Next.js vs React: Choosing the Right Framework

As a developer, while choosing the right library or framework for your project, you should always consider the developer experience. And when I emphasize “Developer Experience”, I am talking about developer’s convenience. Developers generally choose those types of frameworks or libraries that are easy and convenient to use. That’s why you will find the leading and the best libraries and frameworks for web solutions.

However, one of the major decisions as a developer you should take before the software development lifecycle is to consider which platform to use. Many developers or individuals struggle to figure out the difference between React and Next JS. They generally find a lot of confusion while choosing the right technology stack for their project.

Therefore, on a regular basis, we come up with the comparison information and review them in detail from time to time in our blog post. As a versatile custom software development company, our primary aim is to help you choose the right technology stack for the right project, and at the right time.

Thus, throwing in-depth differences between TypeScript and JavaScript and React vs React Native, we have decided to consider the NEXT (pun intended) JS framework.

Introduction

In the world of React, one of the popular frameworks for “hitting the ground running” is Next JS. As React lover, I tried my hands on Next.js for one of my projects last month. And the result was not surprising; I thoroughly liked and enjoyed working on Next JS. So, it’s time to go further and understand the difference between React and Next JS.

Next.js is a simplified development environment built on top of React. It has a small learning curve, but even developers who are new to front-end development can learn it quickly. Therefore, developing a project with Next JS vs React JS is a unique experience.

Comparing Next.js vs React, Next.js is a React framework, on the other hand, React is just a JavaScript library.

This blog post will give you a basic introduction and help you determine which platform will be preferable for your next JavaScript development project.

What is Next JS?

Created by Vercel, Next.js is an open-source and JavaScript framework, allowing you to develop fast and user-friendly web applications and static websites using React. Actually, it is based on Node.js and Babel, and it integrates with React to develop Single Page Applications. This makes server-side convenient and easier.

Next JS is a JavaScript framework that allows developers to create user-friendly and blazing fast static websites and static web applications with React. Next JS is an open-source, lightweight web development framework for React applications. It allows developers to build server-side rendering.

Next.js is based on React babel and webpack, which provides an out-of-the-box solution for server-side rendering (SSR) of React components. Next.js is an open-source JavaScript framework that allows developers to create dynamic and static web applications and websites.

“With Next.js, server rendering React applications has never been easier, no matter where your data is coming from.”

Furthermore, Next.js provides many features, such as static export, preview mode, pre-rendering, faster compilation, and automatic building size optimization. As per my view, the existing Next.js version is something React has been missing for quite a long time.

Next JS includes all the features you will need to create an application. Furthermore, the documentation is excellent, and it is becoming increasingly popular among developers for front-end development.

Next.js is a popular framework, but that doesn’t mean you should use it all of the time.

What is Next.js Used For?

Next.js is used to develop:

• ECommerce Websites
• Marketing Websites
• Landing Pages

What is React?

React takes the JavaScript world by storm and becomes its undisputed leader.

React has become one of the most used and well-known front-end libraries to build large web apps. Developed by Facebook, React is an open-source and flexible JavaScript library, allowing developers to develop scalable, simple, and fast frontend interfaces for Single Page Applications or Multi-page Web Applications. It supports a functional programming paradigm and a reactive approach.

React is one of the most used front-end libraries, allowing developers to create reusable UI components, maintained by Facebook. React is an easy-to-use front-end library that offers various useful tools to enclose routing and state management patterns alongside Redux and other libraries. React is a JavaScript library that allows developers to build user interfaces. A user interface (UI) is a combination of HTML and JavaScript that contains all of the logic needed to display a tiny piece of a bigger UI. UI is critical in ensuring the user stays on your web page. You need to ensure that it is the best, no matter what. You can also consider getting help from a professional ReactJS development company to provide the same.

React is a step ahead and has become a standard for every industry. For example, Redux has become the best library to develop enterprise-oriented React applications.

