Next.js vs. React

What is React?

React is a JavaScript tool developed by Facebook that is used to build dynamic and interactive user interfaces. With the ability to create reusable components, React greatly speeds up the work of developing complex web applications.

What is React used for?

React.js is primarily used to create dynamic and interactive user interfaces in web applications. Its main strength is its component-based architecture, which allows building reusable modules, making it easier to manage complex UIs. With React, developers can effectively synchronize the state of an application with its view, making it an ideal tool for building Single Page Applications (SPAs). React is perfect for projects that require responsiveness, smooth user interaction and flexible extensibility of functionality. Its versatility allows integration with other libraries and tools, making it one of the most popular solutions in the frontend ecosystem.

What is Next.js?

Next.js is an advanced framework built on top of React, offering additional features like SSR (Server-Side Rendering), dynamic routing and performance optimization. This allows Next.js to easily create fast, optimized web applications.

What is Next.js used for?

Next.js is used to build modern, optimized web applications that require excellent performance, SEO and flexibility in page rendering. With built-in Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG), it enables rapid generation of pages that are better indexed by search engines. Next.js integrates dynamic routing based on file structure, which simplifies navigation management, and offers support for API routes, allowing backend endpoints to be created within the same project. It’s a framework that combines the flexibility of React with off-the-shelf tools for scalable and efficient applications.

What are the differences between React and Next.js?

React vs Next.js: Technology

React: a JavaScript library for building dynamic user interfaces, flexible but requiring additional tools.

Next.js: A framework based on React, with built-in features like SSR, SSG, and routing, ideal for projects that require a fast start.

React vs Next.js: Page Rendering

React relies on Client-Side Rendering, where page content is generated in the browser. This can limit SEO and performance, especially on the first load when all the JavaScript is processed. SSR and SSG are possible, but require additional tools, adding to the complexity of the project.

Next.js introduces built-in SSR and SSG, which improve SEO and performance by generating pages on the server. This makes content visible as soon as it loads, and features such as ISR allow dynamic updates to pages without full regeneration.

React.js vs Next.js: Routing

React does not have a built-in routing system, so developers must use third-party libraries such as React Router. These libraries offer full flexibility, allowing the creation of both simple and very advanced navigation systems. However, configuring routing in React requires manual definition of routes and components, which can become complicated in large applications. Introducing dynamic routes or nested routing requires additional work, which increases the complexity of the project, but at the same time gives more control over the application architecture.

Next.js has a built-in routing system based on the file structure, which means that any file path created in the pages folder automatically becomes a route. This makes the navigation setup process extremely intuitive and requires minimal effort. The system supports both dynamic routing (e.g. [id].js) and nested routing, which allows you to easily create complex navigation structures without additional libraries. In addition, Next.js offers support for link prefetching, so that subsequent pages are loaded even before they are opened, significantly improving the impression of fluidity while using the application.

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React.js vs Next.js: Optimization

React as a library does not have built-in automatic code optimization mechanisms, such as code splitting. This means that in React projects, developers must manually configure tools such as Webpack or Rollup to implement lazy loading or dynamic component loading. The lack of automatic code separation can lead to longer page load times, especially in large applications. To improve performance, additional libraries, such as React.lazy and Suspense, are required, adding to the complexity of the setup.

Next.js automatically separates code at the level of pages and components, which significantly reduces application loading time. Each page loads only the necessary code snippets, so users get faster access to content, and unnecessary elements are not uploaded. Next.js also dynamically loads imported modules, plus automatically optimizes images thanks to the built-in next/image component . These mechanisms, along with server-side caching and link prefetching, make applications created in Next.js more efficient and better suited to modern web standards.

React vs Next.js: SEO

React mainly uses Client-Side Rendering (CSR), which means that the content is generated in the browser after the JavaScript is loaded. This process can limit SEO, as search engine robots such as Googlebot may have difficulty indexing dynamically generated content. Although search engines have improved JavaScript support, React’s SEO performance requires additional tools, such as React Helmet for metadata management or pre-rendering, to deliver content to search engines before rendering on the client. For large content projects, the need for external solutions can add complexity and development costs.

Next.js was designed with SEO in mind, offering built-in Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) mechanisms to generate full HTML pages before they are submitted to the browser. This allows search engine robots to read the page content right away, significantly improving indexing and positioning. In addition, Next.js automatically manages routing and URL structure, which supports the creation of search engine-friendly links. Features such as dynamic SSG pages with Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) allow content to be updated in real time without the need for a full application rebuild, making Next.js ideal for high-traffic sites and changing data.

React vs. Next.js: API support

React does not offer built-in API support, which means developers must use third-party tools such as Express to create an API server. It is necessary to manually manage communication with the backend, which gives a lot of flexibility, but increases the complexity of the application. As a result, all API operations require additional configuration and dependencies.

