Developing web applications are very similar in many ways with both back-end and front-end development. Still, if you know both, then you can accomplish your work faster and make sure everything runs smoothly as well.
However, one question that’s constantly on every project leader’s mind is: Which technology shall I use for my next project? Before answering that question, there are plenty of things to consider, like which technology will be a better fit for your needs or which solution might be more cost-effective for your clientele?
The purpose of this comparison post is to answer these questions. Additionally, it also offers insights into how a business enterprise might approach Next.js & React when building an application from scratch.
In this comparison, we will cover five critical aspects of these two platforms, including the following:
- Coding Speed – Faster development cycles reducing development cost
- Performance – Analyzing lightning speed performance for an incredible UX
- Support – Mature community support ensuring readily available help
- Learning Curve – The easiest one to learn & implement
- Features – Higher number of features facilitating complex projects
It helps you with an informed decision when choosing the proper framework for your project.
These five parameters for both frameworks in a comparison table below help you weigh Next.js and React against one another.
Comparison Table: Next.js Vs. React
I hope the above table offers a distinct idea of which one’s an ideal fit for your project. To ensure a more informed decision, explore the pros, cons, and detailed comparison of Next.js vs. React.
Next.js- Automatic Code Splitting Enhancing the User Experience
Source: Google
Next.js is a renowned minimalistic framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript web applications, similar to React but only more minor in the scope of functionality. It was developed by Ryan Glover, a former employee at LinkedIn.
Next.js is counted among the hottest server-side frameworks on the market. However, before you decide to go with it, you need to consider its pros & cons to understand if this solution is right for your project.
Pros of Using Next.js
- Some of the notable features of Next.js are that it’s fast, easy to set up, and gets out of your way for development, maintenance, and deployment is quick.
- It comes with an active community to lean on when you have questions (and you will have questions).
- The framework also doesn’t make every project a single page application with code splitting, routing, etc.
- It offers sufficient features necessary for web app development rather than using progressive enhancement as an excuse to add bloat.
- Next.js is free of conflicts with CSS-in-JS libraries or other frameworks due to how they were built.
Cons of Using Next.js
- It suffers from poor documentation than more mature frameworks like React.
- Integrating Next.js with other libraries or services like authentication (using Auth0, for example), caching providers (like Redis), etc., is not typical. It gives you a hard time because these things get tightly coupled to each other via its API.
React- 90% Code Reusability Decreasing Development Time & Cost
First released in 2013, Facebook’s library, React, lets developers build large apps using small pieces that efficiently update in response to user actions. Since then, developers have seen it as an essential tool for building web applications.
It’s also one of Google’s preferred tools for building progressive web apps (PWAs), which are a specific type of app designed to load quickly on any connection, but that can become native-like when accessed with cellular data or Wi-Fi connection.
Pros of Using React
- HTML elements used in React are interactive and dynamic, but they have a uniform feel because they’re all generated by JavaScript.
- React makes it easier to give your app a uniform design look-and-feel (which also eliminates cross-browser compatibility issues).
- Any modifications to components are automatically reflected in all places where that component is used.
- Ultimately, using React will help improve your productivity—especially if you’re working on large web applications where there are tons of pages.
- Using React from scratch, your team will collaborate better because everyone will know how one component interacts with another.
- It facilitates creating modular code that does one thing well and is incredibly valuable for teams of any size.
Cons of using React
- If your project doesn’t require complex views or components, consider using something simpler than React.
- Making changes in one code section often leads to problems in another part of your app because it relies so heavily on JavaScript.
Detailed Comparison: Next.js Vs. React
- Coding Speed – Faster Development Cycles Reducing Development Cost
Both are fast as compared to most other platforms or frameworks. However, Next.js is faster than React in setting up quicker development cycles, reducing development costs.
Next.js is faster than React because of the following reasons:
- It is easier for beginners to learn & use because it uses ES6 features such as import/export and doesn’t require inline rendering.
- Its code is easy to develop, making implementation smoother even when not using a bootstrap framework or any UI library like materialize.
- Next.js is also faster when compared with ReactJS’s slower initial setup & configuration time.
Next.js vs. React – Who’s the winner: Next.js
2. Performance – Analyzing lightning speed performance for an incredible UX
When considering a JavaScript framework for your website or app, the most important factor is performance. You will be investing in code, so you want it to perform well and scale as your business grows & new features are added.
Next.js has become one of the fastest frameworks in terms of speed with an incredibly high number of concurrent connections. In addition, its compatibility with tools like Webpack, Babel 7, and hot-reloading are beneficial.
In contrast, React’s latest release comes with a new version of JSX compatible with server-side rendering. React also offers several opinions about switching from pure JavaScript to JSX. Notably, it does come with performance advantages compared to its pure JavaScript counterpart.
ReactJS packs a punch when it comes to the development speed & performance of your apps built on it! You can have some high-end applications developed using revolutionary JSX technology, which allows code modularity or composition within your apps.
It also helps avoid runtime errors during execution which may slow down performance or create lags/hiccups resulting in an unsatisfactory user experience/underwhelming UX.
Next.js vs. React – Who’s the winner: Draw
- Support – Mature Community Support Ensuring Readily Available Help
Source- Statista – Most Used Web Frameworks
In addition to being a top-notch framework, React has a very active community that works tirelessly on its own time. It means that even if your question goes unanswered for a short while, you have the guarantee of getting answers at some point.
It saves you valuable time & resources while doing development projects via the React development company. Thus, it’s an essential factor to consider when deciding between both frameworks.
On the other hand, Next.js was released three years later than React, and it’s still in its beta version (on GitHub). There aren’t as many developers using and contributing to it.
That’s not to say there isn’t an active community behind Next.js — there is. However, there’s still time for more real-world users before recommending it as a top choice with production-ready guarantees.
Next.js vs. React – Who’s the winner: React
4. Learning Curve – The Easiest One to Learn & Implement
ReactJS, hands down. If you’re a one-person team who has just learned to code, then using React is a no-brainer decision for you. Its simple syntax and easy-to-understand logic help you develop faster without any hiccups in your development cycle as you get started with web app development in no time at all!
Additionally, once one has mastered both these platforms, i.e., React & Next.js, it’s pretty easy to switch over from one framework to another due to their similarity in structure, making the learning curve negligible too.
Next.js vs. React – Who’s the winner: React
- Features – Higher Number of Features Facilitating Complex Projects
With more than 117K stars on GitHub, React gets bound to be a powerful development tool for your next project. This library has been created with simplicity and has its code modularized into reusable components.
The elements get divided into high-level and low-level components that can be customized according to user needs through a configuration object. It gives users added flexibility while saving time as well.
On the other hand, Next.js, another JavaScript library, has been created by Zeit for building Universal web apps with server-rendered HTML and assets blazingly fast via Webpack is quite a feat, but we’re just getting started here.
It also uses Express and Babel for quick prototyping and rapid iteration within your development environment.
Next.js vs. React – Who’s the winner: Draw
Final Takeaways
To make your decision more accessible, it is worth noting that both frameworks are open source, and their code can be forked or downloaded on GitHub at any time.
Next.js performs well in faster development cycles and fantastic speed performance. On the other hand, React has the upper hand in the gentle learning curve, the maximum number of features, and mature community support.
To make an ideal choice, you need to weigh the project’s requirements with the library and framework. It requires technical expertise and must be done by experts. A front-end development company can help you choose the more compatible option based on your project needs and compatibility.