At the same time, you should consider the following: Redux has the potential to hinder development productivity. When you have some features to add and modify some functionalities in the application, Redux makes your job more difficult. So, we are back to square one: should I use a less complicated or simple library?

need to develop your own React process. It is a more difficult path than simply adopting what other JavaScript frameworks provide: a plethora of ready-to-use tools built into the framework.

React is known more as a library than a framework. As a result, you’ll need to create your own process, and one of those processes will become a framework called, Next.js.

What is React Used For?

• Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter)
• Economy platforms (Airbnb, Lyft, Uber)
• Media Platform (Yahoo!)
• Online Video Streaming Platforms (Netflix)
• SaaS Tools (SendGrid, Asana, InVisionApp, Zapier)

Difference Between React and Next JS

Well, if you use Next JS and React for your development project, you will find many perks and drawbacks of using these for React/JavaScript projects. However, these are the important front-end development tools that offer a seamless and engaging web development experience. However, they have different learning curves, although they both are easy to learn.

Next JS vs React: Performance

The major difference between Next JS and React JS is performance.

If we talk about Next.js applications, they are extremely fast because of the static destinations and server-side rendering. Of course, they are viable due to many performance enhancement features, such as Image Optimization.

As a result, if you pick Next.js for your project, you will get automatic server rendering and code-splitting, which will enhance your development performance. Furthermore, SSR also plays an important role in better app performance.

On the other hand, while talking about React, a few things rule out here. It supports client-side rendering, which is not sufficient for a high-performance application development.

Next vs React: Documentation

The documentation section gets the most attention while finding out the difference between React and Next JS. Good documentation may help you find out how to use tools, which libraries to use, and many other things for any project development.

However, you can easily find documentation, articles, tutorials on the Internet for Next.js and React. Next.js provides a set of “learn-by-doing” tutorials that walks you through things like Next JS component creation, development, integration, and guiding. Whereas, React offers a similar design, with a few introductory activities that explain the fundamentals.

If you want to make pages for your Next.js project, you’ll need to put them in the pages folder and link to the needed header component.

On the other hand, you need to make a segment and add it to the router to create pages for React project.

However, this makes your development process much easier and lets you write less code.

While using React, you can also use Create React app, which is one of the finest methods. Using Create React App method, you can leverage the early advantage to create a Single Page Application (SPA).

While talking about ReactJS vs NextJS, the Create React App is responsible for front-end assembly, allowing you to use it with any server, like Node.

You should also be aware that the CRA engine makes use of Webpack and Babel, but you don’t need to be familiar with either of these technologies. In the end, Create React App is a tool that saves your time and effort from setting up and updating your work environment. You only need to execute one command to set up the tools you need to run React project. So, you don’t need to waste your time on modification; instead, you can focus on developing your application.

Next JS vs React: Server-side Rendering

While talking about another feature – Server-side Rendering, Next.js supports SSR. It actually collects data and renders each request every time you need to deliver a different view for various users.

React does not allow server-side rendering by default, although it can be enabled. It just takes some extra effort to integrate SSR with your preferred server and setup. Besides, the developers may not support this for the next versions.

Next JS vs React: Developer Community

In this competitive market, if you choose a specific framework or library, you should know that its developers community will give you proper solutions for any issues you face.

React has an amazing developers community who are very active in offering solutions in the form of blogs, tutorials, videos, and etc. Also, you can find out the active members and React docs on Stack Overflow.

While considering Next.js, it has less conventional exercise and more discussions from GitHub. The developers are active and available in the open-source world.

In fact, both Next.js and React offer a positive developer experience.

Next JS vs React: Configuration

Another difference between Rect and Next JS you should consider is configuration. React doesn’t offer great support for configuration. Unless you disconnect from the standard Create React App, you won’t be able to change the setups. Hence, you’ll need to use what’s already set up or configured in CRA’s read-scripts.

On the other hand, everything is configurable with Next.js. The NextJS templates allow you to configure files such as babelrc, jest.config , and eslintrc .

Next JS vs React: Maintenance

Both Next.js and React.js have fairly opinionated CRAs in this circumstance. They are well-maintained and release updates on a frequent basis. All you have to do now is keep up with the new updates.

