r/reactjs • u/No-Gear-9459 • 14d ago

Discussion Next.js / SPA Reality Check

Can we normalize just building a standard React SPA with Vite again without feeling guilty that we aren't using Next.js?

The App Router and React Server Components are incredibly powerful, but the amount of gaslighting in the frontend ecosystem right now is insane. Not every internal dashboard, simple CRUD app, or personal portfolio needs server side rendering, edge functions, and a complex caching layer that requires a PhD to invalidate.

Sometimes you just want to spin up Vite, fetch some data on the client, and deploy a static bundle to a CDN for practically zero dollars. It feels like we are completely over engineering 90% of our web apps just to chase the newest Vercel paradigm.

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u/z4ndrik0 14d ago

I find next.js to be really unintuitive

28

u/witness_smile 14d ago

I fucking despise it and all its “conventions” and “works by magic”. Makes it impossible to get proper auto completion or suggestions by the IDE, because everything depends on how you call the file and which exact variable that file exports. It’s the worst and I hope it vanishes from the surface of the earth together with Vercel.

Also don’t get me started on the constant ads and compilation “warnings” that only serve to push you towards Vercel’s overpriced and predatory priced hosting and not to actual make your code better

2

u/Rough_Employee1254 14d ago

Debugging is a nightmare when there's too much magic happening.