Next JS — Build for Production

Next.js makes it easy to build a full stack react application with server-side rendering, image optimization, advanced routing and more!

What is Next.js?

Next.js is React framework built by Vercel. They call it “The React Framework for Production” and for good reason. Next comes built with a number of features that take your React applications to the next level. Next is used by massive companies such as Hulu, Netflix, Github and many more. Next has enterprise level utility and it’s popularity is well deserved.

What does Next do for you?

Next.js has a number of benefits. Some involve improving the quality of life of the user and others for the developer. Here are their main ones…

1. Server Side Rendering

Server side rendering allows for HTML to be rendered on the server side rather than the client. This means the client will have a much lighter load, greatly improving the speed of the website. Next.JS comes with server side rendering capabilities out the box, making it extremely easy to implement. Server side rendering with React creates much faster and nicer websites!

2. Image Optimization

Images can take up a ton of space on a website. Next.js solves that problem in a painless way. With a prebuilt <Image/> component, every image is automatically optimized. This greatly reduces the file size and can seriously speed up any website.

3. API Routing

Creating a backend for your application is extremely easy with Next.js. Next allows you to easily build API endpoints that can operate as the backend of your application right out of the box.

4. Fast Refresh

Next.js applications refresh extremely quickly. This makes the development process a lot faster and less painful.

5. Debugging Tools

The debugging tools that come out of the box with Next.js are a huge quality of life upgrade. Next provides clear and direct error messages that make it so much easier to locate and fix the bug.

6. Built in CSS Support

SaSS and CSS capabilities are fully supported right out of the box with Next.js. This makes it easy to maintain clean and efficient styles in your production application.

7. Easy to Start

Getting started with Next.js is extremely simple. All you have to do to create a fully loaded Next application is run the following command.

npx create-next-app my-next-project

This will build the entire next folder structure within a couple of minutes. Furthermore, if you want to get started with external libraries already configured, Next may have an option for you. For example, if you wish to use Tailwind CSS in your application you can easily do so with the following command.

npx create-next-app -e with-tailwindcss my-next-project

This utilizes one of Next’s many prebuilt examples to have the project automatically start with Tailwind configured. Amazing!

8. Production Ready

Next.js is optimized for production from the start. Next optimizes the application from end to end making it great for production grade websites. Next also has internationalization, code splitting, analytics and so much more that makes it great to use in production.

Conclusion

If you’re going to build a production level application in React.js then using Next.js as a framework is an absolute no brainer. With a ton of built-in features that improve the user and developer’s experience, Next.js is great for any React app. Build faster, better and smarter with Next.js!