INTRODUCTION
One of the top benefits of learning what is Next.js, is the knowledge of how flexible you can become in building, and adapting to online reality.
As seasoned Next.js developers, we recognize the immense value in mastering this framework. One of its most compelling advantages lies in its unparalleled flexibility, empowering us to craft and seamlessly adapt to the dynamic landscape of the online realm.
Within our realm as providers of Next.js development services, we view this flexibility as a cornerstone in navigating the swiftly evolving digital sphere. It affords us the agility to swiftly iterate and experiment with our concepts, enabling us to promptly respond to market demands and technological advancements. In essence, it allows us to stay ahead of the curve and maintain a competitive edge.
Moreover, the current landscape of consumer behavior has undergone a seismic shift, presenting new challenges and opportunities. With the rise of e-commerce and changing consumer habits, the need for adaptable and innovative solutions has become more pressing than ever before.
We became much more demanding when it comes to page loading speed (in milliseconds!) and the user experience from using websites or web shops.
Our expectations regarding page loading speed, measured in milliseconds, and the overall user experience while navigating websites or online stores have significantly heightened.
It allows you to build both simple and complex web applications much faster, and easier, and thanks to many great frameworks that have grown upon it, you can now build blazingly fast websites to achieve a much better UX and SEO efficiency.
Let’s have a look at one of those frameworks — Next.js, which enjoys growing popularity and quickly became the first choice for many big names and companies.
# WHAT IS NEXT.JS?
Next.js is a JavaScript framework that enables you to build superfast and extremely user-friendly static websites, as well as web applications using React.
In fact, thanks to Automatic Static Optimization, “static” and “dynamic” become one now.
This feature allows Next.js to build hybrid applications that contain both server-side rendered and statically generated pages.
In other words,
Statically generated pages are still reactive: Next.js will hydrate your application client-side to give it full interactivity.
This opens us many advantages like:
Rich User Experience (easier and faster)
Great performance (also easier and faster)
Rapid feature development
Next.js is widely used by the biggest and most popular companies all over the world like Netflix, Uber, Starbucks, or Twitch. It’s also considered as one of the fastest-growing React frameworks, perfect to work with static sites — which was the hottest topic in the web development world lately.
What is Next.js — A 2024 Perspective
In recent years, Next.js has witnessed a huge rise in popularity.
According to the Stack Overflow survey of 2023, it ascended from the 11th to the 6th most popular framework among web developers. This rapid growth underscores its increasing acceptance and effectiveness in the developer community.
Over the years, Next.js has continually evolved, introducing features that address the ever-changing environment of web development. Its updates have consistently focused on imrpoving performance, developer experience, and providing robust SEO capabilities.
Next.js 14 — A Leap Forward
Next.js 14, introduced by Lee Robinson and Tim Neutkens, marked a significant advancement in the framework’s capabilities, building upon the foundations laid by Next.js 13:
Turbopack: Replaces Webpack for faster builds, offering significantly quicker server start-up and refresh rates. These changes lead to higher developer productivity and faster iteration cycles, crucial for large-scale applications.
Server Actions (Stable): Streamlines server-side logic, allowing functions to run securely on the server. This simplifies data mutation workflows and strenghten application security, particularly vital for handling sensitive data and complex state management scenarios.
Partial Prerendering (Preview): Merges the benefits of SSR, SSG, and ISR, enabling rapid initial static loading with dynamic content streaming. This is key for applications requiring both fast loading times and dynamic content rendering.
Metadata Improvements: Automates the inclusion of essential metadata in the initial page load, ensuring a seamless user experience across devices and themes. It’s especially important for responsive design and accessibility.
Next.js 14 brought some game-changing features. Turbopack, for instance, has significantly sped up server startup and code refresh times. Then there’s Server Actions, making mutations more efficient and integrated. And let’s not forget Partial Prerendering, which is still in preview but looks promising for dynamic content handling.
