Introduction

This page introduces Next.js, explains its benefits, and outlines what you need to know before getting started.

What is Next.js?

Next.js is a React framework for building full-stack web applications.

When building applications with React alone, it’s not feasible to create a fully-featured production application. React is a library for building user interfaces, responsible only for the view layer. As a developer, you need to make decisions about routing, rendering and more.

Next.js is a React framework that provides additional features to build production-ready applications. These features include routing, optimized rendering, data fetching, bundling, and compiling. You don’t have to install additional packages as Next.js provides everything you need.

Why learn Next.js?

The reason to learn Next.js stems from the fact that it simplifies the process of building production-ready web applications. Let me list some of the key features that Next.js provides out of the box:

• Routing: You can create routes by adding files to your project structure - no need to configure third-party routing packages. Next.js automatically generates routes based on your file organization.

• API routes: Next.js enables you to build both frontend React components and backend APIs within the same Next.js application, allowing seamless integration between your frontend and backend code.

• Rendering flexibility: Next.js supports both server-side and client-side rendering approaches. When implemented properly, this leads to improved performance and better search engine optimization.

• Streamlined data fetching: Next.js supports the React Server Components (RSC) architecture, which provides built-in async/await support in React Components. This makes data fetching straightforward and efficient.

• Styling flexibility: Next.js is also flexible with styling approaches, supporting CSS Modules, Tailwind CSS, and CSS-in-JS solutions to match your preferences.

• Optimizations: Next.js provides built-in optimizations for images, fonts, and scripts to enhance Core Web Vitals. Its optimized build system handles both development and production environments automatically, allowing you to focus on writing code rather than configuration.

These features combine to make Next.js a powerful framework for web development.

Prerequisites

To effectively learn and use Next.js, you should have a working knowledge of the following:

• HTML
• CSS
• Modern JavaScript
• React fundamentals

While you don’t need to be an expert, familiarity with these concepts will help you make the most of Next.js features and capabilities. The framework builds upon these fundamentals to provide a more comprehensive development experience.