I am a full stack web developer, mainly working with javascript libraries. I have had many long and heated brainstorming sessions with my colleagues on which framework/library to use for frontend and backend. Here’s what I found, It all depends on the size and complexity of the project. Today I am going to share everything I know about Next.js and React.js to help make you make a better choice. If you are a complete beginner I would recommend you start with Introduction to Web Development.
React.js is a JavaScript library for creating client-side applications (user interfaces). Whereas, Next.js is a React framework used for creating both client-side applications and backend services. Since, Next.js is a framework it comes with some out-of-the-box features like code splitting, image optimization, routing, etc. Moreover, Next.js is built on top of react so it has all the features that react offers and gives you some additional ones.
Table of Contents
WHAT IS REACT.JS?
React is a javascript library for building fast and interactive User Interfaces (UI) for web and mobile applications. It was developed by Meta (Facebook) and was released in 2013. React is a component-based architecture, which allows you to focus on designing the UI instead of focusing on how the UI actually gets inserted into the page. A component is just a piece of the User Interface. React allows you to build independent, isolated, and reusable components and then compose them to build complex user interfaces. For example, if you want to build a web page like Instagram you can divide the page into various components and build them separately. Each colored box represents a separate component in the given image.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN REACT.JS?
V in MVC
From a Model, View, and Controller architecture React is the View that is responsible for how the application looks and feels. While MVC separated all the functions into different levels, React components have all the functions on the same level ( View ).
Virtual Dom
Dom is an acronym for Document Object Model which connects Javascript to Html. React creates a Virtual DOM which is a representation of JavaScript Dom. Manipulating a Virtual Dom is much easy.
REACT VS ANGULAR VS VIEW
Here is a comparison of React, Angular, and Vue on google trends. It can be clearly understood that react is dominating the space of libraries and frameworks for building user interfaces. So if you looking to get a job in frontend or full-stack development react.js is a great tool to add to your resume.
WHY AND WHEN TO USE REACT.JS?
Using any type of frontend framework or library is going to make your life much easy. Building User Interfaces using React.js is going to be much faster than compared to plain JavaScript and you will have a much more standardized format. When UI gets more complex building components using react.js is an excellent option. Top companies such as Airbnb, Discord, Walmart, Wix, Facebook, Instagram, and many more use React.js
WHAT IS NEXT.JS?
Next.js is a React framework created by Vercel that allows you to build fast web applications and is often referred as a full-stack React framework because you can have both frontend applications and backed services in the same code base. It offers some additional functionalities such as server-side rendering and static site generation. Moreover, Next.js gives developers the flexibility of choosing when they want to get data in their application. At the built time, on the server, or as users uses the app.
NEXT JS VS REACT
- Next.js is better for SEO purposes as compared to React.
- Next.js offers two forms of pre-rendering: Static Generation and Server-side Rendering which makes it faster, whereas React.js offers only client-side rendering.
- It offers out-of-the-box features like routing, code split, and image optimization whereas react does not.
- Next.js gives you access to API routes which are serverless functions, and your frontend can talk to APIs, all in one next.js application.
- You have the option of either dynamically deploying or generating HTML files for your pages in the next.js application.
- React.js is intended to be used as a single-page application whereas next.js is intended to be used as a multi-page application.
WHY IS NEXT.JS 13 A GAME-CHANGER?
Recently vercel announced Next js 13 which could be a game changer. Everything you love about React and Next.js gets simpler and it ships innovation across three major categories –
1) Compiler Infrastructure – Turbopack which is the successor of Webpack was introduced. On large applications, Turbopack shows updates 10 times faster than Vite and 700 times faster than Webpack.
2) Routing and Rending Infrastructure – Vercel introduced a new Next.js router and all the benefits of Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR), Static data fetching, Server side data fetching, and State While Re-validate (SWR) is now in one hybrid solution.
3) Component Toolkit – Vercel announced a new OG Image Generation which is a new solution for instantaneously generating dynamic social cards. This approach is five times faster than existing solutions.
If you want to find out more about next.js 13, I would recommend you watch Next.js Conf Keynote: Introducing Next.js 13 and Turbopack.
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, If you are a complete beginner I would recommend you start with the basics of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and then move to React.js. When you start feeling comfortable with React, that’s when you should move to Next.js. Moreover, If you are experienced in React learning Next.js won’t be difficult.