The question isn’t whether Next.js is good or bad; it’s whether the productivity gains are worth the complexity tax.

LogRocket is a frontend monitoring platform that helps developers debug and troubleshoot issues in web applications by providing session replay, error tracking, and performance monitoring capabilities. With LogRocket, developers can gain insights into user interactions, identify bugs, and optimize application performance to deliver better user experiences. Developers can learn how to integrate LogRocket into their web applications, analyze user sessions, and diagnose frontend issues effectively.

LogRocket

Next.js has evolved from a simple, developer-friendly React framework into a more complex tool that divides the developer community. While it excels at solving hard problems like SSR, routing, and performance optimization, it now comes with increased complexity, frequent breaking changes, and debugging challenges. The framework works well for content-heavy applications and teams with React expertise, but may be overkill for simple SPAs. The author argues that Next.js remains powerful but requires deeper knowledge to use effectively, making the trade-off between productivity gains and complexity tax a key consideration for development teams.

Is Next.js still developer-friendly?

What made Next.js developer-friendly initially?

Over 200k developers use LogRocket to create better digital experiences

LogRocket : Full visibility into production Next.js apps

<blockquote>
but may be overkill for simple SPAs
</blockquote>
I mean, NextJs was never meant to be used for SPAs, that’s the whole point.

Even the vercel company sites that run on next.js have crashes… I’ll never use next.js because it’s a dumpster fire. Astro.js has done everything much much better as far as reliability and DX, IMO.

It seems the biggest problem with Next is Vercel lock-in. I appreciate their contributions to the Next project but if it’s proprietary, I’m not likely to use it nor recommend it. #hotTake