Migrating Quevin.com to Astro: A Journey to Markdown-Based Content
Why Migrate to Astro?
After running quevin.com on React + Vite for several months, I realized I was making my life harder than it needed to be. Every content update required editing JSX, rebuilding, and deploying. For a portfolio site that changes infrequently, this was overkill.
The Problem with React for Content Sites
Don’t get me wrong—React is fantastic for interactive applications. But for a primarily static site with occasional blog posts and portfolio updates, I was paying a performance tax for features I didn’t need:
- Unnecessary JavaScript - React loaded on every page, even though most pages were static
- Complex content updates - Editing content meant editing components, not just writing
- Slower builds - Client-side rendering added complexity
Enter Astro
Astro’s philosophy resonated with me: ship less JavaScript, keep your favorite frameworks when you need them.
Key Benefits
- Markdown-based content - Blog posts are just markdown files
- React islands - Keep interactive components (contact form, skills chart) in React
- Static-first - Pre-render everything, hydrate only what needs interactivity
- Cloudflare Pages - Simpler than Workers, same great CDN performance
Migration Highlights
The migration is a multi-phase approach:
- Created content collections for blog posts and pages
- Converting static components from React to Astro
- Preserving React islands for contact form and skills visualization
- Setting up date-based blog routing (
/blog/YYYY-MM-DD-subject) - Migrating from Cloudflare Workers to Pages
Expected Results
Based on benchmarks, I’m targeting:
- Lighthouse score: 100 across all metrics
- Page load time: 40% reduction
- Content updates: Simple markdown edits
- Developer experience: Significantly improved
What’s Next?
Now that the foundation is solid, I’m planning:
- Regular blog posts on technology leadership
- Case studies from digital transformation projects
- Open-source contributions documentation
Stay tuned!
Have questions about Astro migrations? Let’s connect.
About the Author
Kevin P. Davison has over 20 years of experience building websites and figuring out how to make large-scale web projects actually work. He writes about technology, AI, leadership lessons learned the hard way, and whatever else catches his attention—travel stories, weekend adventures in the Pacific Northwest like snorkeling in Puget Sound, or the occasional rabbit hole he couldn't resist.