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Next.js is a popular open source web development framework; is used by approx 40% of developers. Built on reactenables developers to build high-performance web applications and fast static websites.
“Technical leaders use Next.js to deliver interactive and responsive websites that still benefit from the SEO optimization typically associated with static web pages,” explained Devin Dickerson, principal analyst at Forrester. “This can improve business results for e-commerce, landing pages and digital marketing.”
However, building customization with Next.js has been sometimes cumbersome and time-consuming for developers and delayed for end users. That’s because implementation has often required server-side rendering (SSR) or client-side JavaScript, explained Matt Biilmann, co-founder and CEO of Netlify.
With today’s release of its new Next.js runtime that supports the advanced Next.js middleware, Netlify aims to improve customization, and at the edge.
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“Today, Next.js is the most popular framework in our space and is a key part of how developers adopt and experience our platform,” said Biilmann. “Netlify has invested in Next.js for years, but now we’re moving from supporting Next.js natively to expanding the framework’s capabilities as well.”
Pros and Cons of Next.js
Released in 2016, Next.js is a React framework built on top of the Node.js JavaScript runtime.
Developers choose it for its security, adaptability, search engine optimization (SEO) and overall experience, Dickerson said. “Next.js is gaining popularity among React developers, primarily because of its improved and simplified developer experience,” he said.
Also, static sites generated by Next.Js don’t have direct access to a database or user data, making it a safe approach to developing web applications, Dickerson said. Meanwhile, another benefit for developers is that websites and apps built with the framework scale to the screen size of the end-user’s device.
Next.js also has many reusable React components, as well as popular features such as faster updates, TypeScript support, flexible data retrieval, and incremental static regeneration. And it has a “robust community” with a large number of contributors, Dickerson said.
Out of the box, however, Next.js has limited routing capabilities and is limited to using file routing, so it often limits developer flexibility. Meanwhile, for websites with multiple pages, build times can be long, Dickerson said.
Also, “while the avid contributor community is a strength, the plugin ecosystem is still developing and has room to grow,” Dickerson said. Therefore, compared to other frameworks, developers may not have easy-to-use plugins.
But ultimately, web apps built with Next.js can have a high degree of interactivity and functionality while still having the SEO benefits of static text-based websites, he said. “One of the main selling points of Next.js is that it reduces the common compromises between user experience and SEO,” said Dickerson.
Improved Next.js focus
Netlify, a platform as a service (PaaS) that builds, deploys, and hosts websites and apps, supports many of the largest Next.js projects, including DocuSign, TripActions, and Twilio.
With its latest version, the company says it’s the only runtime that supports the advanced Next.js middleware. Its new ability will help developers build websites and apps faster, at scale, and with the control to rewrite and transform HTML content at the edge, Biilmann said, without additional client-side JavaScript or complex server-side rendering strategies .
“We’ve consistently heard from customers looking for better ways to solve personalization, rapid experimentation and localization without compromising performance,” he said.
Netlify’s Deno-based Edge Functions layer provides tools for this and works out of the box with popular web frameworks, such as Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, Eleventy, and SvelteKit, as well as newer frameworks, such as Hydrogen and Remix.
Pushing the edge
Netlify competes in the WebOps platform market with Vercel, Cloudflare, Pantheon, HubSpot CMS, Contentful, and Quest (among others). And, it’s approaching an edge computing market valued at $176 billion, up nearly 15% from 2021, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). Enterprise and service provider spending on hardware, software and services for edge solutions will maintain a strong growth rate through 2025, when spending will reach nearly $275 billion, IDC predicts.
Dickerson noted that “we expect Next.js adoption to continue to increase at the edge, with Netlify’s Next.js runtime further evidence of this trend.”
Biilmann, for his part, predicts that more Next.js applications will move to the serverless architecture, ultimately simplifying development and improving speed.
This is true for long-running serverless features where developers can enable features like incremental static regeneration or use deeper serverless controls like scheduling features (or run them in the background). It’s also true for shorter-running serverless tasks that run directly from the edge, “making things like personalization and client authentication incredibly fast,” Biilmann said.
Netlify’s new capabilities, for example, could allow developers to show different content to site visitors based on their geolocation, authenticate users to an app without revealing private keys in the request, or modify cookies for analytics and reporting .
All of this could be accomplished “without the need to manually create and redirect to alternate URLs or run client-side scripts that swap content after a page loads,” Biilmann said.
Additional capabilities
Next.js in Netlify includes the following features:
Full control to modify request headers and entire responses on the fly: It supports HTML rewrites and page data transformations from the edge, making it easy to deliver personalized user experiences such as personalization, localization, authentication, and more, while achieving optimal performance.Zero configuration for Next.js: Netlify automatically detects Next.js and pre-configures the build environment, adapting the platform to the Next.js framework.Day One Feature Support: New Next.js features are typically enabled, tested, and natively supported on the Netlify platform the day they are released from the Next.js open source team.Improved UX: Next.js developers have seamless expertise in the workflow of building and deploying their sites and apps.
In addition, customers have access to Netlify’s platform features, such as deployment previews with on-page feedback and QA, synced with Git and issue tracking systems.
Additional skills include
Access to advanced continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD). Serverless, peripheral, background and scheduled functions. A unique API mesh powered by GraphQL to easily connect data and services. Advanced Observability Integrations. Multi-cloud edge network with 99.99% uptime SLA. Enterprise-ready security. Support 24 hours a day with climbing paths.
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