Next.js vs Nuxt.js: What’s Best?

A Quick Overview

The web development industry keeps on advancing, especially with the introduction of its latest range of tools, frameworks, resources, libraries, and technologies. Of course, you need a team of professionals who carry immense expertise in choosing the right tool and framework that can align with a given project. In other words, it can be pretty tricky for a beginner to pick the right framework according to needs and requirements.

Next and Nuxt are one of the premium technologies used to conduct successful web development projects across the globe. However, much in contrast to their names, these two are very different from each other. The modern JavaScript framework is highly recommended for developing unique, robust, and highly scalable web applications. However, both the tech can be considered as static site generators which embrace the jamstack architecture and are highly considered beyond React and Vue technologies.

These frameworks tend to share numerous similarities; let’s say, for example, they end up offering highly comprehensive support for creating amazing web applications. In addition to this, both are responsible for:

  • Improving initial page load times
  • Enhancing search engine optimisation
  • Simplifying the development procedure, especially for SSR applications
  • Ensuring a smooth transition between server-side and client-side rendering

This is the reason why determining which option to opt for can be quite challenging. So without much delay, us get into the nitty-gritty of each one of these so that you can end up making a well-informed decision in regards to which framework turns out to be the best for you.

Introducing Next.js

If you are looking for an open-source, React-based framework, then this one is for you. Besides, it turns out to be one of the leading tools that is built on top of React, ensuring seamless development of website applications. Next is highly recommended for developing websites, which are simply great in terms of speed. In addition, the sophisticated framework is highly recommended for developing server-rendered React applications. Apart from speed, Next is highly known for its unmatchable scalability, performance, and simplicity. No wonder this turns out to be an excellent choice when it comes to creating dynamic, high-performing websites. Some of the core companies using Next include Netflix, Uber, Starbucks, and Twitch.

Advantages of using Next.js

  • Enhanced Performance

One of the obvious benefits offered by Next technology is that it offers enhanced performance. Since we know Next makes the most of server-side rendering technology, it means it directly speeds up page loading and enhances user experience to a great extent. What’s more, since the content is rendered every now and then, it is possible for search engines to easily index and crawl it, making things pretty amazing in terms of SEO.

In addition, the time is minimised for a webpage to load. This is a very important aspect, especially when working on larger websites featuring complex content, and at the same time, when you have this unrealistic pressure of offering a seamless user experience. Here, automatic code spitting ensures loading only the necessary JavaScript for different pages, leading to further optimization.

  • SEO-friendly

Another advantage of considering Next is that it offers SEO-friendliness. Gone are the days when web development projects are conducted for the sake of it. A website is developed to be highly ranked and expected for a sudden SEO boost, and since Next already incorporates server-side capabilities, it is possible for the content to appear right away on the fly. This leads to enhanced load speed, irrespective of the fact that the network is pretty slow or if the end user is using any type of outdated device. Next definitely works in giving a sudden boost in the SEO rankings, offering a competitive edge in no time.

  • Easy to develop and deploy

On and all, Next. JS-based apps are way easier when it comes to developing and deploying. In addition, it offers rich kinds of possibilities such as:

  • Increase in conversion rate and sales
  • Boost a plethora of marketing channels
  • Overtake of competition
  • Better user experience
  • Low maintenance costs
  • Easy business scaling
  • Flexbile & scalable

There is no denying the fact that the following framework offers a plethora of power-packed features which can take some time to learn and how to use them in an effective manner. However, having lots and lots of functionalities can be both a boon and a bane. So if you are among those professionals who want to get up and get started ASAP, you might find things a bit restrictive, especially when it comes to customising certain aspects of your application.

  • Great user experience

The next benefit to take into account here is that Next ensures to offer great user experiences. Here you have a hot module replacement which enables different browsers to get all the real-time updates from code changes, and this no longer interrupts user experiences. Here you will find route prefetching, which works seamlessly by pre-loading each page way before the visitor gets to click on it; this nevertheless assists in developing a smoother transition for a better browsing experience. As a result, there is now no longer a need to load different areas of the website, which are mainly the favourable clicks from visitors.

Whether you are developing an online store or blogs, websites for marketing services, or dashboards, Next needs to be your only choice to consider here.

Introducing Nuxt.js

Developing a website is supposed to be a fun and freeing experience, isn’t it! Here’s another option, which can be quite amazing and has a proven track record of offering the best possible outcomes to date. Nuxt is a framework that is written in JavaScript and built on top of Vue.js. Something that sets Nuxt apart is the ability to generate static websites out of the box. In addition, Nuxt makes developers’ work easier since they have to perform by simply grouping JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.

Over these years, Nuxt has been ensuring better performance, quicker rendering, improved TypeScript support, and a more refined API.

