Next JS vs React – Which Framework is better for your Front-end?

Before beginning a project, a major decision that you should undertake is determining which platform or framework to use. Project building exercises are daunting. However, with the input of technology, you can simplify the process from scratch. It helps you to focus on your business goals and review other details. You can also choose the right software development methodology to get the appropriate project outcome.

Experts in this field can help you determine a suitable platform as per project requirements. Let us go through this blog to know more.

A Brief Introduction

The project development frameworks put strict emphasis on overall project planning, ensuring the approach is constructive and well defined. You can complete the project at the desired pace while improving the final result by choosing them wisely. 

What is Next.JS?

An easy-to-use tool, Vercel first introduced this development framework. It is open-source and based on Node.js and Babel. It also integrates with React so the developers can create single-page applications. All of it makes server-side rendering easy and smooth.  

Next.js. supports static export, pre-rendering, and other nice features. It includes fast developer compilation, automatic building size optimization, and the feature of preview mode.  

The current version of Next.JS is equipped with all the functionality required to build ready-to-go applications. Besides, the documentation is great, so it is garnering more popularity with front-end developers. 

What is React? 

Created by Facebook, React is now one of the most popular front-end libraries. It was mostly used as a JavaScript framework; it took the JS world by storm. The creators of React recommend using a reactive approach and a functional programming paradigm.    

Redux is regarded as the best library to make enterprise-grade React applications. React JS is the most utilized JavaScript framework. Since React is more like a library and less like a framework, it gives you many ready-made tools. Despite this, you have to create your workflow when using React.

A Thorough Comparison

When choosing a project framework or software library, consider the developer experience. Modern-day developers prefer using the libraries and framework because they are fun to use. React and Next.js is one of them.  

Easiness and Speed of Coding

Creating pages for React project includes creating a component and adding it to the router. On the other hand, if you want to create pages for the Next.js project, you add them to the pages folder and link the header component. This process is easy since it demands less coding and smooth project flow.

If you became a front-end developer recently and just started with React, you can learn the fundamentals from the Create React App. The CRA will give you a head start on using React while building single-page applications.   

Create React is, therefore, a tool that saves you the hassle of customizing and setting the development environment. You need to run one command to set up tools to run the project. 

Moreover, since Create React creates front-end assembling, you can use it with a server of your choice. It is equally important to remember that CRA uses Webpack and Babel under the hood. Despite this, you need not acquire any additional knowledge about it. 

Performance

When the developers make apps with Next.js, they can make it faster due to server-side rendering and static sites. Both are effective by default due to the performance optimization features like Image Optimisation introduced in Next 10. 

So, when the developers choose Next.js, they benefit from automatic server rendering and code splitting. All this improves the performance of the application. When you talk about React, you should rule out a few things from the debate. It only supports client-side rendering. It is often not enough to build high-performance applications. 

Features

Next.js has a massive advantage over React. It takes the help of the developer to build single-page apps.  

The features are:

• SSG or Static Support 
• SSR or Server-side rendering  
• Faster development compilation 
• Pre-rendering
• Automatic build size optimisation

React has the following set of features – 

• Easily extensible
• JavaScript syntax extension 
• Pattern library
• Customisable with one-way data binding 
• Easy debugging

Documentation

It is an important factor often overlooked by most developers. While most frameworks’ trendy and stylish homepages catch your eye, you will still require additional courses, tutorials, books, and articles. All of it takes you beyond the boring and dry documentation before you get started. 

Good documentation is crucial for all software projects. You can easily figure out the use of the tool, which library to use, and much more. Hence, you get these fantastic doc options for both Next.js and React.

Next.js comes with a learn-by-doing documentation set that lets you perform tasks like component creation and routing. React also has a similar setup, with tutorials to understand the basics. 

Community

Developers tend to look for other personal reasons behind choosing a strong and popular framework. They consider scenarios like running into a serious problem, not getting any help from online communities, and more. It is why they do not prefer wasting time on other options. 

React has a well-knit and strong community of developers who create consistent blog posts and YouTube videos on different topics. You can find relevant content on Stack Overflow and in the React Docs. All this takes years of development and time as the library slowly matures. 

With Next.js, there are fewer formal tutorial videos. However, you can benefit from online conversations and exchanging questions from GitHub. Here, the Next.js members are accessible in the open-source world.  

There are several key contributors to the React community. This active community renders maximum help and support in both these platforms to promote a positive developer experience.  

Cost of Development

Neither React, nor Next.js enters the list of highly paid technologies. They are open source and free to avail. Thus, it hardly creates massive expenditure or additional costs for the developers.

Experts recommend finding experienced developers via Best React JS Development Services who can devote maximum time to building robust and functional apps that will fetch market attention. Eventually, it will help your brand benefit from a bigger market share and revenue.

Final Thoughts

You can use Next.js to create online e-commerce stores, make landing pages, create marketing websites, and more. React is useful for creating active and inactive navigation elements, providing dynamic inputs, active/disabled buttons, and making complex site structures. While both platforms offer the developers specific freedom of their own, we hope the comparisons mentioned above will help you make a better choice.