The features introduced in Next.js 14 represent significant advancements in the capabilities of the framework, catering to various aspects of web development and addressing key challenges faced by developers. Let’s delve into each of these features and explore their benefits in more detail:
React Server Components (RSC):
Performance Optimization: By rendering components server-side and accessing the backend directly, RSC reduces the client-side bundle size and enhances performance.
Improved Initial Load Times: With reduced initial load times, RSC contributes to a smoother user experience, especially for applications with extensive client-side rendering requirements.
SEO Benefits: Server-side rendering improves SEO capabilities by providing search engine crawlers with pre-rendered HTML content, enhancing discoverability and search ranking.
Middleware:
Granular Control: Middleware empowers developers with fine-grained control over the request-response lifecycle, facilitating advanced server-side logic such as A/B testing and request manipulation.
Customized User Experience: With the ability to manipulate requests and responses at various stages, developers can tailor the user experience based on specific criteria, enhancing personalization and engagement.
Efficient Implementation of Complex Logic: Middleware streamlines the implementation of complex server-side logic, enabling developers to manage application behavior more efficiently and effectively.
Edge Functions:
Minimized Latency: By executing server-side code at the network’s edge, Edge Functions minimize latency and offer a serverless experience, ensuring optimal performance for users across diverse geographical locations.
High Performance: Applications requiring high performance and low response times benefit significantly from Edge Functions, delivering faster and more responsive user experiences.
Global Scalability: Edge Functions enable global scalability by distributing server-side logic closer to end-users, reducing the impact of geographical distance on application performance.
App Router:
Advanced Routing Features: The revamped routing system in Next.js, including support for nested routes and layouts, offers developers more flexibility and power in structuring applications.
Scalability and Maintainability: For large-scale and complex web projects, App Router provides a structured approach to managing routing logic, enhancing scalability and maintainability.
Improved Developer Productivity: With a more intuitive and feature-rich routing system, developers can streamline development workflows and accelerate the implementation of routing-related features.
Overall, the features introduced in Next.js 14 represent a significant leap forward in empowering developers to build high-performance, scalable, and feature-rich web applications. Whether it’s optimizing performance, customizing user experiences, reducing latency, or enhancing routing capabilities, Next.js 14 offers a comprehensive toolkit for tackling the challenges of modern web development effectively.
NEXT.JS AND JAMSTACK
Next.js is now one of the most popular React frameworks for building superfast, and super SEO-friendly Jamstack websites.It can be perfectly combined with headless CMSes, or eCommerce platforms to drive extraordinary performance and SEO results.
WHAT CAN YOU BUILD WITH NEXT.JS?
With Next.js you can build a number of digital products and interfaces such as:
Web Platform
Jamstack websites
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Static websites
Single web pages
SaaS products
eCommerce and retail websites
Dashboards
Complex and demanding web applications
Interactive user interfaces
And we love to use it in various projects since it gives us so many possibilities. Check out how it influenced the e-learning platform we were recently launching for our customer — Learn Squared:
Our Choice: Why We Chose Next.js for Our Website
At the heart of our decision to use Next.js for our website lies a combination of strategic factors and practical benefits.
SEO Optimization stands out as a primary reason — we work on SEO improvements daily, as organic is our main source of traffic. Next.js’s powerful SEO capabilities significantly boost organic traffic, a key metric for online visibility and success.
Equally crucial is Page Speed for us. This framework’s efficiency in loading times elevates the user experience and also, again, fortifies our SEO efforts.
In the realm of** Content Management**, using the Jamstack architecture with Next.js has afforded us exceptional flexibility, allowing our marketing team to harness tools like Storybook for dynamic content management.
This aligns perfectly with our approach to content strategy, ensuring that we can adapt and respond swiftly to market trends and user feedback.
Lastly, the Developer Affinity for Next.js within our team is noteworthy. Our developers prize its efficiency and scalability, making it a pleasure to work with, while the robust support community around Next.js provides an added layer of assurance and continuous learning.
