Next.js vs React: Which Framework Is Betters

What is Next.js?

Next.js supports static export, pre-rendering and has many more nice features like automatic building size optimization, faster developer compilation, and a preview mode. In my opinion, the current version of Next.js is something that React has been missing for a long time.  It has all the functionality you need to create a ready-to-go application. Plus, the documentation is great, and it's getting more and more popular with front-end developers. Next.js is doing really well, but that doesn't mean you should always use this framework.

What is React?

React was originally created by Facebook, and today has become one of the most popular front-end libraries. React is one of the most used JavaScript frameworks. Several years ago, React took the JS world by storm and became its undisputed leader. React recommends using a reactive approach and functional programming paradigm. 

React is trying to set industry standards. For instance, Redux is considered the best library for enterprise-grade React applications. At the same time, you need to think about the following: Redux can seriously hinder development productivity. Redux makes your job more difficult when you introduce a new feature, and you have to change too many things throughout your application. So we are again faced with the same dilemma: should I choose a simpler library?

You will need to create your own workflow using React. This is a more complicated path than just using what other JavaScript frameworks give you: a lot of ready-made tools built into the framework.

Why should we compare them?

When choosing any software library or framework, developer experience is usually taken into account. When I talk about developer experience, I mean how developers actually complete a task. Developers tend to favor libraries or frameworks that are fun and easy to use. This is the main reason we have leading libraries and frameworks today. In the React world, Next.js has become a popular framework for "getting to the point." As I know, React fans take Next.js and really enjoy working with it in their projects. 

Next.js is built on top of React to make development easier. Next.js takes a little getting used to, but even developers new to the front-end world can get started relatively quickly. So, it comes out that there is definitely a different experience building a project with Next.js and React.

 This post compares the experiences of Next.js and React developers. We've already gone through some background, so let's go deeper into the details, discussing what it is like to initially launch a project, learn these technologies, find talents, use documentation, and do advanced steps with Next.js and React.

Next.js vs React: Performance

Apps built with Next.js are incredibly fast thanks to static sites and server-side rendering. They are effective by default thanks to a host of performance optimization features such as Image Optimization introduced in Next 10.

So, if you choose Next.js, you can benefit from automatic server rendering and code splitting (which will improve performance). Besides, SSR (Server Side Rendering) will greatly improve the performance of your application.

Talking about React, there are things that rule it out of the debate. Out of the box it only supports client-side rendering, which is not enough if you want to build a high-performance application.