google. It really truly is used that globally. Um, so I'm super proud of what Astro's done so far and it's been so cool to be here from the very beginning in the journey. So along the way they tried to start a business 2021. They raised some money. They formed the Astro technology company. Cloudflare was an original um kind of sponsor in that seed round. Um, but it seems like they're trying to find a way to like fund this open source project. And I know we all love open source, but the truth is in order to get the best people working on it, you have to be able to pay them. That's just how life works. So our larger vision was that a well-designed framework like Astro could sit at the center of a massive developer platform with optional hosted primitives, database, storage, analytics designed in lock step with the framework. We were never able to realize this vision. Um I think they uh they mentioned AsterDB, but back at that in a second. So attempts to introduce paid hosted primitives into our ecosystem fell flat and rarely justified their own existence. And I think I appreciate this about Astro. Like this can sound like, oh, you know, we tried but it didn't really work out. But I think they've been really really sensitive to a lot of the BS that goes on in the web development world. Um, and they truly wanted to be a point open source. They truly wanted to be communitydriven and not like just snake oil for selling something. So we considered going more directly after first class hosting or content management for Astro, but knew we'd spend much of our time playing catch-up to wellunded savvy compet uh competitors. Plus, like the whole idea of Astro being this like ecosystem that can connect to any way you like to write code. Um, whatever CMS you like, whatever database solution, like that's what makes Astro the Switzerland of the web, as I've said before, like that special little spot it sits in really opens up Astro to be what we all want out of a web framework to to be able to like give us maximum flexibility and tie-ins to whatever system we want. And once they had that in place, it kind of feels like cutting its legs out to say like actually now we have a, you know, a first class CMS and we have a first class database and we have a first class whatever and anything else you use is going to be, you know, should be diminished if they want to keep making money. So I actually appreciate that about Astro. So we kept exploring different ideas. Nothing clicked with the users the same way Astro did. It wasn't all bad. Astro DBR attempt to build a hosted database product for Astro projects eventually evolved into the open built-in Astro database client that still lives in our core today. Now, this was something they actually tried to do is have this Astro DB and then have Astra Studio, which is this hosted thing that was basically by Terso under the hood, but it was a paid product by Aster that never really came to light. There was a beta or something and I was in on that. Um, but it was very minimal and they kept saying, "Oh, we're going to get around to building this out more." But with only a few full-time people, you can imagine that's just difficult to do when you're still trying to, you know, not catch up, but, you know, add in a lot of the stuff that people expect out of a web framework. So that really never came around. And then they dropped support for Astra Studio and a lot of people thought they dropped support for Astro DB, which wasn't the case. You still have this nice database architecture, but you can just host it wherever you want. And that's what they kind of tried and and failed at. But again, I think that kind of undercut their core mission of being this like tie into whatever you like to do. And that's what makes me like Astro so much. Anyhow, all right, back to reading to you. Our exploration into building an e-commerce layer with Aster was eventually open sourced. It was a rewarding work, but over the years, the distraction took its toll. Each attempt at a new paid product or offering took myself and others on the project away from working on the Astro framework that developers were using and loving every day. So, the core idea here is to return to focus. And honestly, let's be real, to fund this thing, right? That's what they've been looking for. Can we find a way to fund it? Returning to focus. Last year, Dne uh Cloudflare CTO and I begin to talk more seriously about the future of the web. Those conversations quickly grew into something bigger. What does the next decade look like? How do frameworks adapt to a world of AI coding and agents? Became clear that even as web technologies evolve, content remains at the center. We've realized that we've each been working to toward the same vision from different angles. Cloudflare has been solving it from the infrastructure side, betting on a platform that's global by default with fast startup, low latency, and security built in. Astro has been solving it from the framework side, betting on a web framework that makes it easy to build sites that are fast by default without over complicating things. And I love the fact that there's like this progressive complexity with Astro. It really is just like an HTML page builder if you want, but if you want, you can have, you know, stuff streaming in from the server for components and hydration coming in for certain islands. And you've got a whole like solution for um actions, server actions, and obviously you can do your own dynamic