Why we teach Astro before React

Every few weeks someone writes in to ask why our first code course is Astro and not React. It’s a fair question. React is what most job listings ask for. But our students usually aren’t applying for front-end jobs yet. They want a site of their own, built by hand, that loads fast and doesn’t break.

Start with the page, not the framework

Astro lets you write plain HTML and CSS from the first minute. A component is a file with some markup in it. There is no state to manage, no build tool to learn first, and nothing runs in the browser unless you ask for it.

That matters when you’re learning. Every error you hit is about HTML, CSS or your content, which are the things you actually came to learn.

Components come for free

When a page gets long, you split it into components. When two pages share a header, you reuse it. Those are the same ideas React teaches, minus the runtime. Students who move on to React later tell us the mental model carried over almost untouched.

Shipping is part of the lesson

The last lesson of the course ends with a live URL. Not a local preview, a real address you can send to someone. We think that moment is worth more than any amount of theory, and Astro makes it take minutes instead of an afternoon.

If you want to see the approach before you commit, the first two lessons are free to watch.