Next.js is a popular React-based framework for building server-rendered (or statically exported) web applications. It was developed by Vercel (formerly known as Zeit) and has been widely adopted by the JavaScript community due to its simplicity, performance, and developer experience.
Here are some of the key features and benefits of Next.js:
- Server-side rendering (SSR): Next.js automatically generates and serves HTML for each page on the server, providing fast and SEO-friendly loading for your pages.
- Static site generation: In addition to SSR, Next.js also allows you to export your web application as a set of static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, which can be easily deployed to a CDN for even better performance.
- Automatic code splitting: Next.js automatically splits your JavaScript code into smaller chunks, so that only the code required for a particular page is loaded, resulting in faster load times.
- Routing: Next.js provides a simple and intuitive way to define and manage your application’s routes, with automatic code splitting and prefetching of resources for faster navigation.
- Built-in optimizations: Next.js includes a variety of optimizations out of the box, such as automatic image optimization, automatic CSS optimization, and automatic compression of assets, to help you deliver a fast and performant experience to your users.
Why choose Next JS?
There are several reasons why developers choose Next.js for building web applications:
- Server-side rendering (SSR): SSR or Server Side Rendering is also known as dynamic rendering. In SSR the page is generated each time the server gets a request. Pages on which the data have to change for a particular type of request, those pages use SSR as data is not the same for every request and may vary with it. To use SSR for a page, we need to export an async function called “getServerSideProps“. This async function is called each time a request is made for the page.
- Improved performance: Next.js includes optimizations such as automatic code splitting, asset compression, and prefetching, to help you deliver a fast and performant experience to your users.
- Easy-to-use routing: Next.js provides a simple and intuitive way to define and manage your application’s routes, making it easy to handle navigation and ensure a smooth user experience.
- Static site generation: With Next.js, you have the option to export your web application as a set of static files, which can be easily deployed to a CDN for even better performance and scalability.
- Popular and well-supported: Next.js is a widely adopted framework, with a large and active community of developers and a robust ecosystem of plugins and tools. This makes it easier to find help and resources when you need them.
- Developer experience: Next.js is designed to provide a smooth and efficient development experience, with features such as automatic code splitting, hot reloading, and easy deployment.
These benefits make Next.js a popular choice for building web applications, especially for those that require fast performance and scalability.
NextJS V/S ReactJS
Next.js and React are both popular JavaScript technologies used for building web applications, but they serve different purposes and have different capabilities.
React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It provides a component-based approach to building UI, allowing you to create reusable components that can be easily composed to create complex user interfaces. React is used to build the view layer of web applications, and is often used in combination with other libraries and tools to build complete web applications.
Next.js, on the other hand, is a React-based framework for building server-rendered (or statically exported) web applications. It provides a set of features and optimizations specifically designed for building and deploying web applications, including automatic server-side rendering, code splitting, and built-in optimizations for performance. In addition, Next.js provides a simple and intuitive routing system, making it easy to manage the navigation of your application.
In summary, React is a library used for building UI components, while Next.js is a framework used for building complete web applications, including the server-side rendering and optimizations necessary for fast and scalable deployment. Both technologies can be used together to build powerful and efficient web applications, with Next.js providing a higher-level framework built on top of React.
how to install next js app?
To install a Next.js app, you need to have Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) installed on your computer. Here are the steps to create a new Next.js project:
- Open your terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory where you want to create your project.
- We recommend creating a new Next.js app using
create-next-app, which sets up everything automatically for you. (You don’t need to create an empty directory.create-next-appwill make one for you.) To create a project, run:
npx create-next-app@latest
# or
yarn create next-app
# or
pnpm create next-app(Note: “my-app” is the name of your new project. You can replace it with your desired name.)
- Once the command has completed, navigate into the newly created project directory:
cd my-app
- Start the Next.js development server by running the following command:
npm run dev
- Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 to see your Next.js app running.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully installed and started a Next.js app. From here, you can start building your application by adding components and customizing the code to meet your needs.
Overall, Next.js provides a simple and efficient way to build fast and scalable web applications, making it a popular choice for many developers and organizations.