web endpoints. You can have dynamic routing for stuff. It can be super complex if you need it to. You've got middleware. You've got a database solution. You now have fonts and images. And all this stuff is baked in, but it starts easy and you don't need any of that to get started with. It works out of the box. Zero JavaScript by default. That is a great default starting point, especially in an age where we're already burning up enough in this world with all the AI stuff we're doing. So, it's nice to not have that many server costs for just simple content sites. All right, the overlap is obvious, but by working together, Cloudflare gives us the backing we need to keep innovating for our users. Now we can stop sending cycles uh wor spending cycles worrying about building a business on top of Astro and start focusing 100% on the code with a shared vision to move the web forward. All right, Cloudflare and Astro has been a longtime sponsor and champion of Astro. Like I said, they were one of the original like seed round funders of that Astro technology company and they have proven track record of supporting great open source projects like Astro, Tanstack, Hano without trying to capture or lock anything down and that is true. uh whatever you think of Cloudflare. Um that is in many ways what they're known for when it comes to acquisitions. They seem to kind of keep their hands out of stuff and just pick winners and that's one thing I've always appreciated about Cloudflare. But they are massive. They are such a huge company as we can tell when the web shuts down because of them. It has a huge impact that shows the the size of their reach. So staying open uh to all was a non-negotiable requirement for both us and for Cloudflare. This is why Astra will remain free open source and MIT license. We will continue to run our project in the open with an open governance model for contributors and an open community roadmap that anyone can participate in. We remain fully committed to maintaining Astro as a platform agnostic framework, meaning we will continue to support improved deployments for all targets, not just Cloudflare. Now, for the most part, this has always been the case. They've had lots of different deployment targets. They did pull their official support for their Dino like uh whatever it's called um framework support, deployment, whatever. Um, now that was mostly down to there not being a lot of uses of people using it and they just didn't have the development time. So maybe that comes back although I seriously doubt it but who knows. All right, with Cloudflare support and resources, we can now return our focus fully. All right, etc. Stay tuned. Thanks to everyone. Um, cool. And their initial investors as well. All right, so that's a lot. Um, I think there is one question which is what about the people who aren't like the four or five full-time employees? Well, let's talk about that because they actually did another post. In fact, if I scroll up here supporting the future of Astro and I think this is basically in reaction to people asking that question, you can see the date. I don't know this for sure because I wasn't that tuned into the like the discourse online about this, but the question is like how it's uh funded, right? So, they wanted to raise some funnies uh funnies some monies at the very beginning of 2021 to support this and they wanted a company aligned with Astra's vision and then an open source model for sponsors and partners. And this has been a huge success. I've contributed a lot um to Astra as well over the years. To date, they've been able to disperse more than $500,000 and open source sponsorships to Astra's maintainers and community. This includes the people like those who work on the docs, which I think are second to none, and it's because of this kind of communitydriven feel and effort. This open governance is kind of unique in the web development space especially. So, they basically say, "Hey, how you can help us keep sponsoring us? uh give to the open collective, GitHub sponsors, our partnerships page, and if you keep doing this, then we keep sponsoring all these other people. Now, it is true that they give out awards every year to just community members and give them cash bonuses for their participation. There's super active people in Discord. There's those who run and maintain all the docs that get paid out of this as well, which again, I think are second to none. And it's actually what makes Astro special. I don't think it's the framework itself alone. Without the docs, it's nothing. Like documentation is the product. And so personally, like when I pull all this together, this is them basically saying, "Hey, don't stop supporting us." There's lots of little thoughts I have. All right, in no particular order, um, and just let me kind of blab for a second here if you don't mind. I think Cloudflare having its hands in here on the one hand gives me a lot of confidence. Cloudflare has always kind of had this thing with Verscell as of late. Verscel is NextJS. Now Cloudflare finally has something to really compete. And so for me, I think Cloudflare isn't this isn't just a flash in the plan for cloud pay for Cloudflare. They really want to get behind Astro because it allows them to really go toe-to-toe in the front-end space. And I think Astro is that special. I think it really can go toe-to-toe uh with Nex.js. There's a lot of complexity in NextGS. They seem to struggle to pick a road map and stick with it for any