Choosing a template is mostly about avoiding surprises. The demo looks good, you start customizing, and then you discover that the license does not cover client work, the images are heavy, or the code is hard to change. Most of these problems can be checked in a few minutes before you commit.

This checklist is written for Astro templates, but most points apply to any template. Use it on every template you consider, including ours.

1. Does the design fit the type of site?

Start with the purpose. A portfolio, a SaaS landing page, an agency site and an AI product site need different sections, and rebuilding the structure costs more than changing the text.

Open the live demo and list the sections it has. Then list the sections you need. If more than a third are missing, look for another template. Adding one or two sections is easy, especially with component prompts. Rearranging the whole page is not.

Look at all the pages, not only the home page. A good template also includes the pages a real site needs, such as About, Contact, Pricing or Blog, and a legal page or two.

2. Check the Astro and Node versions

Open package.json and look at two things:

  • The Astro version in dependencies. A template on a very old major version may need upgrade work, and Astro’s upgrade guides are the place to learn what changes between versions.
  • The Node.js version in the engines field. If it requires a newer Node than the one you have, install the required version before you start, or the project will not run.

Also look at how many dependencies there are. A short list is easier to keep working over time than a long one.

3. Read the license before you read anything else

The license decides what you are allowed to do, and it is the point most people skip. Look for clear answers to these questions:

  • Can I use it for client projects, or only for my own?
  • Can I use it in more than one project?
  • Am I allowed to resell it, share it or include it in a template of my own? (Usually not.)
  • Are the fonts, images and icons covered, and under what terms?

A template that states this plainly is a good sign. A template with no license text, or a vague one, is a risk. Weblisy templates include a LICENSE file that lists third-party assets, and the usage rules are on the terms page.

4. Test performance on the demo

Astro is known for shipping very little JavaScript, but a template can still be slow because of large images, heavy animations or many font files. You can check the live demo yourself:

  1. Open the demo in Chrome.
  2. Open DevTools and run a Lighthouse report for mobile.
  3. Look at the three Core Web Vitals: how fast the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page responds to input (INP) and whether the layout jumps while loading (CLS).

You are not looking for a perfect score. You are looking for red flags, such as a huge hero image or a layout that shifts. Remember that the demo’s hosting and your own images will change the final numbers.

5. Look at how it is customized

This decides how pleasant the next weeks will be. Check:

  • Where the text lives. Is it inside components, or in content files? Content in separate Markdown or data files is easier to edit and to hand to an AI.
  • How the styling is done. Plain CSS with variables, Tailwind and CSS modules all work. What matters is that the colors, fonts and spacing are defined in one place and reused.
  • How the components are split. One file per section is easier to change than one very long page.

A quick test: find the main headline in the code. If it takes you more than a minute, expect to have the same trouble with every change.

6. Check that an AI agent can work with it

If you plan to customize the template with Claude Code, Codex or Cursor, the project should be easy for an agent to read. Look for an AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md in the project root, a clear folder structure and a build command that passes. We explain what to look for in What is an AI-ready website template?, including a ten-minute test you can run on any project.

7. Check the SEO basics

You can add SEO later, but a good template starts with the foundation:

  • A page title and description that can be set per page
  • A canonical link and social sharing tags (Open Graph)
  • One <h1> per page and a sensible heading order
  • A sitemap, or an easy way to add one with Astro’s sitemap integration
  • Images with alt text
  • No leftover noindex tag that would hide your site from search engines

Open the demo, view the page source and look for these. The last one is the most common mistake: a template can ship with search engines blocked, and the site never appears in results until someone notices. Our SEO checklist for AI-built websites covers this in more detail.

8. Check accessibility

Good accessibility is also good quality. On the demo, try these:

  • Press the Tab key and see whether you can reach every link and button, and whether the focus is visible.
  • Check that text is easy to read against its background, especially gray text on dark sections.
  • Check that images that carry meaning have descriptions, and that decorative ones are hidden from screen readers.
  • Resize the window to a phone width and check that nothing overlaps or gets cut off.

You do not need to be an expert. If these basics are missing, the template was not built carefully.

9. Check the assets and fonts

Demo images are often not included in the license, or they come from a stock library with its own terms. Find out:

  • Which images are included, and which are only placeholders?
  • Are the fonts open-source or licensed, and can they be used on a website?
  • Are the icons covered?

Plan to replace the demo images with your own. Check that replacing them is easy, for example by keeping the same file names or editing a single content file.

10. Check the support and update path

Ask what happens after you download:

  • Is there documentation, even a short one?
  • Is the template maintained, and does it say which Astro version it targets?
  • Can you contact someone if a file is corrupted or something is missing?
  • Are future templates or updates available, and on what terms?

For a template you will use for years, this matters more than the design.

A quick scoring sheet

Give the template one point for each “yes”. Eight or more is a safe choice.

  1. The design and pages match my project.
  2. The Astro and Node versions are current and clear.
  3. The license covers my use, with assets listed.
  4. The demo performs reasonably on mobile.
  5. Text, colors and sections are easy to find.
  6. It includes agent instructions or a clear structure.
  7. SEO basics are present and there is no stray noindex.
  8. Keyboard, contrast and mobile basics work.
  9. Images and fonts are covered and replaceable.
  10. Documentation and a way to get help exist.

What to do next

Browse the live previews on the Weblisy templates page, where every template is a complete Astro project with a license file listing the third-party assets. If you want to run this checklist on a real project first, the Michael portfolio template is free. Once you have picked one, How to build a website with Claude Code using AI-ready templates shows the customization workflow step by step.