Next.js Explained: React, Ready for Production
Introduction React, covered in the very first post of this series, is a library for building interfaces — but a real website needs more: routing between pages, fast first loads, search-engine visibility, and a place for server code. Next.js is the framework that adds all of that on top of React, and it is now the standard way to build production React sites, from company homepages to large stores. Rendering: server first, then interactive A plain React app sends the browser a nearly empty page and builds the content with JavaScript — slow to first paint, and invisible to search engines until the JavaScript runs. Next.js renders pages on the server first, so the browser receives real HTML immediately, and then "hydrates" it — attaching interactivity on top. Visitors see content faster, search engines can read it, and the page still behaves like a React app afterwards. Routing by files: folders become pages Next.js routing needs no configuration: files in the app folder be...