Overview
Next.js is a React framework designed for building full-stack web applications. It provides a comprehensive set of features including the App Router for modern React development, server and client components, built-in optimization for images and fonts, and integrated data fetching and caching strategies.
The framework comes with Turbopack as its default bundler—an incremental bundler written in Rust that's optimized for JavaScript and TypeScript. Next.js handles lower-level tooling configuration automatically, allowing developers to focus on building their product. It supports both the newer App Router (with React Server Components) and the original Pages Router for backward compatibility.
Key features
- App Router with React Server Components
- Turbopack bundler (default)
- Image and font optimization
- Built-in CSS support (Tailwind, CSS Modules, Sass)
- Incremental static regeneration (ISR)
- API routes and route handlers
- TypeScript support
- