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I'm trying to figure out the difference between Next.js and Create React App (CRA). I know both are there to make our life easier while developing our front-end applications using React.

After exploring some articles on Google, I found that the main difference is

Next.js provides server-side rendering (SSR) while Create React App provides client-side rendering (CSR) and SSR improves the performance of application loading.

But what about other parameters from a development perspective, like the following?

  • Maintainability and scalability of the web application developed with Next.js or CRA

  • TypeScript and React hooks/Redux support

Is it a wrong comparison?

Peter Mortensen
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DevLoverUmar
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    Imprecise but useful answer: NextJS is great for page-based navigation like landing sites and blogs. CRA is great for single page apps like dashboards and desktop-style web apps. For a Medium clone, I'd prefer NextJS. For a Slack clone, CRA. – user Aug 19 '22 at 23:14
  • The only reason to use CRA in god's year 2022 is to maintain an existing application. Do not use CRA for any new project. NextJS FTW!. – Jonathan Dsouza Sep 09 '22 at 10:27
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    Next.js is for 95% of developers, it's does a lot of good things. But if you are the top 5% that want custom behaviour and best optimization, dont do nest.js. – yangli-io Feb 22 '23 at 16:52

6 Answers6

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I've used both NextJs and CRA. Both these frameworks can be used to get started quickly and provide a good developer experience. However, both of these have use cases where either of them shines better. I'll try to compare them based on some of these factors. Feel free to suggest edits with additional points or comments

Server Side Rendering

CRA Next.js
CRA doesn't support SSR out of the box.
However, you can still configure it.
It just takes more effort to setup SSR with your preferred server and configuration. The development team doesn't have plans to support this in the near future. They suggest other tools for this use case.		 NextJs has different types for SSR. It supports SSR out of the box.
* Static generation: fetch data at build time. This works best for use cases like blogs or static websites
* Server side rendering: fetch data and render for each requests. You have to do this when you need to serve different view for different users.

Configurability

I think this is point where these tools are very different and your decision can depend on this factor

CRA Next.js
Create React App doesn't leave you a lot of room to configure it.
Configurations like webpack config cannot be changed unless
you stray away from normal CRA way (eject, rescripts, rewired, craco).
Basically, you have to use what's configured in
react-scripts which is the core of CRA.		 Almost everything is configurable.
If you check the example NextJs templates, you can see files like
babelrc, jest.config, eslintrc etc
that you can configure.

Maintainability

CRA Next.js
CRA is very opinionated.
If you keep updated with the releases of CRA, it's not hard to maintain.		 NextJs is also well maintained. They release regular updates.

Typescript

CRA Next.js
Supports out of the box. You can initialize CRA app with typescript with
npx create-react-app my-app --template typescript		 Supports typescript out of the box.
Start with configurations for typescript with touch tsconfig.json

Hooks support

Latest version of both CRA and NextJs installs a version of React that supports hooks. You can also upgrade to the latest version easily

Redux support

Redux is a library that you can use with both these tools.

Carl Patenaude Poulin
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sudo bangbang
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  • Sure. React is a library. But that doesn't have anything to do with your question. Create React App is not React. I felt that distinction was clear to you when I read the question. I answered how Create React App is different from Nextjs or what feature these two framework has. – sudo bangbang Jul 20 '20 at 15:39
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    Can you please add something about Scalability as well? – DevLoverUmar Jul 27 '20 at 03:41
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    Could you please define Scalability? Just to make sure I understand what you're talking about. I see another answer about it. Maybe you could add what aspect of scalability is not covered by that answer. – sudo bangbang Jul 27 '20 at 07:09
  • @sudobangbang Is create-react-app a framework ? Or just a CLI tool ? – AdityaG15 Jan 05 '21 at 14:56
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    create-react-app is a framework. It's use cases are different from other popular frontend frameworks though. Main use cases are prototyping and learning react. Features other frameworks provide are absent in CRA. Still a framework. – sudo bangbang Jan 19 '21 at 19:41
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    Not 100% true what you wrote. I am not fan of any of these two, but CRA provides a nice way to extend configuration, you can add babel or typescript or webpack config files without ejecting. So, "Create React App doesn't leave you a lot of room to configure it." is not so correct. – Bojan Golubovic May 20 '21 at 13:14
  • you will hate next.js at the production – Anas Mar 08 '22 at 11:14
  • NextJS gives you routing out of the box. It's automatic routes based on a folder structure – Janac Meena Mar 28 '22 at 18:02
60

Create React App is just a React project creation engine to help you setup your React project quickly. After running the CRA script npx create-react-app <appname> you will get a nice and clean single-page application that you can run. Under the hood you also get things like babel, eslint, jest, webpack already setup so it's a really convenient way to start doing React development. And in case you'd need more control over the configuration of those tools, you can still use npm run eject.

