What is Next.JS
Next.js is a react based framework. It has powers to Develop beautiful Web application for different platform like Windows, Linux and mac. If you have little experience in react and looking forward to know more about react ecosystem then you should have knowledge about Next.js framework. Let’s have a brief introduction about Next.js.
Introduction: Next.js is based on react, web-pack and babel. It is an awesome tool for creating web application and famous for server-side rendering. Next.js is build by Zeit. Developers with knowledge of HTML, CSS, Java Script and React can easily learn and switch to next.js.
Main Features:
1. Hot Code Reloading: It automatically reloads the application when changes in the code get saved.
2. Automatic Code Splitting: By this feature, every import in the code get bundled and served with each page. It means that unnecessary code never get loaded on the page.
3. Ecosystem Compatibility: Compatible with JavaScript, Node and react.
4. Server Rendering: Easily render react component on server before sending HTML to client.
5. Styled-JSX: Styled-JSX allows you to write CSS directly inside JavaScript code.
Things we can build with it
With Next.js you can build a number of digital products and interfaces such as:
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Web Portals
Single web pages
Static websites
SaaS products
eCommerce and retail websites
Dashboards
Complex and demanding web applications
Interactive user interfaces
Cons of Next.js
Cost of flexibility – Next JS does not provide much built-in front pages, so you have to create the whole front-end layer from the ground up.
Development and Management – if you want to use it to build an online store, yet you don’t have an in-house team of developers, you will need a dedicated person to handle the development and management afterwards.
It’s opinionated – it is limited to use only its file-based router, you can’t modify the way it deals with routes. Therefore, if you want to use dynamic routes, you need Node.js server.
Lack of built-in state manager – therefore, if you need a state manager, you also need Redux, MobX or something like that.
Low on plug-ins – in comparison to Gatsby.js, you cannot use much of easy-to-adapt plugins.
Pros of Next.js for developers
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 Generation – it allows you to update existing pages by re-rendering them in the background as traffic comes in. So in other words, static content can become dynamic.
Hybrid of SSR and 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.
Built-in CSS support – possibility to import CSS files from a JavaScript file.