length of time. Every time I've worked with NexJS, which I do a lot now these days uh on my side projects, I just find that like the complexity required to really get the most out of Nex.js JS um allows you to build some really cool stuff, but like the road map is difficult. Um and then when they change it, like next 14 does this caching thing, next 15 tries to change it, next 16 finally seems to get what everyone wanted in the first place, there's this kind of seessawing as they try to respond to all the various people who are using um their platform. Astro, I've literally yellow updated sites that were three years old and they just work. Now, those are very basic sites. I will grant you that. But even more complex sites, the migration process is so simple because there seems to be a real thoughtfulness in the way Astro develops. Now, of course, they sit in a spot in history where they're able to like make those um choices, seeing what everyone else is doing. They look at spellkit, they look at this, and they look at that, they look at what Next.js has done, and then they choose something and stick with it. But there's very rarely times where they just pull the rug out from under their users. In fact, I can't really think of any. I think probably the next real one will be this Astro 6 where they kind of remove some of the legacy support for the older version of content collections, but that's really the first time I've seen that and they've been warning about it for more than a year at this point. So, it's not like this is a sudden and dramatic change. Even when it comes to caching, which I think won't be in uh Astro 6, but probably Astro 7, there's a lot of cool stuff they're doing um that kind of takes in all the learnings we've had across the web e ecosystem and all these web frameworks and tries to pick something that's both opinionated, which I think is important as much as JavaScript developers hate that, but also has a lot of flexibility built in if you want it. So, all that to say, I think Cloudflare buying Astro is important to me because I think they're willing to back somebody so that they can kind of go toe-to-toe in the front end space. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. All right, that's one thought. Second thought, I feel like to regulate Docs and some of these other parts of Astro to just um open source contributions is the wrong move. Like I think this is the time for Cloudflare to say okay if we really think that Astro is going to be our framework then we're going to support all the core components of Astro ourselves to then say to people hey come sponsor us and we'll use that to fund majorly important things like docs and etc. And maybe I've misunderstood that if so please let me know Astro or whomever. But I think that that's that's the wrong message to send even if I think it's sustainable going forward. Um, ultimately what we want is the best and brightest to start building Astro. And I say start like they haven't been, but like I don't mean it that way. What I mean is like the Astro team should be able to go to anyone and say like, "Hey, we can pay you really competitive wages to build like the future of the web." And they should be able to go pick from the best of the best. And thankfully, I think we've had that. I've already mentioned how I think there's like this this really intelligent planning center inside of Astro where they don't just knee-jerk reaction to the web. they're really choosing thoughtful web like first um web primitive first choices and then sticking to them. Um I think we've had that but obviously the numbers have been small and there's others who could join that and really help with the future of Astro that I feel like by excluding other people who weren't part of that the Astro technology company which again I think there were only just a handful to me is like the wrong message. I would love for them to say, "Okay, we're not only going to buy out the four or five of you, we're also going to pay fulltime for docs, we're going to pay fulltime for this and fulltime for that." So, there's like this mix of like we want to keep our community feel, but also Cloudflare is backing us. Um, and that makes me s mostly because of the people involved. These people have made Astro what it is, and I think they should have that backing. So, those are a few thoughts. Ultimately, the proof will be in the doing. And I think as we watch Astro continue to move, if there's anyone I have confidence in to do this right, it's the Astrocore team. And that includes those who are community members and those who are now employees of Cloudflare. I trust these people to do what's right now. Do what's right. And I trust that that will be the case. Uh this open road map, the continued community feel. Uh Astro is something special. And it's been so cool to be a part of it. And anytime you have something special, you don't fear change, you fear loss. And I'm afraid to lose what we've had. But I trust them to do the right thing so that we won't. All right. Well, let's move through this change together. And the best way to stay as a community is to keep talking about this. So, if I got anything wrong today, if I misunderstood something, let me know down below. If you have your own thoughts, let me know as well. But let's be optimistic together about Astro and let's push together to make it a better community um increasingly every day. All right. Thanks so much. I will catch you in the next one. Happy coding.