Next.js on the other hand is a framework based on React to build Node.js server-side apps. This means you will use the same component-oriented logic to build pages and leverage the Next.js routing engine for page to page navigation. Server-side rendering will allow loading time to be more spread over time, so perceived performance will be probably better. Redux can be used as well but there will be some additional steps to make it work properly (see https://github.com/kirill-konshin/next-redux-wrapper)

Whatever you choose, in the end, it will be React coding. Components, JSX, TypeScript support, React hooks, and all other core aspects of React will be supported either way. Therefore, you can expect similar degree of maintainability. On the other hand, scalability depends on your choice: if you choose Next.js you will host the app on a server infrastructure which should be sized according to your audience whereas React bundle created with CRA just need to be statically hosted somewhere.

Sebastien Mornas
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TLDR

biggest difference is purpose of both projects. NextJS : JAM Stack or Static Site Generator Create React App : is an officially supported way to create single-page React applications.

Explanation:

This conundrum is true for many opensource projects. Seem alternative of other but they have key differences. For Example in this case Although both projects use ReactJS as front end and produce webapps. the problem they solve are very distinct. there are some overlapping features themes/templates in js. but development and future work will be to enhance project such that it helps solve there problem statement in better way.

i.e. NextJS will try to include if there are any new Markdown features developed. which won't be the case in CreateReactApps.

Suggestion.

from your question it seems you are looking these projects for developing React Native Apps. So I will suggest go with Create React App.

your comparison should primarily be whether this project align with Problem I am solving. then compare. Maintainability, Scalability, Typescript and React Hooks/Redux support.

In case needed more info do comment.

Devidas
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0

React is just a JavaScript library, and on the other hand, Next.js is a React framework. SSR is one of the benefits of Next.js. But there are many other benefits.

Next.js can do everything React does, and on top of that, it has features that React alone doesn't have. Checkout the documentation for Next.js at Getting Started.

Peter Mortensen
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Ebenezer Mathebula
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    This unfortunately misses the point of the question which is to compare CRA platform with Next.js platform. – jfunk Jan 07 '22 at 18:37
  • This answer doesn't go into details about the "benefits of Nextjs" over CRA and moreover doesn't compare the CRA to the NextJS Framework. – Emile ASTIH May 29 '22 at 11:41
-5

ReactJs is a library and NextJs is framework that uses react components.

fardeen awais
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-5

Next.js and Create React App (CRA) are both tools for building React applications, but they have different goals and feature sets. Here are some key differences:

Server-side rendering: Next.js is a framework for building server-side rendered (SSR) React applications, which means that the initial page is rendered on the server and then sent to the client. This can improve performance, especially for large or complex applications. CRA, on the other hand, only supports client-side rendering (CSR) by default.

Routing: Next.js has built-in support for client-side and server-side routing, which makes it easy to create pages with dynamic routes. CRA requires you to use a third-party routing library, such as React Router.

API routes: Next.js has a built-in API routes feature, which makes it easy to create serverless API endpoints. CRA does not have this feature, but you can create API endpoints using a third-party library or by setting up a separate server.

Configuration: CRA provides a minimal configuration out of the box and is designed to be easy to set up and use. Next.js has more configuration options and can be customized to fit more complex use cases.

Plugins: CRA has a plugin system that allows you to add additional functionality to your application. Next.js does not have a plugin system, but it does have a large number of built-in features that cover many common use cases.

Overall, if you need server-side rendering, dynamic routing, or built-in API endpoints, Next.js may be a better choice for your project. If you just need a simple way to set up a React application with client-side rendering, CRA is a good option.

sanjiv sutar
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