Next.js Tutorial: What Is It, Benefits and How to Use

The emerging need for innovation in online experience is pushing modern technologies to stretch and enable new possibilities. Next.js gives you the best developer experience with all the features you need for production: hybrid static & server rendering, TypeScript support, smart bundling, route pre-fetching, and more. No config needed.

What is Next.JS?

Next.js is a framework based on JavaScript for building React web applications and superfast static websites.

In fact, thanks to Automatic Static Optimization, terms of “static” and dynamic” merge into one.

It’s a cool feature because thanks to it, you can build a hybrid application containing both server-rendered and statically generated pages. It brings Next JS users three main advantages:

1.         Rich user experience (easier and faster)

2.         Outstanding performance (also easier and faster)

3.         Rapid feature development

These things convinced not only the biggest and most popular organizations like Netflix, Uber, or Twitch but also smaller companies that are yet to conquer the digital world. In fact, almost every company can benefit from Next JS; however, sometimes it might be overkill.

When Should You Use Next JS?

Before you proceed with using or integrating any technology with your operations, the thumb rule should completely align with your business goals.

Listed below are the enhancements that Next JS helps you incorporate into your business.

1.         Boost your marketing and advertising channels and increase your overall visibility and brand awareness in the process.

2.         Convert a greater number of your website and online traffic into sales leads.

3.         Outrank and outperform your competitors and rivals in the market.

4.         Deliver an innovative and remarkable user experience to your clients.

5.         Cut down on your maintenance costs by a substantial margin.

6.         Scale your business in real-time, and pave the path for its subsequent growth and expansion.

Next.js benefits

This one we pretty much covered already, but it’s important to keep in mind that introducing SSR can really go a long way to improve your visibility in the search engine as opposed to using client-rendered JavaScript. With that, you can create a web application that has all the functionalities and interactivity you require and still enjoy all the SEO benefits of a static text-based website. And it will give you a major edge over the competition – according to the findings of the State of Frontend report, more than half developers do not think of SEO as an importat factor during development.

Getting Started with Next.JS

System Requirements

1.         Node.js 12.0 or later

2.         MacOS, Windows (including WSL), and Linux are supported

Setup

We recommend creating a new Next.js app using create-next-app, which sets up everything automatically for you. To create a project, run:

npx create-next-app

# or

yarn create next-app

If you want to start with a TypeScript project you can use the --typescript flag:

npx create-next-app --typescript

# or

yarn create next-app --typescript

After the installation is complete, follow the instructions to start the development server. Try editing pages/index.js and see the result on your browser.