episodes/the-one-about-not-using-nextjs

[utterances-bot]

Runtime Rundown

https://runtimerundown.com/episodes/the-one-about-not-using-nextjs

[SheaBelsky]

I have a lot of mixed feelings about Next.js - It is increasingly becoming harder to figure out when I'm writing Next.js specific code/patterns and when it's repeatable patterns for web development more broadly. The entrenchment with Vercel and its world of supporting packages has not been helpful either. At the same time, the benefits that it offers to get stuff off the ground and have it "just work" can't be denied. When maintaining a large web app, it's nice not to have to fight with a lot of the internals and low-level configurations. Perhaps for much more mature applications with a larger team of developers, they can choose to do all this stuff themselves. But for smaller teams, there's something to be said for relying on the battle-tested infrastructure.

[Cooperbuilt]

@SheaBelsky! Great to hear from you. I did feel a bit hypocritical while recording this. Despite the long-winded Next roast session, I'm still going to wake up and continue to use Next tomorrow. There is a lot that Next gives us out of the box and it's hard to walk away from that. That being said, there is a growing momentum in my mind towards making a change if and when a worthy replacement emerges.

[helloitsjoe]

Hey Shea! Thanks for the comment, I'm late getting back to you but we talk on an upcoming show about how you make a good point. It's easy to get caught up in some of the gripes and lose sight of the fact that NextJS and other frameworks have really made life easier for a lot of developers, especially when it comes to server-side rendering. Even beyond that, like you say, just having solid infra that's easy to setup is huge for productivity.