You may not need Next.js

In my last post, I highlighted some reasons Next.js is so popular right now. While it is a performant, easy-to-use framework, it may not always be appropriate for you project. Our team is building a web app for city planners to view their city’s emergency services coverage areas on a map. While I initially believed the amount of work required behind the scenes to calculate coverage areas to render onto the map would benefit from server-side rendering (SSR), I was wrong.

After much experimentation and consideration, we discovered that our use case was better suited for a traditional single-page application (SPA) built with React. Here’s why:

1. SSR Overhead: The overhead associated with server-side rendering can be substantial, especially for resource-intensive applications like ours. In our case, the calculations required to render the coverage areas on the map were computationally expensive and added an unnecessary layer of complexity to our project. This added overhead also impacted the overall performance of the app, making it slower and less responsive.
2. No Dynamic Data: The coverage areas in our application only needed to be calculated once and did not change in real-time. This meant that SSR was not necessary, and we could simply fetch the pre-calculated data on the client-side. By using a traditional SPA built with React, we were able to simplify the process of rendering the data on the map and improve the overall performance of the app.
3. No Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Concerns: Our target audience consisted of city planners who would be accessing the app directly rather than through a search engine. This meant that SEO considerations were not a factor in our decision-making process. In other applications, SSR can play a crucial role in improving SEO, but for our specific use case, it was not necessary.

In conclusion, while Next.js is a powerful and easy-to-use framework, it may not always be the best fit for every project. It’s important to carefully evaluate the specific requirements and constraints of your project before choosing a framework. In our case, a traditional SPA built with React proved to be a better fit, but this doesn’t mean that Next.js isn’t a good choice for other projects. The best choice will depend on your specific needs and constraints, and it’s essential to consider all of your options before making a decision. Remember, the most popular or well-known solution may not always be the best fit, so take the time to evaluate all of your options and choose the one that is right for your project and your team.