Next.js

Next.js has become the default way to build React applications, and it's not hard to see why. It solves the hard problems-routing, server rendering, data fetching, deployment-so you can focus on building features. The file-based routing is intuitive. Create a file at app/about/page.tsx, and you have an /about route. Dynamic routes, catch-all routes, and nested layouts all work by convention. After using it, manually configuring React Router feels tedious. Server-side rendering is automatic. Pages render on the server with full data, then hydrate on the client. Search engines see complete content, initial load is fast, and React takes over for interactivity. You don't have to think about it-it just works. The App Router, introduced in Next.js 13, brings React Server Components to production. Components can run on the server, fetch data directly, and send HTML to the client-no API routes needed for many use cases. It's a significant shift in how React applications are structured. Data fetching is streamlined. The fetch function is extended with caching and revalidation options. You can specify how often data should refresh, cache at the CDN edge, or always fetch fresh. This replaces a lot of custom caching logic. Deployment to Vercel is seamless-push to git and your site is live. But Next.js also runs anywhere Node.js runs. Self-hosting is well-documented, and Docker deployment works fine. The ecosystem is mature. Authentication, database ORMs, CMS integrations, and payment systems all have Next.js examples and documentation. Most frontend problems have established patterns in Next.js.