What is Next.js?
Next.js is a React-based web application development framework that offers server-side rendering and automatic code splitting for enhanced performance and user experience. Next.js was developed by Vercel, formerly known as Zeit, and has gained popularity among developers due to its ease of use and flexibility.
It allows you to build both simple and complex web applications much faster, and easier, and thanks to many great frameworks that have grown upon it, you can now build blazingly fast websites to achieve a much better UX and SEO efficiency
Why use Next.js?
Next.js makes it simple to build robust, SEO-friendly, and user-friendly static websites and web applications. Next.js is known for being very quick and easy to use for developers when building production-ready applications with all of the features that you need.
One of the main advantages of Next.js is its server-side rendering capability, which means that the server generates the HTML content for a web page instead of the client's browser. This results in faster initial load times and improved SEO as search engines can easily crawl and index the content. Next.js also supports static site generation, which allows developers to pre-render static pages for even faster load times.
Another advantage of Next.js is its automatic code-splitting feature, which allows the framework to split the code into smaller chunks and load only what is needed for a specific page. This results in faster load times and improved performance, especially for larger web applications.
Next.js also offers built-in support for popular technologies such as TypeScript, CSS modules, and Sass, making it easier for developers to integrate them into their projects. The framework also offers easy integration with APIs and databases, making it suitable for building complex web applications.
One of the key features of Next.js is its developer experience. The framework offers a simple and intuitive file-based routing system, which allows developers to easily create pages and API routes. It also includes a built-in development server with hot reloading, making it easier for developers to iterate on their code and see the changes in real time.
Next.js also offers a rich ecosystem of plugins and packages, making it easy to add new functionality and features to web applications. The framework has a large and active community, with developers contributing to open-source packages and providing support and resources for others.
Apps Built Using Next.js
Below is the list of applications developed with Next.js. Since Next.js is supported by Fortune 500 companies, including GitHub, Uber, and Netflix.
Below are some of the applications built with Next.js.
Tailwind CSS
TailwindCSS provides a website builder/designer powered primarily with CSS. It's essentially a framework and engine for creating, deploying, maintaining, and building CSS to beautify and design a website. It doesn't do anything CSS doesn't normally do, but it provides a framework and tool to allow you to build it without the hassle of doing everything manually.
Just check out their website for various "live" demos showcasing what it can do.
While we could go on about all of the cool features of TailwindCSS, that's not the point. The point is to examine their website. See how fast it loads? See how easily elements can adapt to changes you make with the click of a button, whether it's part of one of their demos or the toggle between light and dark mode at the top. Those are features of Next.js built into their design.
TailwindCSS is great because it can also use with Next.js to design your website. They've categorized and optimized CSS uniquely and interestingly, making it much easier to use, easier to implement, and faster than most of the alternatives, including just manually coding CSS.
IMDb
Next.js is a small, agile, and easy-to-use framework. These features make it perfect for creating quick, small projects, which is why you see it as the basis for a massive array of small-scale sites and proof-of-concept ideas.
The truth is, Next.js is used by some of the largest websites in the world, too.
One of the most significant advantages of Next.js is building a static page to hold dynamic data. You know, the front page always looks the same but is populated with various data streams, which change depending on when you load it, even throughout the day.
IMDb is one such site that exemplifies this design. Their pages are all static but populated with the relevant data, whether it's the video stream on the front page or the static information about a movie in individual film records. It even maintains a user's browsing history and shows you dynamically-populated data customized just for you. Imagine trying to do that with plain old web dev!
Starbucks
Starbucks is another billion-dollar company using Next.js for its site design. In this case, you can see that the Starbucks homepage is very light on elements. It's essentially just a stack of large-format CTAs for things like their menus, their rewards card, and their partnership with food delivery.
Where things get more complicated and interesting is in their Stories section. Starbucks Stories feature everything from individual employee tales to the company's efforts to preserve the environment and the communities they join. You may or may not be sceptical about the truth of their efforts – they are, after all, a billion-dollar company – but they will certainly let you explore their efforts with a quick, reactive Next.js implementation.
One of the tell-tale signs a site is using Next.js is when you click between sub-pages or elements, and the page loads quickly or immediately. At the same time, it takes a very slight moment – fractions of a second, but just barely enough to notice – for the dynamic data to load in. You can see this on Starbucks if you tab between sub-sections.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Next.js is a powerful and flexible framework for building modern web applications. Its server-side rendering and automatic code-splitting features provide enhanced performance and user experience, while its easy integration with popular technologies and APIs makes it suitable for building complex applications. Its intuitive file-based routing system and rich ecosystem of plugins and packages make it a popular choice among developers.
You can check out their official documentation to learn Next.js