Why Next.Js is not for your next big project

1. Taking a lot of memory under the hood (*)

   • We were on for micro-frontends and the case with Next.Js is just bizarre. Even with the new SWC support, Next.Js build time limits developer productivity and limits us in our endeavors

   • We were running a single base core and three micro-frontend applications inside it with plugins for Next.Js. The memory just shot up till the point the machine does not respond. It was a huge disaster working with it.

   • The worst thing is that the same code logic, message passing, and inter-micro-frontend communication was seamless with the core react (Vite/SWC + Typescript )

   • Finally, we had to rewrite all our efforts in the past six months to migrate to the new (Core React) part.

2. Compiling time sucks even with the new SWC

   • As explained earlier too, the load times were very high even with all the optimizations we could think of. This may be our specific use cases, but this is a problem and I cannot vouch for Next.Js anymore now.

3. API routes cannot be used in Next.Js Page level functions like getServersideProps or getStaticProps

   • Let's suppose you create an API endpoint under /api/hello.ts . You cannot use it in page-level functions like getServersideProps or getStaticProps .

   • I know, it may be the case that the /api routes are not compiled till the point you get to work with it, especially at build times, but if you vouch for it being a full-stack framework, it must be the bare minimum.

   • There are certain hacks with it, like using functions in place of API routes in those page-level functions.

4. it is not a full-stack framework

   • Next.Js is very good when it comes to SEO, filesystem-based routing etc and these are the juicy parts. These are not the first priority when it comes to mission-critical apps. Next.Js is very good when it comes to small toy projects but I don't count on it.

   • Surely, it does some things really well but at the same time, becomes a pain in the ass managing stuff.

   • Full stack does not come with just making API routes and functions. It has a plethora of other use cases which Next.Js barely touches.

   • Things like

     • Monitoring

     • Logging

     • Background tasks

     • Request queues

     • Server-Sent Events

     • Web Sockets

     • Async Processing

     • Message broker within apps

     • Inter-services communication

These things are not available with Next.Js. Almost every time when I chose Next.Js for my projects, I had to make a separate dedicated server for the API and not rely on Next.Js' way to build APIs. This brings a lot of frustration and overwork on the developer side. I think this is more of a serverless architecture problem, rather than Next.Js Problem. But I wrote this in context of Next.Js because if you are not a full-stack framework, you better not advertise it so.