Starlight

Starlight is the documentation framework built on Astro: sidebars, search with Pagefind, translated interface strings and accessible defaults, with almost no JavaScript per page. The guides below cover running it in production — overriding components instead of forking the theme, adding languages, and how its build times and page weight compare with Docusaurus and VitePress on the same 2,000-page corpus.

Two of them are migrations into Starlight, from MkDocs and from Docusaurus, with the conversion scripts, redirect maps and measured results.

Most teams arrive at the second step from one of the two migrations covered here.

Choosing the Right Static Site Generator for Production

Comparing Docs Framework Build TimesComparisonBenchmark Docusaurus, Starlight and VitePress on the same 2,000-page docs corpus: cold and warm builds, memory, output size and what drives each number.
Docusaurus vs Starlight for Product DocumentationComparisonA head-to-head port of a 640-page SaaS docs site to Docusaurus and Starlight: build time, JavaScript shipped, field INP, authoring friction and upgrade cost.
MDX vs Markdoc for Docs ContentComparisonChoose between MDX and Markdoc for documentation components: authoring errors, validation, build speed and safety for contributor-heavy docs repos.
VitePress vs Starlight for Vue and Astro TeamsComparisonVitePress and Starlight compared on the same 500-page docs set: build time, page weight, search, i18n, customisation and which team each one suits.
Total Cost of Ownership for Static Site GeneratorsConceptEstimate the three-year cost of running a static site on Hugo, Eleventy, Astro, Next.js export or a docs framework: people time, builds, hosting, upgrades.
Customizing Starlight Without Forking the ThemeHow-toBrand a Starlight docs site with CSS custom properties, component overrides and plugins so every upgrade stays a one-line version bump instead of a merge.
Generating API Reference Pages in Starlight From OpenAPIHow-toBuild REST API reference pages in Starlight from an OpenAPI spec at build time, link them with the guides, validate the spec in CI and keep pages fast.
Internationalizing Starlight DocsHow-toAdd languages to a Starlight documentation site: locales config, translated UI strings, sidebar labels, fallback notices, per-locale search and build cost.
Migrating from Docusaurus to StarlightHow-toMove a Docusaurus documentation site to Starlight: content and admonition conversion, sidebars, MDX components, versioning decisions, redirects and results.
Migrating from MkDocs to StarlightHow-toMove a Material for MkDocs site to Starlight: convert admonitions and tabs, rebuild navigation from mkdocs.yml, keep every URL and cut build time by two thirds.

10 guides use Starlight in depth; each is listed below under the section it belongs to.

Topic pages give the wider context for each group; the numbers count only guides that use this tool in depth.

Often used with Starlight

Astro4 shared guidesIslands, content collections, astro:assets and deployment.
Docusaurus4 shared guidesVersioned docs, faster builds and migration out.
VitePress2 shared guidesVue-based docs, compared on build time and page weight.
Eleventy1 shared guidesIncremental builds, image pipelines and the data cascade.
Hugo1 shared guidesBuild time at scale, image caches, modules and multilingual sites.
Next.js1 shared guidesStatic export for content sites, its limits and alternatives.