Next.js vs Astro for a converted Framer site

Choose Next.js if the site will grow into an app or you want the widest hosting choice, including platforms that run Next.js with no setup. Choose Astro if the site will stay mostly content, you want every page prerendered to HTML at build time, or your team already works in Astro. When you convert a Framer site with Deframer, both exports contain the same React views, components, styles, CMS JSON and forms; what differs is routing, rendering and the server around them.

Deframer is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Framer. It gives you the code of sites you own or have permission to download.

The short comparison

How each one renders a Framer page

A Framer page is one tree: its breakpoints, scroll effects and interactions depend on each other. Both exports respect that and render the whole page as React. The difference is the frame around it.

Next.js treats each URL as an App Router route. The route file is a few lines that render a view from src/views, inside the layout template. Next.js handles server rendering, prerendering and client navigation.

Astro writes one index.astro per URL and places the page in a single React island beside it. astro build prerenders every page, CMS items included, so each is a finished HTML document. When a visitor clicks a link, Astro's router loads the next page and keeps the island, so the shared navigation stays mounted with its state.

For visitors, both feel like the original site. For developers, the question is which frame you want to build in.

When does Next.js win?

• You'll add app features. Accounts, dashboards, payments and per-request data are first-class in Next.js through route handlers, server components and server actions. See adding a backend to a Framer site.
• You want zero-config hosting. Vercel and Netlify detect and build Next.js automatically. Moving a Framer domain to Vercel walks through it.
• Your developers already use it. Next.js is the most common React framework, so hiring and AI coding tools both know it well.
• You want Framer's split tests served as before. The Next.js export keeps each variant and lets src/proxy.ts pick one per visitor.

When does Astro win?

• The site is content, and will stay content. Every page is prerendered, so serving the site is mostly serving files.
• You want to add Markdown or MDX pages with Astro's content tools beside the converted pages.
• Your team builds other sites in Astro and wants one stack.
• You like a small server you can read. Astro's server.ts applies redirects, serves the prerendered pages and runs Astro's Node handler for form routes, and that's it.

What about performance?

Both start from the same components, styles and assets, so the biggest performance levers are the same: images, fonts and third-party scripts. Astro's prerendering means every page is ready as HTML; Next.js prerenders routes too, and CMS detail pages are prerendered for every item. Neither is automatically faster for a converted Framer page, because the page hydrates as React in both. Measure your own site: comparing PageSpeed before and after converting shows how, and performance tuning a converted site covers the fixes.

Hosting and cost

Next.js has more managed hosts that run it with no configuration, including generous free tiers on some platforms. The Astro export runs its own Node.js server, so it fits any Node host or container: Render, Railway, Fly.io or a VPS. If you want no server at all, neither is the right pick; the static Vite export is.

Day-to-day editing in each

Most edits after a move are the same in both exports, because they happen in shared folders:

The only edits that feel different are routing and metadata. If your team writes new pages often, pick the framework whose routing it already knows.

Can I try both?

Yes. Converting is free, so convert the site twice, once per framework, and compare the code and the result before downloading. Downloading each project uses a credit (1 with verification), or nothing with the lifetime deal for verified sites. Since views, components and CMS files are identical, edits you make in one can be copied to the other.

Guides for each: export to Next.js and convert to Astro. For all five targets side by side, see which framework should your Framer site use?.