With the increasing competition and technologies, working on new projects becomes a painful and hectic task. However, along with the demand for hard work, we also have emerging tools and platforms that reduce stress with their outstanding and easy-to-implement features.
There are multiple frameworks available but the question is which is best for your project. Especially when you are looking for an option for front-end development.
In the crowd of frameworks, we will be going to discuss the top two frameworks that are React and Next.js. In this blog, we will compare the two in terms of their background, specifics, and advanced features of both React and Next.js.
What is React?
Most people think of React as a programming language but it is not. React is an open-source and free Javascript library that React.js development agencies use to build interactive user interfaces.
It has been widely used in developing amazing web applications since its launch. It has become the most used Javascript library for completing the need for web development. One of the wonderful things about React is the availability of numerous extensions for application architectural support for example Flux and React Native and more.
React is easy to learn because it mostly consists of the basic HTML and JavaScript concepts along with a few additions. Businesses are mostly looking to hire ReactJS Developers India for their next projects. However, understanding React’s library may take some time.
Features of React
Here are some features of React that make it the choice of web developers.
Data Binding
In React, all activities stay quick and modular because it employs one-way data binding. With that, during a React project, it is common to nest child components within the parent components, this flow is also known as the unidirectional data flow.
In simple words, we can say that one way data binding is about action then storing the value then ultimately viewing the data.
Virtual Document Object Model
In the Document Object Model, HTML is treated as a tree structure where each node represents a part of the document. The virtual document object model is a lightweight version of the Real DOM of React. Virtual DOM manipulation is substantially faster than real DOM.
In virtual DOM, when the object state changes then it updates that particular object rather than updating the entire structure. This process makes the virtual DOM much faster than other front-end technologies, where each object gets updated even a single object changes its state.
Architecture
Architecture is responsible for how an application looks and feels in a model view controller(MVC). As per its name, we can understand that it is an architecture pattern that splits application layers into model, view, and controller.
Here in MVC, the model represents the data-related logic, the view is about the application’s UI logic and the controller works as an interface between model and view.
Debugging
React is easy to test and straightforward to work with. It has a browser extension built by Facebook that simplifies the debugging of React. Through this extension, developers can add a React tab in the developer’s tools option within the chrome web browser.
And with that React tab, the developer can directly inspect the React components through this tab without hectic efforts.
What is Next.JS?
Next.js is another JavaScript framework based on React framework. It is a server-side rendered framework that almost requires no configuration. It is also popular as a framework for production as it provides all the features for production i.e., route pre-fetching, smart bundling, hybrid static and server rendering, etc.
It improves the overall experience of the developer by making web development easier and SSR-friendly.
It is important to install Node.js in your system to use Next.js as it is the application of Node.js. Additionally, it is important to note that Next.js has in built-in server, which means you don’t need to access the external one like Express.js.
Features of Next.js
Let’s look at some of the features of the Next.js
Routers
Next.js has its own routers which don’t need any configuration. This router is built on the concept of pages, you have to create pages in the ‘Pages’ folder and all your routing configurations will be cared for by Next.js.
It also allows client-side route transition between pages like single-page applications. You can do client-side route transition using react component called ‘Link’.
Server-Side Rendering
Next.js makes the application optimized for search engines by performing server-side rendering by default. It also allows integrating with other middleware like Hapi.js to run any databases such as MySQL, MongoDB, etc.
Custom and dynamic meta tags make websites easily indexed by search engines. Using the ‘Head’ component, you can add dynamic meta tags. Not just this, the ‘Head’ component can be imported and used on any other page which minimizes your efforts.
Image Component
The image component of Next.js is ‘next/image’ which is an extension of the HTML image element. It has numerous built-in performance optimizations that help in achieving core web vitals.
The image optimization component includes visual stability for preventing cumulative layout shift automatically, faster page loads, improved performance for correctly sized images, and asset flexibility.
Static HTML Export
Next.js is able to build hybrid sites in which some pages are prerendered to static HTML. Using ‘next export’ you can export your Next.js application to static HTML. It is necessary to note that you should use ‘next export’ only when there isn’t any need for unsupported features requiring servers.
Automatic Code Splitting
The app is automatically split into different resources by Next.js instead of generating a single JavaScript file of all the app code. It does that by analyzing imported resources.
With automatic code-splitting, it only loads the JavaScript code that is necessary for a particular page. It ensures the first-page load as fast as it can be and if a future page is triggered then it will send a future page-load to the client.
The Comparison Between Next.js and React
With the above information, now we have an idea about both the frameworks, let’s look at their comparison.
Performance
Next.js is quicker on account of server-side delivery and static destinations. This is so because it is full of performance enhancement features like image optimization, etc.
While in React, it backs up client-side rendering that is insufficient to develop the high-performance application. So, going with Next.js would be better in terms of performance.
Development Cost
As both the frameworks are open source so that means it doesn’t cost anything to use it. The only thing that you should care about is the availability of developers for the respective framework. As per the market situation, you can easily find React developers than Next.js developers.
Confirgurability
React doesn’t allow sufficient configuration, In React, technically you have to use the pre-configured in the read scripts of CRA.
On the other hand, Next.js is configurable where you can configure files like jest.config, eslintrc, and more without putting extra effort.
Talent Pool
There is no doubt that for using any of these frameworks, one needs to understand JavaScript. That means you cannot use React without the knowledge of JavaScript. And to work on Next.js, the developer should know React as without knowing React, no one can work with Next.js.
Documentation
Documentation is also a significant part that consists of guides, quick solutions, tutorials, and more. In both React and Next.js, you see pages full of useful documents that can resolve the user’s queries.
Conclusion
In the above blog, we have mentioned detailed information about React and Next.js frameworks along with their comparison. However, this fact shouldn’t be ignored that both the frameworks are used to develop web applications and those applications perform well and complete their goal perfectly.
So, you have all the required data, now just check your requirements and then analyze which framework will be best for your project.
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