Jaswinder Singh
When choosing a frontend framework for your next web development project, you should focus on practical aspects like performance and SEO.
Both next.js and react.js have their strengths and weaknesses, which we will discuss so you can make a conscious decision that fits your project needs.
While React.js is a good choice for building dynamic user interfaces with reusable components, next.js offers additional features to tackle common issues developers face, such as scalability, loading speed, and optimization.
This article explores the differences between next.js and react.js and focuses on the core functionalities, which highlights why you should choose next.js over react.js.
What is Next.js?
Next.js is a powerful React-based framework developed by Vercel to simplify building modern web applications using server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), and other advanced features.
Next.js enables developers to focus on building their next.js web development project or web application instead of spending time on configuration and setup because it provides a structured approach and pre-configured tools.
Whether you are working on a static website or a large-scale application, Next.js is a great website builder that ensures both efficiency and performance.
Next.js offers other features, such as automatic code splitting, built-in CSS, Sass support, and optimization, to improve the scalability, loading speed, and efficiency of web applications.
What is React.js?
React.js, also known as React, is a Javascript library developed by Facebook for building everything from static sites to large-scale web applications.
React.js was developed to simplify the traditional event trigger approach, where a single click reloads the entire website.
Consequently, react.js implemented reusable components to stop reprocessing the entire website and only re-render the component whose data needs to be changed.
Furthermore, react.js allows developers to build reusable UI components using JSX, Virtual DOM, and One-way data binding.
Difference Between Next.js and React.js?
The purpose of next.js and react.js is similar, but both have different functionalities and approaches to simplifying the development process.
The table below demonstrates the difference between their core functionalities:
| Feature | Next.js | React.js |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering | Supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG). Example: You can pre-render a page at build time for faster loading and better SEO. | Mainly supports Client-Side Rendering (CSR). Example: A blog post entirely loaded & rendered on the browser simultaneously, which can impact SEO and initial load time. |
| Routing | Supports file-based routing, which means creating a new page is as simple as adding a file to the pages directory. | Requires manual setup using libraries like React Router. |
| Performance & Optimization | Built-in features such as automatic code splitting, image optimization, and caching to optimize for performance automatically. Example: Large code bundles are automatically split to improve page load times. | Requires manual implementation of performance optimization techniques and tools such as code splitting and lazy loading. |
| Learning Resources | Offers documentation covering SSR, SSG, and other built-in features. | Provides documentation and guides focused on building UI components and has extensive community support. |
| Ease of Configuration | Simplifies the setup time with auto-configuration. Example: Setting up a TypeScript project is straightforward with npx create-next-app --ts, which includes default TypeScript configuration. | Requires manual setup and configuration. Example: Configuring a project to use TypeScript involves setting up tsconfig.json and adjusting Webpack configurations manually. |
| Development Experience | Offers built-in features like hot-reloading and automatic code splitting to improve developer experience. | Requires the setup of additional libraries for functionalities such as hot-reloading and automatic code splitting. |
Why Should You Choose Next.js Over React.js?
Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Next.js simplifies the implementation of Server-Side Rendering (SSR), which allows the full page rendering on the server before it immediately reaches the user's browsers.
Server-side rendering (SSR) improves user experience and page loading time, which is beneficial for content-heavy and dynamic applications to improve performance.
In contrast, react.js allows server-side rendering but needs to be enabled and integrated with your server and setup, which requires extra time and effort.
Improved SEO
Next.js improves website and web application loading speed and performance, which enhances your site's search engine optimization (SEO).
With the integration of SSR, Next.js allows search engines to index your content more effectively, which can help Google rank pages higher.
Alternatively, websites built using react.js often struggle to rank on search engines because react.js uses client-side rendering.
Static Site Generation Support
Next.js supports static site generation, which allows developers to pre-render pages using SSG by default. SSG is a good choice when the content, like blogs and documentation, doesn't change often.
Here's a simple example of how Next.js handles SSG:
// pages/blog.js
import React from 'react';
const BlogPage = ({ posts }) => {
return (<div> <h1>Blog Posts</h1><ul> {posts.map(post => ( <li key={post.id}>{post.title}</li> ))}</ul></div>);};
export async function getStaticProps() {
const res = await fetch('https://api.example.com/posts');
const posts = await res.json();
return { props: { posts,}, };}
export default BlogPage;
In this example, the getStaticProps function gets data from the API at build time and pre-renders the page with this data, making it fast and efficient.
However, react.js does not support static site generation and prioritizes using Client-Side Rendering (CSR), where HTML is generated on the client side using Javascript.
Greater Scalability and Flexibility
Next.js follows a hybrid approach by allowing developers to combine server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) to provide scalability and flexibility for projects of all sizes.
As a Website Builder, Next.js flexibility makes it a popular choice for developers looking to build scalable applications.
On the other hand, react.js primarily focuses on client-side rendering (CSR), which can lead to performance issues for larger applications.
Faster Development & Deployment
Next.js offers built-in features such as file-based routing, API routes, and environment variable support, which allows developers to quickly set up configurations and focus on building features.
In contrast, react.js requires extra time and effort to set up configuration and integrate various libraries to add functionalities such as hot-reloading and automatic code splitting, which slows down the development and deployment processes.
How Next.js Helps in JAMstack Websites?
JAMstack (JavaScript, APIs, and Markup) is a modern web development architecture that decouples the frontend from the backend.
You can combine Next.js with JAMstack architecture to build high-speed websites that use JAMstack to serve content to users via CDNs.
JAMstack and Next.js improve scalability because API routes allow you to build backend functionality directly within your Next.js application.
Simultaneously, it improves security by implementing Next.js best practices to reduce the attack surface area.
Conclusion
React.js has played a vital role in changing the development process and approach with its reusable components. However, next.js offers some advanced features on top of react.js to improve performance, SEO, and developer experience.
Incorporating Next.js into your next.js web development project will help you streamline your development process using advanced features, such as automatic code splitting, built-in CSS, and more.