By adopting Next.js for our own website, we provided final proof of its effectiveness and adaptability in the ever-evolving digital world. (Yes, we love it very much!)
NEXT.JS AND USER EXPERIENCE
User experience plays a key role in the success (or failure) of digital businesses.
For example, if you have an online shop and you don’t take care of UX properly, it will result in:
Losing customers
Abandoned carts
High bounce rate
The design is also important — if you are using themes or templates, the chances are someone out there has a similar-looking layout. It also means that you can’t build a unique customer experience and change it over time. Even if this means changing one simple thing like adding a button to the product page or deleting one.
Luckily — thanks to Next.js — you can build a fully customized user experience. Let’s see what it really means.
UX Freedom: Next.js allows developers to bypass the constraints of plugins, templates, or other limitations typically imposed by CMS platforms. Technically, this is facilitated by Next.js’s flexible file-system routing and its support for various CSS-in-JS libraries, enabling a high degree of customization in the frontend design.
Adaptability and Responsiveness: The framework’s built-in features such as automatic image optimization and responsive loading contribute significantly to creating web applications that are adaptable to any screen size or resolution. This adaptability is bolstered by the framework’s seamless integration with modern CSS frameworks,boosting the responsive design capabilities.
Short Page Load Time: Next.js’s capability for static site generation (SSG) and incremental static regeneration (ISR) plays a crucial role in achieving faster page load times. They enable serving pre-rendered pages to users, significantly reducing the time to first byte (TTFB) and repairing the overall site speed.
Data Security: In the context of static websites built with Next.js, the absence of a direct database connection reinforce security. This architectural choice minimizes the exposure of sensitive data and dependencies, making these sites inherently more secure against common web vulnerabilities.
All of these things mentioned above make the user experience as great as it can possibly be.
But the benefits of using Next.js don’t end there.
NEXT.JS AND SEO
Another big reason to choose Next.js is its SEO efficiency, and here’s why:
Server-Side Rendering (SSR): One of the most influential benefits of Next.js is its use of SSR. It ensures that the full content of your page is rendered on the server before it reaches the user’s browser. For search engines, this means they can crawl and index your site content more effectively, boosting your visibility in search results.
Static Site Generation (SSG): Next.js excels in generating static sites, which are faster and more reliable. Static sites load quicker, offering a better user experience, a factor that search engines, particularly Google, prioritize highly. This directly contributes to better SEO rankings.
Speed and Performance: Next.js websites are known for their impressive speed, a direct result of static generation and optimized code. Fast-loading sites reduce bounce rates, keep users engaged longer, and are favoured by search engines, all contributing to higher SEO rankings.
Organic Traffic and High-Intent Keywords: By optimizing for speed and user experience, Next.js helps in growing organic traffic faster. Its ability to rank high-intent keywords higher than competitors makes it a preferred choice for businesses aiming to be more visible to potential customers.
Competitive Edge: The SEO efficiency of Next.js gives websites a significant advantage over competitors. Its capabilities in speed, performance, and content visibility help sites outperform others in search engine results.
In both cases, it will help you a lot with:
**- Growing organic traffic faster
Ranking your high-intent keywords higher
Outperforming competitors easier
Be more visible to potential customers**
Next.js websites are super-fast, easy to scan, and provide a great user experience and that’s why Google will favour them above others and rank them higher.
PROS AND CONS OF NEXT.JS
As with any other framework, some great options come with a price. Let’s have a look at the most popular pros and cons of using Next.js.
Main Advantages of Next.js for CTOs
Rich Ecosystem: Next.js benefits from the widespread adoption of JavaScript and strong backing from industry giants like Vercel and Meta. This robust ecosystem offers a rich talent pool and ease of learning, making Next.js a strategic, future-proof choice for tech leaders.
Future-Proof Technology: With regular updates and support from a vibrant community and industry leaders, Next.js represents a future-proof solution in web development. Additionally, its alignment with the latest web standards makes it a strategic asset for long-term business goals and technology roadmaps.