Next.js offers built-in API routes that allow you to create endpoints without having to configure an additional server. These API routes are easy to use and allow seamless integration with the frontend, ensuring faster application development. With this feature, Next.js simplifies the process of combining the frontend with the backend in a single project.

React vs. Next.js: Ecosystem

React offers tremendous flexibility in the choice of tools and libraries, allowing you to tailor your project to your specific needs. However, it requires manual configuration and integration, which can be time-consuming, especially in more complex applications. React gives you full control, but requires more experience in creating and managing the project ecosystem.

Next.js provides comprehensive off-the-shelf solutions, such as routing, SSR, SSG and API routes, which minimize the need for additional configuration. As a result, the framework simplifies the process of building an application, allowing you to start working on your project faster without the need to install multiple external libraries.

React.js vs Next.js: Development costs

Both React and Next.js are open-source technologies, which means that there is no licensing cost to use them. This makes it relatively inexpensive to develop applications based on these tools. The final cost of development depends mainly on the complexity of the project and the experience of the team, but the technologies themselves offer extensive support in the form of ready-made tools and communities, which helps reduce time and effort.

Next.js vs. React: documentation

React: offers rich documentation and many tutorials available online to support app development. The Create React App (CRA) tool simplifies SPA app development by automatically setting up an environment to work with Webpack and Babel, allowing you to focus on coding. Creating pages requires adding segments to the router, which provides flexibility, but requires more work.

Next.js: provides hands-on tutorials that teach step-by-step how to create and manage components and pages using the pages folder . Built-in routing and code optimization simplify the development process, allowing you to write less code and configure more easily.

Examples of Next.js applications

Dynamic e-commerce applications: Next.js is ideal for creating scalable, dynamic e-commerce stores with features such as Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) for fast page loading and better SEO optimization

Blogs and content sites: With SSG features, Next.js enables the creation of blogs and content pages that are quickly generated and easily indexed by search engines, providing excellent performance and SEO.

SaaS (Software as a Service) applications: Next.js allows building advanced SaaS applications with user authorization features, dynamic dashboards and API integration, using built-in API routes capabilities.

React application examples

Social applications: React is often used to build interactive features in social applications, such as real-time updates, message management, and dynamic newsfeeds.

E-commerce applications : React is used to build e-commerce applications, offering dynamic shopping cart management, real-time product filtering and responsive user interfaces.

Content management systems (CMS): React can be used to create flexible and interactive interfaces in CMS systems, allowing easy editing, previewing and publishing of content in real time.

Which is better: React or Next.js?

The choice between Next.js and React depends on the needs of a particular project and what features are most important to it. React is a JavaScript library that provides great flexibility in building user interfaces. It gives you full control over the application architecture, choosing your own tools for state management, routing or rendering. It’s ideal for projects that require out-of-the-box solutions and complete freedom in technology selection.

Next.js, on the other hand, is a React-based framework that provides turnkey solutions such as Server-Side Rendering (SSR), Static Site Generation (SSG) and built-in routing. These features are especially useful when a project requires SEO optimization, fast page loading and easy scalability. Next.js simplifies many aspects of building an application, resulting in a faster start and less configuration work.

React is a better choice if you need flexibility and want to manage every element of the application yourself. Next.js, on the other hand, will work better if you need a ready-made solution to quickly create a modern, powerful application with advanced features. Both tools have their advantages, and the choice depends on the specific requirements of your project.

Should I learn React or Next.js?

React is the foundation of modern web applications, offering flexibility and full control over the creation of user interfaces. Mastering it allows you to understand key concepts such as components, state management, and collaboration with other libraries, which is useful for a wide range of projects, from simple applications to more complex systems.

Next.js, based on React, adds advanced features such as Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG), which make it easier to create optimized, scalable applications. If you want to quickly create apps with advanced features and better SEO optimization, Next.js is a good choice. Starting with React will give you a solid foundation, and learning Next.js will expand it with new capabilities.

Will Next.js replace React?

Next.js is a great tool for JAMstack architecture, as it automatically generates HTML pages based on React components thanks to server-side rendering. React, on the other hand, is a JavaScript library that enables the creation of user interfaces and reusable UI components. Combined with additional technologies such as Redux and React Router, it allows building large-scale web applications. Despite the growing popularity of Next.js, it will not replace React anytime soon, as the two tools have different applications. Beginners are advised to learn the basics of React and Create React App before moving to Next.js.

Summary

Next.js and React are effective tools for creating web applications, but they serve different purposes. React, as a library, offers a lot of flexibility and control, making it ideal for projects that require personalized solutions. Next.js, which is a React-based framework, provides off-the-shelf features such as SSR and SSG that make it easy to create scalable and SEO-optimized applications. The choice between the two should depend on

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions