Hatch Connect – Astro Headless for Cloudflare

It means WordPress is only your back office. You write and manage content there as usual, and a separate frontend shows it to visitors. Hatch sets up that frontend on Cloudflare for you and keeps it in step with WordPress.

In everyday use they mean nearly the same thing: the back end (WordPress) and the front end (what visitors see) are separate. “Headless” and “decoupled” describe the split. “Jamstack” usually describes a frontend built from pre-made files plus APIs. Hatch’s frontend renders pages on request through Cloudflare Workers.

No. The setup guide walks you through a Cloudflare token, a low-privilege WordPress account and one Deploy button. Developers can go further and build their own frontend against the REST API.

Yes. WordPress stays your back office and the block editor stays as it is. Hatch exposes your content over the WordPress REST API and deploys an Astro frontend to Cloudflare Workers in your own Cloudflare account. You can also build your own frontend (Astro, or any other) against the same hatch/v1 API.

It is a different route to the same goal, a headless WordPress site. Faust.js asks you to build a Next.js app and install the FaustWP and WPGraphQL plugins. WPGraphQL adds a GraphQL API that you query yourself. Hatch deploys a ready-made Astro frontend and reads WordPress over REST. See “How Hatch compares” in the Description.

No. Hatch does not use GraphQL and does not need the WPGraphQL plugin. It uses the REST API that is built into WordPress.

Neither is better in every case. Both are ways for one program to ask another for data.

REST works like visiting an address: you request /wp-json/hatch/v1/... and get the data back as JSON. It is built into every WordPress site, so there is nothing extra to install.

GraphQL works like filling in an order form: you send one query that lists exactly the fields you want. It needs an extra WordPress plugin such as WPGraphQL.

Hatch is built on REST, which keeps the plugin list on your site short and lets any developer build a frontend against the hatch/v1 routes.

For many sites, yes. Instead of writing, hosting and maintaining your own app, you deploy a finished Astro frontend from your dashboard. If you need a fully custom app, build it against the hatch/v1 REST API.

Astro is a web framework for content sites. It builds pages as plain HTML and CSS and sends very little JavaScript to the browser, which suits blogs, magazines, docs and shops that are mostly reading.

SSR means server-side rendering: a server builds each page when a visitor asks for it. Hatch’s frontend does this on Cloudflare Workers, so a published post can appear without rebuilding the whole site. Publishing also tells the frontend to refresh. By default pages are cached for 60 seconds and may be served stale for up to an hour while they refresh.

Hatch reads the titles, descriptions and social settings you already set in Rank Math or Yoast SEO and passes them to the frontend. If no SEO plugin is active, the frontend uses your post title and excerpt. The frontend also provides a sitemap, an RSS feed, a robots.txt file and JSON-LD structured data. No tool can promise a ranking, so Hatch makes no ranking promises.

Hatch sends less to the browser than a typical theme: no UI framework, no plugin CSS or JavaScript from WordPress. Real speed still depends on your content, images and settings, so measure your own site before and after, for example with PageSpeed Insights.

It is a long password that you create in your Cloudflare account. It lets Hatch upload your frontend, and only with the permissions you tick. The setup guide shows each step and the list of permissions to copy.

A Worker is a small program that runs on Cloudflare’s network. Hatch uses one to serve your frontend. It gets a free address ending in workers.dev, and you can use your own domain instead.

Yes. Choose your domain in the setup guide. For a custom domain the token also needs Zone Read and Workers Routes Edit permissions.

Not for itself.

• The deploy never creates users or Application Passwords.
• You create a Subscriber account and an Application Password yourself, then enter them in the setup guide.
• Hatch refuses any account that can edit other people’s posts or manage users, plugins or the site.
• Visitors can create their own accounts only if you switch on Frontend accounts and WordPress’s “Anyone can register” is on.
• Frontend sign-in and registration routes are off until you switch on Frontend accounts.
• They use WordPress’s own authentication, so login-limit and security plugins still apply.
• Registration uses the core “New User Default Role”.

Open Hatch, then the Connection tab, then Disconnect. The redirect stops and the saved Cloudflare token and frontend account password are forgotten. Revoke the frontend’s Application Password in your profile afterwards. The Worker stays in your Cloudflare account until you delete it there, under Workers & Pages.

No. Your content stays in WordPress and your frontend lives in your own Cloudflare account. Disconnect turns the redirect off, and the hatch/v1 REST API works with any frontend you build.

The free Cloudflare plan includes Workers. Cloudflare sets the limits and prices; see https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/platform/limits/. Hatch itself has no fees.

Your token stays on your own server. It is encrypted before it is saved, sent only to Cloudflare, never returned to your browser and never written to logs. Hatch has no server of its own to receive it. Disconnect (Hatch, Connection) deletes it, and so does deleting the plugin.

Account, Workers Scripts, Edit is required. Account Settings, Read is optional. Zone Read and Workers Routes Edit are needed only for a custom domain. Use a token limited to one account and, for a custom domain, one zone.

Not in this version. Hatch deploys to Cloudflare only. The REST API works with any frontend you build.

No. The hatch/v1 REST API works with any frontend you build. The one Hatch deploys (built with Astro) is the quick way to get started.

Yes. Pick one of three designs (Editorial, Terminal or Docs) and set your own colours, fonts and layout in the Design tab. Developers can also take the open source Astro project from https://github.com/eticastudio/hatch and change it.

No. Write with the standard block editor. Hatch reads what you write over REST.

No. WordPress stays on your current host with your content, users and plugins exactly where they are. Hatch only adds a frontend in your Cloudflare account and, once you press Deploy, sends visitors from the raw WordPress address to it. Disconnect turns that off.

Yoast SEO, Rank Math and RankReady for SEO. Fluent Forms, WPForms, Gravity Forms and Contact Form 7 for forms. WooCommerce for shops. ACF, Secure Custom Fields, Meta Box and Pods for custom fields. Custom Post Type UI and JetEngine for custom post types. Redirection for redirects. FluentSMTP, WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP and Easy WP SMTP for email. If a plugin is not installed, its feature stays off. See “Plugin bridge” in the Description.

Yes. When WooCommerce is active the frontend includes shop, product, cart, checkout, order summary and account pages. Stripe and PayPal payment fields appear on the checkout page only if you switch on that gateway in WooCommerce and add its public key.

No. Layouts built with a page builder depend on the builder’s own CSS and JavaScript from your WordPress theme, which the Astro frontend does not load. Content written in the block editor works.

Possibly. A small blog on a good classic theme works fine. Headless pays off when you want a lighter frontend, a separate public site from your admin, or a custom design without theme limits. Hatch aims to make that choice cheap to try, because Disconnect undoes the WordPress side.

You can check your token and deploy, but the deployed frontend runs on Cloudflare’s network and must be able to reach your site over https. Use a public address or a tunnel.

No. Every external request is listed under External services and starts only after you enter the relevant token, key or address.

See “What Hatch changes on your site”. The redirect and the frontend links start when an administrator presses Deploy. The permalink change happens only if the administrator ticked the box for it.