Unlocking Modern Rendering: Why Next.js Is the Preferred React Framework

React changed front-end development forever. It brought us component-driven architecture, declarative UI, and a thriving ecosystem of libraries. But as great as React is, it doesn’t cover everything you need to ship a modern, production-ready website.

So where React Falls short

What React Can Do?

1.) Build complex UIs with reusable components
2.) Manage application state with hooks
3.) Create dynamic, interactive experiences
4.) Support client-side navigation with libraries like react-router-dom

What React Doesn’t Do Out of the Box?

• Routing

  • React doesn’t include built-in routing.

  • You have to install and configure react-router-dom or similar libraries.

• SEO Optimization

  • Traditional React apps rely on Client-Side Rendering (CSR).

  • The browser downloads a blank HTML shell, then loads JavaScript to render content.

  • This creates problems for search engines and slow networks.

    (Note: React 19’s new features improve this, but most projects still rely on frameworks like Next.js for SEO-friendly rendering.)

• Waterfalling Problem

  • Data fetching often happens after the initial page load, causing multiple network requests and delaying the final render.

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What Next.js Brings to the Table :→

Next.js is a React framework that fills these gaps by offering:

1.) Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

• Your pages render on the server and send fully populated HTML to the browser.

• This solves many SEO and performance problems.

2.) Static Site Generation (SSG)

• Next.js can pre-render pages at build time for lightning-fast delivery.

3.) API Routes

• Create backend endpoints inside your Next.js project—no need for a separate server.

4.) File-Based Routing

• Drop a file into the pages/ directory, and it automatically becomes a route.

• No react-router-dom configuration required.

5.) Bundle Size Optimizations

• Automatic code splitting, smart bundling, and performance tuning out of the box.

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Rendering Strategies in Next.js :→

1.) Client-Side Rendering (CSR)

Client-side rendering (CSR) is a modern technique used in web development where the rendering of a webpage is performed in the browser using JavaScript. Instead of the server sending a fully rendered HTML page to the client

Good example of CSR - React

Good for dynamic dashboards or apps behind authentication. Not great for SEO or initial load performance.

2.) Server side rendering(SSR)

When the rendering process (converting JS components to HTML) happens on the server, it’s called SSR.

Why SSR?

1. SEO Optimisations

2. Gets rid of the waterfalling problem

   

   

   Downside : Expensive since every request needs to render on the server

3.) Static Site Generation (SSG)

If a page uses Static Generation, the page HTML is generated at build time. That means in production, the page HTML is generated when you run next build. This HTML will then be reused on each request.

Why SSG?

If you use static site generation, you can defer the expensive operation of rendering a page to the build time so it only happens once.

Perfect for blogs, marketing sites, and content that doesn’t change often.

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TL;DR

React gives you the components.
Next.js gives you the platform.

If you want:

• SEO-friendly pages

• Fast performance out of the box

• Unified frontend + backend in one codebase

• Simpler routing and build tooling

…Next.js is the framework you’re looking for.