Astro 3 is what I wished Next 13 was.

With async data as props to React component:

```

const data = await getData();

<ReactComponent data={data} client:load /> ```

Astro Component:

```

const { code } = Astro.props; const highlighter = await shiki.getHighlighter({theme: 'material-theme-palenight'});

const htmlString = highlighter.codeToHtml(codeString, {lang: 'typescript'})

<span set:html={htmlString} /> ```

I've been using Next for 5 years. Next App Router has been a huge headache. And Vercel is not transparent about issues. They would rather suggest putting it into production to get the telemetry and reproducible bugs than to spend time testing and working in beta. Then fill the official documentation with experimental imports that we all know are as broken as the "use" hook was that they tried to pass off as stable before it disappeared.

I was banging my head on trying to get a homepage with multiple paginated sliders to work for way too long with app router. CSR? Nope, can't balance the conflicting suspense boundaries bouncing off one another. Parallel routes? Ha, on a home page? In your RootLayout? Think again. URL rewrites? Not a thing, it's just another word for redirect!

Astro is simple. It does what you tell it to. It has all the same features as Next with none of the cruft. You can opt out of the DSL and write in any framework you please. Keep the react ecosystem or your favorite UI library. Share state between frameworks. It doesn't trap you into opinionation or death by file naming conventions. You run build and it spits out optimized JS and HTML. I feel like I can have fun and build stuff again instead of obsessing over NextJS release notes in the hopes that one day the stupid thing will work.

"But use an old version of Next!" You say. Listen here, bub. Personal projects are a way to work into the future. It determines what I go to work with later. And because Vercel keeps pushing the boundaries of what is and isn't stable on current recommended releases without proper transparency, I don't trust them in the real world.