Easy Scalability: Next.js supports scalability through features like automatic code splitting, flexible rendering options, and optimized image handling. These features ensure efficient resource utilization and performance under high traffic, crucial for rapidly growing businesses.
High Security: Offering robust tools for building secure web applications, Next.js addresses critical areas like authentication and data validation. This focus on security is vital for maintaining user trust and data integrity in the face of growing number of cyber threats.
Performance Optimization: Key features like lazy loading, image optimization, code splitting, and route prefetching in Next.js positively influence site performance. And these are essential for high user engagement and efficient resource utilization, impacting the success and growth of web applications.
SEO Optimization: As we mentioned a few times above, Next.js boosts SEO through server-side rendering, static generation, and incremental static regeneration. It ensures that content is fully accessible to search engine crawlers, supporting site visibility and user traffic.
Benefits of Next.js for online businesses
How Next.js can positively impact your business results and help you push your ideas further?
Faster time to market: many ready-to-use components and compatibility that come with it make building MVP much faster. Thanks to it, you can get feedback from real users quickly and make proper changes without wasting time and budget.
Better User Experience: you have total freedom to create a front-end that fully aligns with your business goals and design vision. Thanks to it, the user experience is great and unique.
Increased organic traffic: Google loves static sites as they are fast, light, and easy to scan. This translates into higher positions of these websites in search results.
Fully omnichannel: Next.js websites and web apps work on any device, so they are accessible to everyone.
Support on demand: since Next.js is a React-based framework, it won’t be difficult to find another frontend developer without a need to build everything from scratch once again.
Increased conversion rate: fast loading speed, better user experience and high accessibility convert into a higher conversion. If the users are happy with the customer experience they got, they are more likely to buy and come back later for more.
Community support: as Next.js is becoming a number one framework for many big brands, it’s becoming more famous, and naturally, so the number of its contributors. That means, even if you face any issue, there will be probably a solution for that already.
Pros of Next.js for developers
Regardless of whether you are looking for benefits from a business perspective or a technical one, you will find some reasons to seriously consider choosing Next.js.
If you want to build a complex and demanding application, React development nature of Next.js allows for saving a lot of time. Developers especially favour features like:
Zero Config — Next allows you to focus on the business logic of your application instead of the application logic. And to help you, it provides automatic compilation and bundling. In other words, Next is optimized for production right from the start.
Incremental Static Regeneration — it allows you to update the pages by re-rendering them in the background as traffic comes in. So in other words, static content can become dynamic.
A hybrid of server-side rendering SSR and static site generation SSG — prerender pages at build time or request time in a single project.
TypeScript support — automatic TypeScript configuration and compilation.
Fast Refresh — fast, live-editing experience — edits made on React components are live within seconds. It works analogically to Hot Module Replacement (HMR).
CSS parsers — the possibility to import CSS files from a JavaScript file. New parses improved the handling of CSS.
Built-in Image Component and Automatic Image Optimization — this feature automatically optimizes images.
Automatic code splitting — automatically reduces the size of the page by splitting the code and serving components only when needed. Modules can be automatically imported too, thanks to the dynamic import option.
Data fetching — this option allows rendering the content in different ways, accordingly to the app’s use case. It can be done by pre-rendering with server-side rendering SSR or static site generation and by updating or creating content with ISR.
Release of Next.js 14: even more promising future
The list of Next.js benefits is growing with every release. In October 2023, Next.js 14 was introduced, together with a bunch of new features. The most important among them are:
Improved Image Component: Next.js 14 introduces enhancements to the Image component, making it even more efficient and versatile for handling images in web applications. With optimizations for performance and accessibility, developers can seamlessly integrate high-quality images while maintaining a fast and responsive user experience.
Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) Enhancements: Building upon the ISR feature introduced in previous versions, Next.js 14 further refines and expands its capabilities. With improved support for dynamic data fetching and caching strategies, developers can leverage ISR to generate and update static pages with minimal effort, ensuring up-to-date content delivery while maximizing performance.
