At a glance
| Feature | vagejs | Astro | Hugo | Next.js | WordPress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | MIT | Apache-2.0 | MIT | GPLv2 or later |
| You write templates in | TypeScript functions | .astro components |
Go templates | React (JSX) | PHP themes and blocks |
| Output | Static files | Static by default; on-demand with an adapter | Static files | Server, or static export | Pages rendered by a PHP server |
| JavaScript sent to visitors | None by default | None by default (islands opt in) | Depends on the theme | React, to hydrate client components | Depends on theme and plugins |
| Editing | Markdown files | Markdown, MDX and more | Markdown and more | MDX with a plugin | Built-in admin editor |
| Sitemap | Built in | Official integration | Built in | Built-in file convention | Built in since 5.5 |
| robots.txt | Built in, with AI crawler settings | You write or generate it | Built in, off by default | Built-in file convention | Built in |
| llms.txt for your site | Built in | Community integrations | Possible with a custom output format | Not built in | Plugins (for example Yoast SEO) |
| Checks before publishing | Built in (vage check) |
Not built in | Not built in | Not built in | Not built in |
| Hosting | Any static host | Any static host; a server for on-demand pages | Any static host | Node.js server, or static host for export | PHP and MySQL/MariaDB server |
When vagejs is a good fit
- A content site (company site, docs, blog, landing pages) where most pages are text and images.
- You build with an AI coding assistant and want it to follow the rules instead of guessing.
- You want SEO basics,
llms.txtand pre-publish checks without adding plugins. - You want plain files you can host anywhere, with no server or database to maintain.
When to choose something else
- Astro if you need interactive components from React, Vue or Svelte on some pages, or the large integration ecosystem. Astro also ships no JavaScript by default.
- Hugo if you have thousands of pages and build speed matters most, or you already know Go templates.
- Next.js if your site is really an app: logins, dashboards, server-side data on every request.
- WordPress if non-technical editors need a visual admin screen, or you rely on its plugin ecosystem.
AI coding assistants
All of these tools can be built with an AI assistant. The difference is what the assistant gets to work with:
- vagejs ships
AGENTS.mdin every new project, describes itself as data (vage info --json) and returns JSON check results that name the file to fix. - Next.js has extensive AI guidance, including
AGENTS.mdin new projects, docs bundled with the package and an MCP endpoint in its dev server. - Astro offers an official MCP server for its documentation.
- WordPress has an official MCP Adapter plugin that lets AI agents use a site's features.
Sources
Facts come from each project's documentation: Astro, Hugo, Next.js, WordPress. Tools change quickly. If something here is out of date, open an issue and we'll fix it.