Cloudflare buys Astro framework, pledges open future

Cloudflare has acquired The Astro Technology Company, the team behind the Astro web framework, and said the project will remain open source under its stewardship.

Astro is a JavaScript framework used for content-driven websites. The company said brands including Unilever, Visa and NBC News use Astro, alongside hundreds of thousands of developers.

Cloudflare did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Open source

Cloudflare said it plans to keep Astro open source and continue its development. The company positioned the move as part of a wider commitment to open source software.

Astro focuses on limiting the amount of code loaded when a user visits a page. Cloudflare said the framework loads only the most critical code needed to display a page in a browser.

The companies pointed to pressure on publishers, retailers and other sites to improve load times. Cloudflare said search engines prioritise fast-loading pages. It also said consumer expectations have shifted towards near-instant performance.

Astro competes in a crowded market for web development frameworks. It targets organisations that run content-heavy sites and want to reduce page weight. Cloudflare linked those technical choices to outcomes such as search visibility and conversion rates.

Cloudflare links

Cloudflare said Astro already sits within parts of its customer ecosystem. The company said platforms including Webflow and Wix run on Cloudflare and use Astro as part of their stack.

The acquisition also connects a developer-facing framework more closely to Cloudflare's network and developer services. Cloudflare operates services across security, performance and delivery for websites and applications. The company has expanded its developer products in recent years, including tools for deploying web applications and running code at the edge.

Cloudflare said it wants Astro to remain the "definitive framework" for content-driven websites. It also said it would keep the framework available for developers regardless of hosting choice.

Cloudflare gave one update on the product roadmap. It said Astro 6 has entered beta, with collaboration from Cloudflare.

Astro 6

Astro 6 adds support for additional JavaScript runtimes, according to Cloudflare. The company also said the release improves performance and speeds up build times.

Cloudflare also said it will continue to support third-party work on the framework through the Astro Ecosystem Fund. It named industry partners involved in that effort, including Webflow, Netlify, Wix and Sentry.

The fund provides a mechanism for sustaining development work around Astro and related tooling. Open source projects often rely on corporate sponsorship, paid maintainers, and community contributions. Cloudflare's approach keeps Astro's governance and development tied to a single corporate owner while retaining an open source model for the codebase.

Matthew Prince, Co-Founder and CEO, Cloudflare, framed the acquisition in terms of open source and long-term investment.

"Protecting and investing in open source tools is critical to the health of a functioning, free, and open Internet," said Matthew Prince, Co-Founder and CEO, Cloudflare. "By acquiring this talented team and committing to one of the most impactful frameworks when it comes to speed and performance, we're going to ensure Astro continues to be the best web framework for content-driven websites, not only as it is today but for years to come."

Fred Schott, CEO, The Astro Technology Company, said the team would scale development after joining Cloudflare. He also said developers would retain flexibility in where they host sites built with the framework.

"Joining Cloudflare allows us to accelerate Astro's development faster and on a much larger scale," said Fred Schott, CEO of The Astro Technology Company. "Astro will continue to be the best way for developers to build content-driven websites, whether they host on Cloudflare or elsewhere."

Cloudflare said it will keep working with partners involved in the Astro Ecosystem Fund as Astro 6 moves through beta and towards a full release.