Enhanced TypeScript Support: Next.js continues to prioritize TypeScript support, with version 14 delivering even more robust typings and tooling for TypeScript users. This includes better integration with popular TypeScript libraries and improved error handling, enabling developers to write safer and more maintainable code with confidence.
Streamlined API Routes: Next.js 14 introduces optimizations to API routes, simplifying the process of building backend functionality within Next.js applications. With enhanced routing capabilities and improved middleware support, developers can create powerful APIs more efficiently, facilitating seamless communication between client-side and server-side logic.
Advanced Internationalization (i18n) Support: Next.js 14 expands its i18n capabilities with new features and enhancements tailored for building multilingual applications. With built-in support for locale-specific routing, content translation, and date formatting, developers can easily create immersive user experiences for global audiences while maintaining code simplicity and clarity.
Optimized Build Performance: Building upon previous optimizations, Next.js 14 introduces further improvements to build performance, reducing build times and enhancing developer productivity. Through enhancements to the build pipeline and caching mechanisms, developers can iterate more quickly and deploy changes with confidence, ensuring a smooth development experience from start to finish.
Enhanced Developer Experience: Next.js 14 focuses on enhancing the overall developer experience with improvements to tooling, documentation, and community resources. With updated documentation, interactive examples, and comprehensive guides, developers can onboard quickly and leverage Next.js effectively for their projects, regardless of experience level.
Expanded Ecosystem Integrations: Next.js 14 strengthens its integration with popular frameworks, libraries, and services within the JavaScript ecosystem. From seamless integration with React Suspense to enhanced compatibility with GraphQL APIs and headless CMS platforms, developers have access to a rich ecosystem of tools and resources to streamline development workflows and build cutting-edge web applications.
Improved Accessibility: Next.js 14 prioritizes accessibility by providing developers with tools and best practices to ensure that their applications are inclusive and usable by all users. With enhanced accessibility auditing tools, automatic aria-label generation, and built-in support for keyboard navigation, developers can create accessible web experiences with ease, meeting the highest standards of accessibility compliance.
Future-ready Architecture: Next.js 14 lays the foundation for future innovations in web development with a forward-thinking architecture and design principles. By embracing emerging technologies, standards, and best practices, Next.js empowers developers to build modern, scalable, and resilient web applications that are ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
Next.js 14 represents a significant milestone in the evolution of the framework, offering developers a comprehensive toolkit for building modern web applications with speed, efficiency, and confidence. With its rich feature set, robust performance optimizations, and commitment to developer experience, Next.js continues to solidify its position as a leading choice for JavaScript developers worldwide.
To learn more about the new Next.js, visit the Next.js official website.
Cons of using Next.js
The number of Next benefits is huge and clearly outweighs its cons. However, let’s write them down to be as objective as it’s possible.
Development and management — the flexibility, given by Next, has its cost — continuous management. To make all desired changes properly, you will need a dedicated person with proper knowledge. The good news is that this person doesn’t have to be a developer.
Ongoing cost — since Next.js does not provide many built-in front pages, you have to create your own front-end, which will require changes from time to time. It means that you will have to pay a frontend developer to get the job done.
Lack of built-in state manager — so if you need a state manager in your app, you have to add Redux, MobX or something else.
Low on plug-ins — you cannot use much of easy-to-adapt plugins.
EXAMPLES OF NEXT.JS WEBSITES
Here are just three of the great examples of websites build in Next.js.
You can also check out their official showcase for even more inspiration.
SUMMARY
It doesn’t matter if you are planning to build a huge and demanding app to serve millions of users, nor if you are a growing web shop on Shopify. In both cases, you can use the advantages of modern web technology to make your business more efficient online.
Uplift your page speed, SEO, and UX, and remember that technologies such as Next.js are making the web a better, cleaner, and more user-centric place. And that will always be favourable, not only to Google but, most importantly, to users.
