12 Best Astro Integrations (Plugins) for Beginners in 2026
Astro calls its plugins integrations. Here are the 12 worth adding first, each installed with one command, plus the ones Astro 7 no longer needs.
By the AstroBeginner team. Reviewed by Anil Thaakran, Head of Business DevelopmentPublished 9 minute readComplete beginner
Tested on Astro 7.4
In this guide
If you’re coming from WordPress, you’re looking for plugins. Astro has them. It calls them integrations. Same idea: you add one, and your site gets a new power.
The official directory at astro.build/integrations lists thousands. Most beginners need two or three. Here are the twelve worth knowing, in the order you’re likely to need them.
How to add any integration
One command. Swap the name at the end:
npx astro add sitemapAstro installs it, shows you what it will change in astro.config.mjs, and asks you to say yes. Our step-by-step guide has screenshots of each prompt.
The essentials
1. Sitemap
What it does: Makes a list of every page on your site for Google. Without one, Google has to find your pages by following links.
npx astro add sitemapIt needs your site’s address in astro.config.mjs as site: 'https://yoursite.com'. Forget that and the build warns you and skips the sitemap. About 18 million downloads a week. Full guide.
2. MDX
What it does: Lets you put components, like a chart or a callout box, inside a Markdown post. Every guide on this site is MDX.
npx astro add mdxYou only need it if you want components in your posts. Plain Markdown works without it. About 14 million downloads a week.
3. RSS
What it does: Gives your blog a feed, so readers can follow it in a feed reader and services can pick up new posts.
npm install @astrojs/rssThis one isn’t added with astro add. You make a small file at src/pages/rss.xml.js. Astro’s docs show the twelve lines.
Making things look good
4. Tailwind CSS (not an integration any more)
What it does: Lets you style pages with short class names instead of writing CSS files.
npx astro add tailwindHere’s the thing most lists get wrong. In Astro 7, Tailwind isn’t an integration. It plugs straight into Vite, the tool Astro builds with. astro add tailwind still works, and when we ran it, it installed @tailwindcss/vite and added it under vite in your config. The old @astrojs/tailwind package still shows 1.6 million weekly downloads, nearly all from older projects. Don’t install it on a new site. Full guide.
5. Astro Icon
What it does: Gives you an <Icon> component that can show icons from big free icon sets, or your own SVG files. Only the icons you use end up in your site.
npx astro add astro-iconAbout 1.1 million downloads a week. Made by the community, not the Astro team.
6. Expressive Code
What it does: Makes code blocks look great, with a copy button, file names, highlighted lines, and terminal frames. Starlight uses it.
npx astro add astro-expressive-codeAbout 7.3 million downloads a week, mostly through Starlight.
Adding interactive parts
7. React (or Vue, Svelte, Solid, Preact)
What it does: Lets you use components from those frameworks as islands on an Astro page. You only need it for parts that react to clicks and typing.
npx astro add reactSwap react for vue, svelte, solid-js or preact. About 11 million weekly downloads for React. Read do you need React with Astro? first. Often a small script tag is enough. How to add React.
8. Partytown
What it does: Moves heavy third-party scripts, like analytics or chat widgets, off the main part of the browser, so your page stays fast.
npx astro add partytownThen add type="text/partytown" to the script tags you want it to handle. Only worth it if a script is slowing you down. See why is my Astro site slow?.
Putting your site online
9. A host adapter
What it does: Lets your site run code on the server for some pages, like a form handler or a page that changes per visitor. A fully static site doesn’t need one.
npx astro add cloudflareSwap cloudflare for netlify, vercel or node. The Cloudflare adapter has about 5.6 million weekly downloads. If you’re not sure, you don’t need one yet. What is an adapter?
Bigger jobs
10. Starlight
What it does: Turns Astro into a complete documentation site, with a sidebar, search, dark mode and support for many languages. It’s both an integration and a theme.
npm create astro@latest -- --template starlightAbout 7.1 million downloads a week. We built a test site with it. What is Starlight? shows what you get, with screenshots.
11. Sentry
What it does: Tells you when something breaks on your live site, with the error and which page it happened on.
npx astro add @sentry/astroFree for small sites. Only useful once your site runs code, with forms or server pages. A plain static site rarely breaks this way.
12. A content loader for your CMS
What it does: Pulls posts from a CMS, like Storyblok, Contentful or WordPress, into Astro’s content collections, so you write in the CMS and Astro builds the pages.
Each CMS has its own. Search the Content Loaders category on astro.build for yours. Using EmDash? It’s built on Astro, so you don’t need a loader at all. Best CMS for Astro compares the options.
What you don’t need an integration for
Things WordPress users expect a plugin for, that Astro does on its own:
| You want | In Astro |
|---|---|
| Image resizing | Built in. Use the <Image> component. Guide. |
| Page transitions | Built in. Guide. |
| Fonts | Built in with Astro’s fonts option, or a Fontsource package. Guide. |
| Security, caching, backups | Not needed. A static site has no database to attack or back up. Why. |
| SEO meta tags | A few lines in your layout. Our SEO guide. |
| Search | Pagefind, which runs after the build. |
How to judge an integration you find yourself
Before you add one from the directory, check three things on its page:
- Official, or popular. The Official label means the Astro team keeps it working. Otherwise, look for tens of thousands of weekly downloads.
- Recently updated. Click through to its GitHub page. An update in the last few months is a good sign. Two years ago is a warning.
- Works with Astro 7. Its page on npm lists
astrounder “peer dependencies”. Look for^7in the list. If it only says 4 or 5, it may not work.
Where to go next
- How to add an integration, step by step.
- Best free Astro themes, the other kind of add-on.
- What is Starlight?, the biggest integration Astro makes.
Frequently asked questions
Does Astro have plugins?
Yes, but Astro calls them integrations. They do the same job as WordPress plugins, adding a feature to your site. You add one with npx astro add and its name.
Where is the full list?
At astro.build/integrations. It lists thousands, sorted by how many people download each one every week. The official ones, made by the Astro team, have an Official label.
Do I still need the Tailwind integration?
No. In Astro 7, Tailwind plugs straight into Vite, the tool Astro builds with. Running npx astro add tailwind sets that up for you. The old @astrojs/tailwind package is for older projects.
How many integrations should I add?
Only the ones you need today. Each one is a little more to keep up to date. Most beginner sites need two or three.
Stuck on a step?
Check the common errors guide, look up a word in the glossary, or ask the friendly people in the official Astro and EmDash Discords. How to ask so people can help.