So how the framework works, well it abstracts away all the details of the server and client code distribution in such a way that developers need to simply focus on application development solely. The ultimate objective here is to be flexible enough to consider Nuxt as the main project base. Time to explore the advantages offered by Nuxt right away!

Advantages of Nuxt.js

  • Development of a universal app

One of the obvious benefits offered by Nuxt tech is that it is highly recommended in creating universal kinds of apps. Now what a universal app is, it is used to describe Javascript code which can assist well in executing both on client and server side.

Several modern JavaScript frameworks, such as Vue, are mainly considered at developing single-page applications. Now there is no denying in the saying that developing SPAs could be way more beneficial than creating a traditional website. It is possible to develop a snappy UI which updates in no time.

However, I am not saying that SPA doesn’t come with any disadvantages or pitfalls such as long load times, and Google struggles with them but it is possible to deal with them seamlessly. A universal app can definitely speed up load times and improve SEO.

  • SEO friendly

In addition to the ability to develop universal apps, Nuxt is such a framework that turns out to be highly SEO-friendly. So in other words, handling meta tags, open graph data and dynamic title management makes it way more seamless, not to mention all these elements are super essential for successful SEO optimization. In simple words, you are bound to receive better search rankings and do you know what is the best part here, you don’t have to work too hard for this!

  • Progressive web app support

Another alluring advantage offered by Nuxt turns out to be it offers a progressive web app module, which successfully enables conversion of any web application into a progressive web application with just minimal effort. This feature enables to work offline, load faster and offer more app-like experience to the end users. Also, this goes without saying that PWA is highly recommended for enhancing user engagement and retention.

  • Automatic code spitting

What if I say Nuxt is such a framework which has the potential to generate any static version of the website with a special webpack configuration? Yes, this is true! For each route, this is statically generated and route gets its own Javascript file, all you need is simply the code required to run that particult route.

This can really help with speed because it keeps the size of the JavaScript file small relative to your entire application’s size. By automatically spitting the code means, making sure efficient division and delivery of assets is taking place. This surely enhances apps load times and successfully optimizes server requests, leading to simplify even the most complex and complicated configuration and improvement of overall project structure.

  • Get ES6/ES7 compilation without any extra work

We all know Nuxt.js comes along with webpack, but the deal doesn’t end here. There is more to it! Here you will find pre-packaged with Babel. So what is it? Well, Babel seamlessly handles compilation the latest JavaScript versions like ES6 and ES7 into JavaScript that can be run on older browsers.

Nuxt.js sets up Babel for you so all of the .vue files and all of the ES6 code that you write inside of the <script> tags compiles down into JavaScript that will work on all browsers.

Head-to-Head Comparision

  • Philosophy

Next and Nuxt both work on the philosophy of making websites load way quicker than expected; however, their ways of doing so are pretty different.

Next uses React, and Nuxt uses Vue, and that’s where there is a change in the decision regarding how the website will work. Overall, Next offers freedom and Nuxt ensures simplicity.

  • Performance

The next comparison between Next and Nuxt is the performance; both websites tend to load in a quicker manner, and this makes search engines easy to spot. The ultimate performance mainly depends on several aspects, such as how its being built, where it’s hosted; however both the frameworks to make fast and efficient websites.

  • Developer experience

The last one is the developer’s experience, since both the communities are large, you are bound to get good guides and a great amount of help when in need. So getting started with either of the two is not so difficult, though!

Parting words

And this is all for now! You see both Next and Nuxt are one of a kind, there is no cookie-cutter solution here but the key to success usually depends on what are your key considerations, have you explored all the differences, key features, advantages, disadvantages, use cases, so that you can come up with the best decision ever.

So yes, this was a quick rundown to consider, especially if you are planning to use Next and Nuxt for your upcoming development project. To cut the long story short, here’s a glimpse of the two;

Next is built on React and offers more control as well as flexibility for developing highly complex and complicated projects. If you are developing large-scale applications, then this is it! Also, Next must be considered by those who prioritise SEO and high performance.

Nuxt is mainly based on Vue.js and is meant to simplify development with conventions and automatic setups. It’s great for quick projects or smaller applications.

Both technologies have been fighting for attention for all these years. Keep this in mind, the end choice influences development speed, website performance, scalability and long-term maintainability. I hope that after going through the following post, you won’t be burdened by taking the overwhelming decision. I hope you did find the following post worth reading. In case, If you have any kind of doubts or queries, feel free to mention them in the comment section below. Also, it would be great if you could assist in sharing the post among your peers and help us in reaching more avid readers like you.

Keep watching the space to get a better perspective on the same.

Next.js vs Nuxt.js: What’s Best? was originally published in Javarevisited on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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