Next JS vs React: TypeScript

Next.js backs TypeScript. Also, it supports configurations with touch tsconfig.json.

Whereas, React supports TypeScript with npx create-reach-app my-app – template typescript for CRA app.

ReactJS vs NextJS: Development Cost

Next.js and React do not make it into the top-paying Innovations list. Furthermore, they both are open-source. As a result, building an application with the base of these technologies will not be expensive.

Next JS vs React: Experienced Developers

While talking about experienced developers comparison: React vs Next JS, we can firmly say that, React is the winner here due to its huge popularity. Also, you can easily find React developers for your project.

Every Next.js developer must be aware of React, and every React developer must be well-versed with JavaScript. However, we can’t use React without JavaScript and can’t use Next.js without React also. Hence, we find no chance of Next.js truly being a leader in React vs Next JS comparison.

The only difference between React and Next.js is that it will take some time to find experienced Next.js developers.

Next JS vs React: Features

As we know, Next.js uses React to develop single-page applications.

Here are the features you can leverage to create ready-to-go applications by using Next.js:

• Server-side Rendering (SSR)
• Static Export (SSG)
• Pre-rendering
• Automatic Build Size Optimization
• Enhanced Development Compilation

While talking about React, it’s extensible and offers routing, state management patterns with libraries like Redux. React can be used to customize any project.

Summing all the written up, we offer turning to the next brief table.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Next JS and React

As with any other framework or library, you always have to pay the price for some great options. Let’s have a look at the advantages and disadvantages of Next.js and React.

Advantages of Next.js

Disadvantages of Next.js

Advantages of React

Disadvantages of React

Is Next JS Better Than React?

Next.js offers easy-to-code functionality compared to React. When it comes to writing code, Next.js requires less code, whereas React framework requires a long line of coding.

React can be the right choice if you wish to build a large complex web application with complex routing and heavily data-driven components. Next.js can be a good choice for you if you wish to build a static website or JAMstack application.

Should I Learn Next JS or React?

When developers hear any new technology or tool, they always rush towards learning it without understanding its approach, future, pros, and cons. While writing this article and going through research, I have seen the most common question asked by developers is – Should I learn Next JS or React?

To justify the answer, I have tried to give you a clear picture of the learning curve and purpose of Next.js and React.

While learning Next.js, you don’t need to be well-versed with React, but you should have at least a basic understanding of the language because they’re built upon React, and the workflow is heavily influenced by it.

It would be best to refer to the official React tutorial to learn Next.js. Instead of simply copying and pasting code from the examples without understanding what it means, you should know why Next.js is used and for what purpose.

Which is Best Next JS or React JS?

Well, you will not find any accurate answer to this question. Having said earlier, selecting a framework or library complete depends on your project needs. React and Next.js are emerging and beneficial tools for your project, but only for performing certain tasks.

When you go with Next.js, it offers the best server-side rendering and static website development solutions. Also, it lets you manage projects easily with various tools and features.

On the other hand, React is the best choice to develop user interfaces for single-page applications. Since it works with the layer of mobile and web apps, it allows you to create more appealing and intuitive applications.

Next JS is a framework that holds React on its base, while React JS is an open-source JavaScript library, developed and maintained by Facebook. Next JS is used to create web applications and performs server-side rendering, whereas React JS focuses on rendering towards the DOM.

Next JS offers server-side rendering (SSR), whereas Create React App offers client-side rendering, improving the application performance.

Next.js is a framework, used to build UI and pages for the web app with React library, while React.js as a library is a part of a framework, the UI components part.

Next JS is easy to learn if you have a basic knowledge of React, whereas React JS is easy to learn and use if you have an understanding of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

In a nutshell, Next.js offers various tools and features to minimize the development process, whereas, React.js has better resources for the front-end development of your mobile and web application.

We hope this detailed comparison article has given you the right information about Next.js and React.js. This will surely help you pick the right technology for your front-end development. However, if you are still unsure about choosing the right, you can always ask the top front end development company – Radixweb. We will answer your queries in no time and let you develop a cutting-edge application for your project.

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#redux #react #nextjs