Why Front-End Developers Need to Use Next.js

Amir Hosseini
3 min readSep 8, 2023

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Next.js is a React framework that provides a number of features that can help front-end developers build faster, SEO-friendly, and secure websites. These features include server-side rendering, static site generation, code splitting, routing, internationalization, and security features. Next.js is also easy to learn and use, even for beginners, and it is compatible with a wide range of other technologies. It is a powerful framework that can help you build great websites and it provides a number of benefits for front-end developers, including:

  • Faster performance: Next.js uses server-side rendering (SSR) to pre-render the pages of your application on the server, which can significantly improve the initial load time of your pages. This is especially important for SEO, as Google and other search engines prefer to index pages that are rendered server-side.
  • Better SEO: In addition to faster performance, SSR also helps to improve the SEO of your pages. This is because Google and other search engines can crawl and index your pages more easily when they are rendered server-side.
  • Enhanced functionality: Next.js comes with a number of built-in features that can enhance the functionality of your applications, such as routing, code splitting, and image optimization. This can save you time and effort in developing your applications.
  • Easy to learn and use: Next.js is built on top of React, which is a popular and well-documented JavaScript library. This makes it easy for front-end developers to learn and use Next.js.
  • Scalable and extensible: Next.js is designed to be scalable and extensible, so you can easily add new features and functionality to your applications as needed.

Here are some examples of how Next.js can be used to build different types of applications:

  • Landing pages: Next.js can be used to build landing pages for products, services, or events. For example, the landing page for the Next.js website is built with Next.js.
  • Ecommerce websites: Next.js can be used to build ecommerce websites that allow users to browse products, add items to their cart, and checkout. For example, the ecommerce website for the Vercel store is built with Next.js.
  • Blogs and news websites: Next.js can be used to build blogs and news websites that allow users to read articles, comment on posts, and subscribe to RSS feeds. For example, the blog for the Next.js documentation is built with Next.js.
  • Single-page applications: Next.js is a popular choice for building single-page applications (SPAs). SPAs are web applications that load all of their content in a single page, which can improve the user experience and performance.
  • Other applications: Next.js can be used to build a wide variety of other applications, such as dashboards, admin panels, and customer portals.

If you are curious about how Next.js improve SEO, performance and functionality of your applications read the section below:

  • Faster performance: Next.js uses SSR to pre-render the pages of your application on the server, which can significantly improve the initial load time of your pages.
  • Better SEO: Next.js pages are rendered server-side, which makes them easier for search engines to index.
  • Enhanced functionality: Next.js comes with a number of built-in features that can enhance the functionality of your applications, such as routing, code splitting, and image optimization.

And at the end i want to share some additional benefits of using Next.js:

  • Built-in support for TypeScript: Next.js supports TypeScript, a typed superset of JavaScript that can help to improve the quality and maintainability of your code.
  • A large and active community: Next.js has a large and active community of developers who are constantly creating new tools and resources. This can be a great resource for learning about Next.js and getting help when you need it.
  • Easy deployment: Next.js is easy to deploy to a variety of hosting platforms, including Vercel, Netlify, and AWS Amplify. This can save you time and effort in getting your applications up and running.

I hope this article has convinced you to learn Next.js. If you are a front-end developer, I highly recommend learning Next.js. It is a powerful and versatile framework that can help you to build fast, SEO-friendly, and scalable applications.

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