Astro vs Next.js Performance
Where each framework wins, measured, not benchmarked.
Website platform comparison
Website Platform Comparison: Which One Fits Your Site?
Side-by-side comparisons of WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify, Astro, and Next.js, judged on ownership, performance, and upkeep by a team that maintains and migrates every one of them.
Which Website Platform Should You Choose?
Choose by who will run the site and what you need to own. Wix and Squarespace suit simple sites run by their owner, WordPress suits content-heavy sites that want ownership and can fund upkeep, Webflow suits design-led marketing sites with someone to operate them, Shopify suits stores, and Astro or Next.js suit mostly static sites where speed is the problem. The decision comes down to ownership, performance ceiling, and maintenance burden.
How do you choose a website platform?
Start from what you need, not from a feature list. Each card names the platform that usually fits that situation and the comparison that tests it.
A simple site you run yourself
Wix or Squarespace
Hosted builders trade control for ease, which suits an owner-operated site that rarely changes.
A content-heavy site with several editors
WordPress
It keeps its edge for multiple non-technical editors and plugin-solved features, and you own the result.
A design-led marketing site
Webflow
Polished output, with CMS limits at scale and a team or partner needed to operate it.
An online store
Shopify, or WooCommerce on WordPress
The line is between a store section on a site builder and a store business, and between a platform that runs for you and one you run.
Mostly static content where speed and AI search visibility matter
Astro or Next.js
They pull ahead once content is mostly static and Core Web Vitals is the active problem.
A workflow that is really an application
A custom application
When the requirement is not a content site, a plugin stack is the wrong tool.
What can you take with you if you leave a website platform?
Ownership is the question platform pages rarely answer plainly. This is what each vendor's own documentation says you can and cannot take with you. Checked 10 October 2026; vendors change these policies, so verify before you commit.
WordPress (self-hosted)
You can take
Posts, pages, comments, menus, and users as an XML export file, or the whole site by full backup, onto any host that runs WordPress.
Stays behind
Nothing is locked in, but backups and updates are your job, or your provider's.
WordPress Documentation: Tools Export screen (last updated 8 June 2024)
WordPress support manual: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (updated 2014)
Wix
You can take
Nothing that runs elsewhere.
Stays behind
The site cannot run elsewhere: it must be hosted and operated on Wix's servers.
Wix Help Center: Exporting or embedding your Wix site elsewhere
Squarespace
You can take
Pages, one blog with its posts, and text and image blocks, as an XML file for WordPress import.
Stays behind
Store pages, product and video blocks, drafts, style settings, and custom CSS.
Squarespace Help: Export your site content (updated 9 October 2026)
Webflow
You can take
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and assets, on paid Workspace plans.
Stays behind
CMS content, ecommerce content, user accounts, and code components.
Shopify
You can take
Products, customers, and orders, each as a CSV file.
Stays behind
Customer export files are capped at 15 MB, order exports carry captured payments only, and Total Spent and Total Orders are not imported back.
Shopify Help Center: Exporting products
Exporting customers
Exporting orders
Astro and Next.js
You can take
The full code. Astro builds static files for any static host or runs with an adapter; Next.js runs on Node.js, Docker, or as a static export.
Stays behind
A Next.js static export does not support features that need a server.
Next.js docs: Deploying (v16.4.0) (Next.js page last updated 6 August 2026)
Astro docs: Deploy your Astro site
Which three questions decide the choice?
Ownership, performance ceiling, and maintenance burden decide most platform choices, and they are what every comparison on this site measures.
Ownership
Who controls the content, the code, and the way out. Hosted builders keep more of that than WordPress or a framework does.
Performance ceiling
How fast the site can get, and how much of that is yours to fix rather than the platform vendor's.
Maintenance burden
Updates, security, and edits. WordPress prices its power in upkeep; hosted builders price their ease in ceilings.
Why our comparisons have no thumb on the scale
We build, maintain, and migrate every platform compared here. There is no platform we would rather sell you, because we sell the same engineering discipline regardless of which one you run. That is the credential these pages lean on.
Which Platform Comparison Matches Your Decision?
Squarespace vs Shopify for E-Commerce
The line between a store section and a store business.
Wix vs WordPress vs Webflow
Ownership, ceilings, and exit difficulty, side by side.
WordPress vs Astro/Next.js
When WordPress still wins, when a modern framework wins, and the real migration cost.
Shopify vs WooCommerce
Who carries hosting, updates, and security, and what leaves with you.
Webflow vs WordPress
Ownership, upkeep, extensibility, and what an export leaves behind.
Wix vs Shopify
Hosting lock-in, product export limits, and when a store should move.
Squarespace vs WordPress
Custom code, upkeep, and what a Squarespace export carries.
Going deeper
Comparison questions
Do these comparisons ever pick a winner?
Rarely outright. Most comparisons here end in a decision framework, not a verdict, because the right platform depends on the team and content, not a feature checklist.
Which website platform is best for a small business?
It depends on who will run the site. A simple site run by its owner fits Wix or Squarespace; one with several editors or a need to own the result fits WordPress; a store fits Shopify or WooCommerce. The platform matters less than whether someone is accountable for keeping it fast and updated.
How do I choose between a website builder and WordPress?
Choose a builder when you want ease and will accept its ceilings, and WordPress when you want ownership and can fund maintenance. WordPress power is priced in upkeep, and a builder's ease is priced in limits, so pick the cost you can actually carry.
Which platforms do you compare?
WordPress, Astro, Next.js, Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, and Shopify, in the pairings and groupings that come up most often as real decisions, not every possible combination.
What if my exact comparison is not listed?
A Strategy Hour covers a comparison this list does not, with a senior engineer working through your specific requirements instead of a general framework.
Platform comparisons
Not Sure Which Platform Fits? Start With an Audit.
If the comparisons above still leave your platform choice unclear, the audit tells you what is actually wrong with your current one.