I didn’t know what Astro was.

Today, this blog you’re reading runs on it, and powered by a free theme.

Here’s the story of how I went from “I just want to test this” to “here’s my first open-source project”.

Why I Chose Astro (For Perfect Lighthouse Scores)

I was searching for a good and free Astro template. Almost all of them had something in common: perfect Lighthouse scores — 100/100 for performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.

So I had to see for myself. I runned the starter template just to test it… and before I knew it, I was customizing it and turning into my personal blog portfolio.

Astro makes those scores realistic because of how it’s built:

• Ships minimal JavaScript by default (only loads what’s needed)
• Uses static site generation for speed
• Optimizes assets automatically

Coming from non-technical website builders like WordPress, my first impression was:

• Speed: Pages loaded instantly
• Simplicity: Posts are just Markdown files
• Control: You can customize everything without fighting a bloated theme
• Free: No need to purchase plugins or pay subscriptions

First Time Coding & Deploying Anything

I’d never built and deployed a site from scratch before. This was my crash course in both.

I learned Astro by actually building. It was uncomfortable at first, but within a few days I had a functioning site.

Barely Knew Git (And Survived)

Before this, my Git knowledge was basically:

git add .
git commit -m "update"
git push

That’s it. And honestly?

That was enough to get my first deployment live.

The Tech Stack Behind This Blog

• Astro – Static site generation for speed + SEO
• Tailwind CSS / Starwind UI – Utility-first styling without drowning in CSS files
• Markdown – Each blog post is a simple .md file, making writing frictionless

This stack is simple, modern, and lightweight. Perfect for a portfolio blog without unnecessary complexity.

Deployment with Netlify

I went with Netlify over Vercel for one reason: I wanted to test how smooth their “zero-config” approach really was. And: it worked perfectly.

• Here’s how it went, step-by-step:
• Pushed my Astro project to GitHub
• Logged into Netlify and clicked “New Site from Git”
• Connected my GitHub repo
• Netlify detected Astro and pre-filled the build settings
• Hit Deploy — and 30 seconds later, my blog was live

Free tier perks I love:

• Global CDN for fast load times
• Automatic SSL certificates
• Continuous deployment (push to main = live update)
• Zero server management

How You Can Use This Template

• You can check the demo site

Launch your own version of this Astro blog in under 15 minutes.

1. Clone the repo

git clone [https://github.com/guihubie/free-astro-template]
cd free-astro-template

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Run it locally

npm run dev

4. Start customizing

• Edit the src/content
• Update colors, fonts, and images in the Tailwind config
• Change site metadata in astro.config.mjs

5. Deploy

That easy!

Final Thoughts

Just ship it.

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Want to see how this blog performs? Check out my guide on achieving perfect Lighthouse scores and SEO strategies for 2026. The technical foundation matters for growth.