Introducing Next.js
Next.js is a React framework—i.e., a framework that builds upon React and adds extra features and patterns to it. Specifically, Next.js adds features like file-based routing, built-in SSR, or automatic caching to improve performance. Though, most importantly, it unlocks two crucial React concepts: React Server Components (RSC) and Server Actions. As you will learn, these features enable server-side React code to perform asynchronous operations and, for example, fetch and render data on the server.
Thus, Next.js saves you the effort of manually enabling SSR, and, additionally, unlocks other powerful features that help with fetching data on the server.
Note
There are also alternative React frameworks like Remix/React Router (they were merged to bring optional fullstack React framework features to React Router) or TanStack Start.
Next.js has not only existed for a very long time but it’s also the most popular (measured by usage...
