What is Next.js?

Next.js is a React framework that gives you building blocks to create web applications. By framework, we mean Next.js handles the tooling and configuration needed for React, and provides additional structure, features, and optimizations for your application.

Some history

Next.js was created by Vercel (formerly Zeit), a company that provides hosting and deployment services for web applications. The first version of Next.js was released in October 2016. Since then, Next.js has grown rapidly in popularity and adoption, with over 80k stars on GitHub and many companies using it for their websites, such as Netflix, Hulu, TikTok, Twitch, GitHub, and Starbucks and more.

How it builds

Next.js uses webpack and babel under the hood to bundle and transpile your code. It also integrates powerful Rust-based JavaScript tooling such as SWC (a super-fast JavaScript/TypeScript compiler) and ESBuild (a JavaScript bundler) for the fastest builds. Next.js supports both static site generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR) modes of rendering your pages. You can choose which mode to use for each page based on your needs. SSG means that your pages are pre-rendered at build time and served as static files. SSR means that your pages are rendered on demand by a Node.js server.

How it's different from React

Next.js is not a replacement for React, but rather an extension of it. You can use React to build your UI components as usual, then incrementally adopt Next.js features to solve common application requirements such as:

• Routing: Next.js provides a file-system based router that automatically maps your pages directory structure to URLs. You can also use dynamic routes with parameters and catch-all routes for more flexibility.
• Data fetching: Next.js provides built-in hooks such as getStaticProps, getStaticPaths, and getServerSideProps to fetch data for each page at build time or request time. You can also use any data fetching library you like, such as Axios or SWR.
• Integrations: Next.js supports many integrations out of the box, such as TypeScript, Sass, CSS Modules, MDX (Markdown with JSX), Image Optimization, Internationalization (i18n), Analytics, Authentication, Database Access, CMSs (Content Management Systems), etc.
• Developer experience: Next.js offers a fast refresh feature that preserves component state when you edit files. It also has a zero-config setup that works with any editor or IDE. It also supports hot module replacement (HMR), code splitting, tree shaking, and other optimizations.

Why better than React

Next.js is not necessarily better than React in every aspect. It depends on what kind of web application you are building and what trade-offs you are willing to make. However, some possible reasons why you might prefer Next.js over plain React are:

• Performance: Next.js optimizes your web application for performance by default. It uses techniques such as pre-rendering (SSG or SSR), code splitting, image optimization, and incremental static regeneration to deliver fast loading pages with minimal bandwidth usage.
• SEO: Next.js improves your web application's SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by enabling server-side rendering or static site generation for your pages. This means that your pages can be crawled and indexed by search engines without relying on JavaScript execution.
• Productivity: Next.js boosts your productivity by providing a ready-made solution for common web development challenges such as routing, data fetching, integrations, and deployment. You don't have to spend time configuring and maintaining these aspects yourself.

How is Next.js faster than React

Next.js is faster than plain React because it pre-renders your pages either at build time or request time depending on the mode you choose. This means that when a user visits your website, they receive HTML content that is already rendered and ready to display without waiting for JavaScript execution.

Next.js also uses code splitting to only load the minimum amount of JavaScript code needed for each page. This reduces the initial loading time and improves interactivity.

Next.js also optimizes images by automatically resizing them based on device size and serving them in modern formats such as WebP or AVIF when supported by browsers. This reduces image file size and improves loading speed.

Why we should use it

We should use Next.js if we want to create web applications that are fast, SEO-friendly, and easy to develop with minimal configuration.

Next.js offers many benefits over plain React such as:

• Pre-rendering: Next.js pre-renders your pages either at build time or request time depending on the mode you choose. This means that your pages can be crawled and indexed by search engines without relying on JavaScript execution. It also improves performance and user experience by delivering ready-to-display HTML content.
• Routing: Next.js provides a file-system based router that automatically maps your pages directory structure to URLs. You can also use dynamic routes with parameters and catch-all routes for more flexibility. You don’t have to install any additional libraries or write any configuration for routing.
• Data fetching: Next.js provides built-in hooks such as getStaticProps, getStaticPaths, and getServerSideProps to fetch data for each page at build time or request time. You can also use any data fetching library you like, such as Axios or SWR. Next.js also supports incremental static regeneration, which allows you to update static pages without rebuilding your entire site.
• Integrations: Next.js supports many integrations out of the box, such as TypeScript, Sass, CSS Modules, MDX (Markdown with JSX), Image Optimization, Internationalization (i18n), Analytics, Authentication, Database Access, CMSs (Content Management Systems), etc. You don’t have to spend time setting up these integrations yourself.
• Developer experience: Next.js offers a fast refresh feature that preserves component state when you edit files. It also has a zero-config setup that works with any editor or IDE. It also supports hot module replacement (HMR), code splitting, tree shaking, and other optimizations.

Where we should use it

We should use Next.js if we want to create web applications that are fast, SEO-friendly, and easy to develop with minimal configuration.

Next.js is suitable for many types of web applications such as:

• Blogs
• E-commerce sites
• Landing pages
• Portfolios
• Dashboards
• Documentation sites etc.