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Next.js vs. React: Which Framework Is Better for Your Frontend Development ?

Next.js development vs. React app development – each is a smart choice as both are easy to start with and provide a solid developer experience.

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Nitin Nijhawan, CDO
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Nitin Nijhawan, CDOicon
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Next.js development vs. React app development – each is a smart choice as both are easy to start with and provide a solid developer experience.

Incredible scalability, versatility (being a library), and client-side make React a magnificent addition to most web development projects for developing appealing and intuitive applications.

Next.js makes the development process easier, thanks to the availability of several tools and out-of-the-box conventions and the support of an open-source, highly active community of developers.

The key is to evaluate each framework’s pros and cons against your specific project requirements to determine the right choice for your goals.

What is Next.js?

Created by Vercel created Next.js as an open-source, JavaScript framework based on Node.js and Babel. It integrates with React for creating ready-to-go web applications and static websites. With highly efficient documentation, it makes server-side rendering easier and more convenient.

Next.js brings great features like static export, faster developer compilation, pre-rendering, automatic building size optimization, and a preview mode.

What is Next.JS Used For?

Next.js is a great framework for developing:

  • Ecommerce websites
  • Marketing websites
  • Landing pages

What is React?

React is among the leading JavaScript frameworks that bring a reactive approach and functional programming paradigm to web app development. React has raised industry standards by introducing amazing capabilities. Redux is one of the best libraries preferred by most react development companies for building enterprise-grade applications.

However, React can hinder development productivity as introducing a new feature requires the developer to make extensive changes throughout the application.

You will have to define your workflow, which can be a complicated approach compared to other JS frameworks that offer built-in, ready-made tools.

Next.js is the answer to solving this dilemma and has evolved from such workflows into a full-fledged framework.

What is React Used For?

  • Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
  • Online video streaming platforms like Netflix
  • Economy platforms like Uber, Airbnb, Lyft
  • Media platforms like Yahoo!
  • SaaS tools like Asana, SendGrid, InVisionApp

Difference Between React and Next JS

Difference Between React and Next JS

Difference Between React and Next JS

1. Next.js vs. React: Speed of Coding & Easiness of Coding

Creating web pages with React requires your React native development company first to develop a component that is added to the router. Next.js projects let you add the page to the pages folder and the relevant header component link. This means less code writing and an easy-to-follow project.

2. Next.js vs. React: Performance

Thanks to automatic server-side rendering and static destinations, Next.js applications are extremely fast. Performance enhancement tools, like image optimization, code-splitting, and SSR – all make next.js development services a viable choice for creating better-performing apps.

React, on the other hand, lacks many such features. Though it supports client-side rendering, it is not enough for high-performing React native app development.

3. Next.js vs. React: Features

Next.js creates single-page applications using React. When hiring a Next.js developer to create ready-to-go applications, the features you can use are:

  • Server-side rendering (SSR)
  • Static export (SSG)
  • Pre-rendering
  • Automatic build size optimization
  • Enhanced development compilation

React is extensible, customizable, and offers routing and state management patterns (through the Redux library).

4. Next.js vs. React: Documentation

Good documentation helps determine which libraries and tools to use and make other such choices for any project development. 

Next.js offers a collection of “learning by doing” tutorials that helps you better understand things like JS component creation, integration, development, and guidance. 

React also offers a design similar to Next.js with some introductory tasks outlining the fundamentals.

5. Next.js vs. React: Community

With React, you can access an amazing developers’ community that actively offers guidance through tutorials, blogs, videos, etc. You can also use Stack Flow to find React docs and active members. 

With less conventional exercise and discussions from GitHub, Next.js has developers available and active on the open-source platform. 

6. Next.js vs. React: Talent Pool

The tiny community of Next.js, pitted against the huge popularity of React, clearly shows that React has a vast talent pool.

Every React.js development company will know JavaScript, whereas the Next.js developer has to be familiar with React – these are indispensable compositions in web development. This rules out the possibility of Next.js ever leading the arena.

7. Next.js vs. React: Easiness to Learn

Both React and Next.js have top-notch, well-written learning materials that will cut your learning curve. The difficulty level for React is lower than Next.js, which requires some training. Regardless, even novice developers can quickly get started on both frameworks.

8. Next.js vs. React: Cost of Development

Neither React nor Next.js is among the costly technologies. Both frameworks are open-source, which means they are available for free. However, finding and hiring React native developers is less time-consuming than Next.js developers, which may require you to evaluate several React programmers before finding the right fit. 

Benefits of Using Next.js

Benefits of Using Next.js

Benefits of Using Next.js

  • Faster development of MVP using built-in Next.js components, libraries, and impressive compatibility.
  • Enhanced user experience with better-aligned front-end development.
  • SEO-friendliness, attributed to fast-loading static websites.
  • Super fast rendering as components are rendered in real-time, and changes are easily tracked.
  • Built-in CSS means you can import CSS styles in the form of JS files for faster rendering.
  • Image optimization ensures that images have the best format and can automatically adjust to different viewports.

Disadvantages of Using Next.js

  • Routing as Next.js development services involves using Node.js to create flexible and dynamic routes.
  • Community support for Next.js is expanding by the day, but it’s still smaller than that for React. 

Pros of Using React

  • Ease of development as familiarity with JavaScript enables developers to create dynamic apps with minimal coding requirements.
  • The developers’ community for React is huge and offers active support and learning resources in real-time.
  • React components are usable and facilitate loading multiple pages at the same time. Though modifying the codebase for components can be a challenge. 
  • Customization is possible with React’s expandable set of features that are compatible with other tools like Redux.

Downsides of React

  • React is a starting point and not a one-stop solution. Being a UI development library, it needs the support of other tools to reach its full potential.
  • Old documentation due to React’s short development cycle.

What is Next.js Good for?

  • To create marketing-focused landing pages.
  • To optimize your online store for organic traffic. Next.js makes it possible with its server-side rendering, speed, and special features.
  • To develop marketing websites with fewer load times, especially for users with slow devices.
  • To build an online eCommerce store. Next.js brings a starter kit for creating SEO-friendly, user-friendly, and high-performing online stores.

What is React Good for?

Often used in combination with libraries allowing stream-templating like MobX or Redux, React is a simple framework written directly in JS. React is a good choice for your project if it has many components with the following:

  • Different and frequently changing states
  • Active or inactive navigation elements
  • Expanded or collapsed accordion sections
  • Dynamic inputs
  • Active or disabled buttons
  • Username and permissions

React can help you work with these variables and offer different views depending on the user’s state information. Thanks to the declarative feature of React components, React.js development companies can easily handle complex structures and manage the application as it evolves in scope and scale.

Conclusion

Next.js brings a rich collection of tools and features to streamline and expedite the development process for your application. React.js, on the other hand, has extensive resources for the front-end development of your React native app development project.

Despite understanding each technology, choosing the right one for your front-end development project can take time and effort. This is where VLink comes in.

Every software development project at VLink is preceded by the discovery phase, where we learn about your company’s operations and future goals and deliver a customized strategy that combines optimal technology and the most fitting team of developers and to set the IT landscape for your project’s maximum performance and ROI. 

Contact VLink for Next.js or React developers for hire.

Would you like to learn about difference between Angular and React technology to decide for your next project? Click here.

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