It's been just six years since the release of Next.JS, but the JS framework has made strides!
As it goes all out to simplify and speed up dynamic websites, NextJS has recently launched its 13th version.
That's why we'll look at what NextJS is, the framework’s applications and its pros and cons. Let's go!
What is Next.js?
Launched in 2016 by Vercel, NextJS is a React framework for web app building.
Known for being user-friendly and speeding up dev processes, Next boosts the React library.
What's more, it's used to build a wide array of products, like webpages and JAMstack websites.
Its uses extend to to interactive user interfaces, e-commerce websites and static pages.
While it's possible to make Single Page Apps with NextJS, it’s often advised to avoid SPAs altogether.
The reason for this is its slow First Contentful Paint and SEO performance.
Nonetheless, there are several A-list companies using Next!
Some include TikTok, Hulu, Twitch and Starbucks.
How does Next.js work?
React apps are usually client-side, which has a couple of downsides.
Often, content needs to be reliably indexed by search engines and bots.
Plus, it takes longer to get to the First Contentful Paint.
NextJS renders the content in advance in a server, solving these issues.
It also provides its router and allows you to render your pages at build time with pre-rendering.
Pre-rendering can take the form of static generation for sites that don’t change often.
It can also do server-side rendering for websites where data changes regularly.
There is also incremental static regeneration, a midpoint between static generation and server-side rendering.
Next.js Pages
NextJS default folder structure includes the pages, public and styles folders.
Pages are React components, and each file in this folder corresponds to a web page.
NextJS includes pre-created custom pages with easy prefixes with underscores.
Next.js Pre-Rendering
Pre-rendering happens when external data is fetched or when the React components translate into HTML on the server.
All this occurs before the user receives the page content, and NextJS renders every page in advance on the server.
Yet, it's possible to opt-out of pre-rendering using the client-side data fetching options.
The main difference is that initial rendering takes place on the user's device.
NextJS pre-rendering applies to Static Generation (SG) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR).
These two pre-rendering forms fetch data in different ways. Let's take a look at them!
- Server-Side Rendering. Here, the HTML is generated on the server for each request.
- Static Generation. Static generation does happen on the server but only once, at build time. The HTML is ready without further processing for faster loading time.
- Incremental Static Regeneration. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) updates content at runtime to avoid rebuilding the site with every update.
Pros and Cons of Nextjs
The advantages of using NextJS for your next web project outweigh the disadvantages.
You’ll find a list of pros and cons below that prove our point.
Pros of Next.js
- Performance. You'll only need to download the NodeJS environment and run some scripts to start with NextJS.
- SEO. Static pages, like those generated with NextJS, are easier to index, ranking higher than dynamically generated web pages.
- Cross-Platform. NextJS products are cross-platform and are available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
- Speed. NextJS includes various ready-to-use components that reduce time-to-market.
- Hot Module Reloading. With HMR, changes can reload in an application while running without losing the state.
- Support. The popularity of NextJS means there are more and more contributors to the framework.
Cons of Next.js
- Maintenance. Although Next.js is highly flexible, it can require continuous management.
- Debugging. Next has a unique way of handling errors that may make them difficult to solve.
- No State Manager. NextJS does not have an in-built state manager., but you can add one like Redux.
- Lack of Plugins. NextJS lacks the vast array of other frameworks' easy-to-adapt plugins.
Comparing Next.JS
Next.js vs Node.js
Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment used to build scalable network apps. I
n contrast, NextJS is a JavaScript framework used to build websites and web apps.
What is the difference between the two?
A runtime environment executes commands and processes code.
Meanwhile, a framework focuses on how you should write code.
It makes the code more streamlined and standardized.
Like NextJS, NodeJS is open-source, cross-platform, fast and scalable.
NodeJS offers improved developer productivity and satisfaction and reduced development costs.
It also provides an easy learning curve and a large community.
Rather than opposites, NextJS and NodeJS are complementary.
You can use Node.js for back end of a Next.js app, and also use custom Node.js servers.
Next.js vs React
React is a front-end JS library used to build web User Interfaces.
And, as we’ve established, Next.js is a JavaScript framework.
More specifically, it's a React framework: you need React to use Next.js.
The question is not how the two tools compare but whether NextJS is the best tool for your React project.
While React adds a large community, NextJS brings SEO benefits and fast performance.
Next.js 13 Features
NextJS 13 was launched in Oct 2022, adding great features to be "dynamic without limits."
Let's go over its updates.
- Customization. NextJS 13 upgraded image components, for typeface customization and instant generation of dynamic social cards.
- Turbopack. The asset bundler Turbopack is over 700 times faster than Webpack, uses Rust for building and it supports React Server Components.
- Layouts. NextJS 13 introduces a redesigned app/ directory to lay out complex interfaces, nest layouts and colocate app code with your routes.
- Analytics. Vercel acquired the Splitbee platform, expanding its first-party analytics for the web.
- New Router. NextJS 13 introduced a new router to the app director that will coexist with the old pages directory.
- Streaming. The app/ directory means you can progressively render UI units and stream them incrementally to the client.
- React Server Components. These reduce the JS sent to the client for faster loading, file-building UIs and middleware API updates.
Conclusion
NextJS is an incredible framework with many benefits.
It works brilliantly with React and has made a lot of headway with dynamic web pages.
We hope to have given you a broad overview of the JS framework and its perks.
