WordPress to Astro: a content site without a database on the request path.

What transfers from WordPress to Astro, and what does not?

Your posts, pages, categories, tags, authors, featured images and original dates transfer because a WXR export carries them. Your plugins do not. Neither do your theme or admin screens. Your export can also hold comments and custom fields, but it holds no site options and none of the attachment files themselves, so you collect your media separately. In Astro, your content lands in collections that load Markdown, MDX, Markdoc, YAML, TOML or JSON files at build time. Your admin stays behind.

Your custom post types become collections with a schema you define. That part is direct. But your Elementor pages export as JSON in Elementor's format, so you rebuild their layout as components rather than convert it. Your comments need a hosted service, your forms need an endpoint, and your SEO plugin fields need a home in frontmatter. If your domain changes, expect your media URLs to break, a problem WordPress core's own Trac lists under Export.

How do you plan the URL map and redirects so your search traffic survives?

You plan it by listing every public URL your site serves and mapping each one to its new address before you write Astro code. Start with the map. Your SEO plugin sitemap lists posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies and last modified dates, so you can use it as your first pass. And if you keep every slug, your redirect table holds only the exceptions.

Then you choose how your redirects are served. Astro's redirects config maps a route to a destination and accepts dynamic routes like /blog/[...slug]. With a server adapter, or a static adapter in static output, you get real 301 and 308 codes. Without an adapter, you get a meta refresh tag with no status code (a weak signal), and Google recommends a permanent server-side redirect.

Your trailing slashes need care: Astro says redirects cannot cover them yet, so you test them on your host. Do not guess. Avoid chains, check that your canonicals use new URLs, and keep your redirects for at least a year. A redirect you retire early is traffic you hand away.

How is content moved from WordPress: export, API or crawl?

You move it with an export for structure and the REST API for incremental pulls. Crawl only what neither holds. Your WXR file, from wp export or a plugin, carries posts, terms, comments, authors and attachment records. But it lacks the attachment files, so you fetch your media separately, or you use a plugin that bundles .wxrz or .zip files.

Your REST API serves posts, pages and media as JSON at /wp/v2/posts, /wp/v2/pages and /wp/v2/media. Page through your media. The per_page default is 10, and modified_after catches what changed since you last pulled. If your pages are Elementor builds, you export their JSON; if you want files, one plugin writes each post as .html.

Before you write code, check what you pulled against a list of every published item, term, author and original URL. Find the gaps first. And if you find gaps you cannot explain, you stop and fix them before you build, because a gap you carry forward only gets harder to trace.

What do your editors get on Astro compared with WordPress?

Your editors lose the WordPress admin and its plugins, and they gain preview deployments and a site with nothing for you to patch. That trade is real. If you keep content in Markdown, your editors publish by editing a file, committing to Git and triggering a build. One source calls local previews a hard barrier for non-technical editors, so you should test that with your own team (they will tell you quickly).

You can pair Astro with a headless CMS so your editors fill in fields instead of files. With Sanity's Visual Editing, your editors click an element in a preview and jump to the matching field in Studio, and its documentation lists Astro as supported. But you then run a second system that holds your content. You manage its logins too.

You also give up the visual editing canvas WordPress offers, so you pay a developer when your layouts change.

How long does a WordPress to Astro migration take, and what drives the effort?

Your timeline depends on five drivers you can count today: your URL count, your content types, your media, your integrations and your locales. Count them first. No universal number exists, so distrust any quote that skips them. One published case reports a 22-day migration, though your site may be larger or simpler than that one.

Each driver adds work you can see in advance. More URLs mean a longer redirect table and more parity checks. More content types mean more schemas to define. Your media needs fetching and re-hosting, while your forms, comments and analytics each need a replacement service. And every locale multiplies your hreflang and sitemap checks.

I plan and run moves like this one, and I size them by these drivers. Run the free assessment first. You will see your script weight, headers and structured data before you commit (numbers beat opinions).

When should you not move from WordPress to Astro?

You should not move if your site needs logins, personalization or heavy interactivity, because that is an application and you want Next.js with a headless CMS such as Sanity or Contentful instead. Stay put, too, if many editors work in your site daily and depend on the visual admin and its plugins. Their daily habits are part of your cost.

Staying is a sound choice when your pages already perform well, your editors publish without friction, and you have someone who applies plugin updates and patches. A move costs your team time. It also puts your search traffic at risk for gains you may not need. Move when your site is mostly static, your editing does not need a CMS, and your hosting and patching bills outweigh your use of the admin.

Your assessment score is the quickest test: if you land in good standing, you may have little reason to move.

Questions, answered.

Your next read.

1. 01WordPress alternativesStay, go headless or move: judged by your pages.
2. 02WordPress to Next.jsHeadless WordPress first, or content into Sanity.
3. 03Astro SEO checkIslands, content collections, schema, vitals.