Adding SSR to a React Application
It is extremely important to understand that SSR-enabled React applications need to execute code in two environments (server and browser), whereas client-side React applications only rely on the browser. Therefore, to use SSR, a server-side environment must be added to the React project—it’s not enough to just adjust the React code in a few places.
For example, standard Vite-based projects don’t support SSR out of the box. Consequently, if you want to support SSR, you must edit your Vite project setup (and some of your project code files) to enable executing React code on both the client and server side. For example, you must add some code that handles incoming HTTP requests and triggers React code execution on the server side.
Note
Manually enabling SSR requires backend development and build process configuration knowledge—in addition to the React knowledge you need.
Thankfully, though, as you...
