The first visible screen of any site is its User-Interface. UI plays an imperative role to communicate with the user of that site. That’s why it’s very important to pay attention to the user interface.
The Rich and Interactive user interface could have a remarkable effect on your business. A good UI is capable to attract visitors to your site, that’s why it is considered a key factor for business growth. Thus developers always find the best front-end frameworks to implement, which can give rich UI.
So, Today we will highlight two of the Javascript frameworks, i.e. React js and Next js. Both of them are remarkably growing technologies, and that’s why confusion arises, which one to choose for the business front end.
So, we will differentiate between React js vs Next Js from different aspects, hoping that our article will far away your confusion, and you would be able to choose the best frontend framework for your business.
Just keep reading this article to the end,
Next js vs React – What is Next js?
Next.js is an open-source, JS framework created by Vercel in 2016. Along with React js, it is used to develop fast and efficient user-friendly web applications as well as static websites. However, it is dependent on Node js and Babel, but along with React, it makes single-page applications more convenient and easier. It allows easy server-side rendering to developers.
Next js supports a lot of features like auto building size optimization, faster development as well as preview mode. Moreover, it supports static rendering, pre-export, and many other things. Because of Next js, server-side rendering in Reactjs has become easier.
It is capable of building single-page applications, E-commerce stores, and any type of application that needs high-performance loading time. Additionally, it has good documentation, which helps beginners with easy learning. It is opinionated, which means it keeps the application well-structured.
Why Use Next js? Or It’s Features
Next js has a distinctive feature, let’s have a look
- Next js supports two types of pre-rendering. One is server-side rendering, which fetches the data and renders it at a request time and the other is server-side generation, which renders the data at build time before a request is made.
- It supports Typescript, which is one of the reasons behind its popularity
- It has the Next Export command, which enables you to fully export a static site from your app.
- It refreshes the page fast, which enables the changes in a second without changing the component state.
Uses of Next js
NextJS is used to build –
- E-commerce sites
- Landing Pages
- Single-pages applications
- Server-side rendering
- Marketing sites
Next JS vs React JS – What is React js?
React js is an open-source, JS frontend library, which was released by Facebook. Today it has become one of the most popular frontend libraries.
It allows developers to create reusable UI components. It is an easy-to-use frontend library, which helps the developer to create scalable, and flexible frontend interfaces for single-page as well as multi-page applications.
React has set the standard for the industry, For instance, Redux is considered the most popular library for enterprise-level applications. With these, you also need to think that, Redux can hinder development productivity because while adding some features or functionalities in applications, redux can make your job more difficult, which again takes us to the same question, should we use the less complicated or simple library?
That’s why you need to create your own React process, which is again a difficult task as compared to other JS framework which gives you ready-to-use libraries and makes your job easy.
Note that React is more considered a library rather than a framework, therefore you need to create your own process, one of those processes evolved into a framework called Next js.
Why Use React js? Or Its Features
Look out for some features of React js –
- React is easier to create dynamic applications, with less coding and more functionalities
- The Virtual DOM features build the application faster. It updates only those components which require changes without affecting the component state.
- It consists of reusable components, which contain logic and controls that allow the developer to use them whenever needed.
- React js has a versatile feature, which means it can be used for both web apps and mobile apps
Uses of React js
React.js can be used to build
- Multi-user websites
- E-commerce sites
- Web Portals
- Social Media platforms
- SaaS websites
Next js vs React js – Performance
Thanks to server-side rendering and static sites, applications built with Next js are incredibly fast. If you select Next js for your project, then you can have the advantage of automatic server-side rendering and code splitting which dynamically improves the performance of your applications.
While talking about React js, Like Next.js doesn’t offer server-side rendering, in fact, it provides client-side rendering, which is not enough to build any high-level or complex applications
Therefore, from a performance perspective, Next js is better
Next js vs React js – Development Cost
As both are open-source frameworks, so they are freely available, which means you won’t have that high development cost. But the fact is, as compared to Hire React developers, it will take more time to find Nextjs developers.
So here if we compare the development cost, it is a tie between them
Next js vs React js – Documentation
Good documentation guides you on the way to using libraries, tools, and packages for project development. Surprisingly, both of them have good documentation.
Next js provides a set of tools for learn-by-doing, which guides you through the Nextjs component creation while you will find a similar structure in React js as well, with several tutorials which explains the basics.
So here, again there is a tie between Next and React, in an aspect of documentation
Next js vs React js – Developer Community
While learning any framework, the development community can really help you to find out the solutions if you face any issues.
React.js is one of the popular frameworks, has an excellent developers community, and offers plenty of solutions in form of blogs, videos as well as tutorials. Moreover, you can easily find out active members to directly ask your question.
While compared to React js, Nextjs has lesser solutions available, but team members are easily accessible and can help you out.
So in terms of Community support. React js is better but Next js has a friendly community
Next JS vs React JS – Pros and Cons
While choosing any framework, you should be aware of its positive sides as well as negative sides. Like other frameworks, both React and Next has their own set of benefits and drawbacks.
So let’s look at the Pros and Cons of React js vs Next js –
Advantages of Next js :
|
Parameters |
Description |
|
Ease of Coding |
Comparatively, Next js requires less coding because you just have to create the page and link it to the component header section, which improves the readability, and reduces the need for coding. |
|
Speedy Development |
Next js consists of many built-in libraries, packages, and components which makes the development process faster and helps to develop the minimum viable product(MVP) in a short time. So that users can quickly review the changes and update them. |
|
Fast Rendering |
Whenever any changes are made, they are quickly visible on refreshing. So the developer can have a quick view of their edits |
|
Built-in CSS |
You can easily import the CSS styles from a Javascript file and use it inline for faster rendering |
|
SEO Friendly |
Next js lets you build SEO-friendly static and lighter websites which boost the organic traffic to your site and improve your ranking performance in search engine |
Advantages of React JS:
| Parameters | Description |
| Easy Development | Thanks to Javascript, React has made the development of web applications easier, which allows developers to create dynamic apps with lesser code. |
| Community Support | Since its release, React has gathered a strong community that provides enough resources for learning |
| Reusable Components | React has reusable components, which allow you to load pages recurringly without affecting their characteristics. The changes will be seen across the pages after updating the component. |
| Customization | Its functionalities can be expanded by using other tools like Redux |
Disadvantages of Next js:
| Parameters | Description |
| Routing | Next JS routing system is not enough for some projects, so Node js knowledge is a must to create dynamic routes |
| Community Support | Next js has less community support as compared to React, but however it is continuously growing day by day, most probably it will gather a huge community in future |
Disadvantages of React js:
| Parameters | Description |
| Starting point | React js is only the UI library, therefore to develop the full application you need to consider the other tools |
| Old Documentation | React frequently updates its document because it gets outdated quickly. Therefore community regularly has to re-learn its aspects |
Next js vs React – Is Next js better than React js?
So, in the end, we get back to our question, which is better Next or Reacts? Well, it’s quite not an appropriate question to answer, because both these technologies are best in their places. But, however, deciding which technology to use, completely depends on your project requirements and functionalities. Therefore it is necessary to have complete knowledge of your requirement before finalizing the technology.
Still, if you are getting confused then please ask our experts – who will answer your queries in no time. However, we are one of the top frontend development companies – UPSQODE will help you to find out the best fit for your business.