What are the Differences Between React.js and Next.js?

August 17, 2023 | by Arround The Web | No comments

What are the Differences Between React.js and Next.js?

The JavaScript ecosystem is very dynamic, a lot of changes are being done and new methods, and functions are being introduced to the frameworks. JavaScript’s most popular and widely known frameworks are React.js, Vue.js, Next.js, and so on. These frameworks are nowadays used in every software house and company. These frameworks are highly optimized, have large communities, and upgrade on a daily basis. It allows developers to generate fully functional websites with high-performance rates.

This article will list down the key differences between React.js and Next.js by covering these topics:

What is React.js?

React.js is a JavaScript open-source library built by Facebook, it allows developers to build scalable, flexible, dynamic, and fast UI components. It generates components for both single and multi-page web applications. React is easy to use and provides tools to access routing and state management patterns and it can also inherit other libraries like Redux. UI components created by React.js can be stateless or stateful and the elements only render within the state scope.

Real Time Applications Built Using React.js

The real-time applications that are created using React.js are stated below:

- Facebook
- Yahoo
- Zapier
- Airbnb
- Netflix
- Dropbox
- New York Times

Pros of React.js

The advantages that developers can gain by creating projects using React.js are stated below:

- React.js is easy to learn due to its large and active community and a good supply of videos and documentation.
- React.js uses Java Syntax Extension, which helps in generating dynamic website applications. It also helps in finding errors in the code using its type-safe feature.
- React can create independent or separate components for each UI element or part of the whole project, these components can be combined to create complex UI elements and can be reusable which reduces the effort and lines of code.
- It has a set of features that can be utilized or customized with the help of other tools like Redux.
- Web applications that are built using React are fast, responsive, and provide high performance. It loads only the relevant part of the application when the user interacts with it and does not reload the whole page.
- It offers end-to-end testing and also isolates individual components of the application for the testing process. This helps in ensuring the quality of a generated application.

Cons of React.js

The disadvantages that come with using React.js are stated below:

- The React.js library ecosystem is constantly evolving and the developers need to spend a lot of hours to stay up to date with the latest improvements. This can lead to instability of already generated projects and consume a lot of time of developers.
- Due to constant upgradation, the examples or methods described in the original documentation are out of date and do not work properly. Moreover, the developer has to search for new problem solutions on their own because the documentation does not tell how the code works and provides no information about the latest methods.
- React sometimes performs unnecessary re-rendering, because JavaScript handles comparisons and equality differently from React.

What is Next.js?

Next.js is an open-source React framework created by Vercel. It is used to create fast and user-friendly websites and applications with the help of React. Next.js depends on Node.js and Babel and can be easily integrated with JavaScript frameworks. Next.js is a lightweight web development framework for the creation of React applications and it offers easier server-side rendering. Its stunning features include pre-rendering, static export, size optimization, and so on.

Characteristics of Next.js

The features or characters of Next.js are stated below in the form of lists:

- For “File System Routing” Next.js is the best choice because after adding a file to the page directory, it automatically generates its routes. This allows developers to easily generate web applications containing many pages.
- It supports “Server Side Rendering” on user requests by building a non-interactive HTML page.
- Next.js supports “Static Page Generators” and creates web pages statically that are already SEO optimized, this helps in setting higher ranking of your website.
- Next.js automatically “splits the code” into chunks and these scripts are then downloaded for required features accordingly.
- It offers a built-in way to generate custom APIs known as “API Routes”. By using it, the developers can set their own endpoints and can handle requests as they desired. These API routes can be used to create a custom backend or to send data from the database to the front end.

Pros of Next.js

The advantages of the Next.js framework are stated below:

- Due to the support of server-side rendering, the Next.js request-handling process is fast.
- Most features offered by Next.js are built-in. So, developers do not need to perform any additional configuration or installation.
- In Next.js, the developer can easily create their own custom backend without exceeding the application size.
- The programmers can import CSS stylesheets directly into the Next.js project to perform faster rendering.

Cons of Next.js

There are some disadvantages of using Next.js, which are stated below:

- To create a Next.js application, the owners have to hire Next.js developers and also need to put their resources in maintaining the application.
- Next.js forces programmers to use standards virtually without configuring, which is not likable for most programmers.
- It does not individually complete some projects, developers must have knowledge about other languages like “Node.js” to successfully complete the projects.
- Next.js has a small community although it is increasing day by day but few developers are familiar with Next.js tactics.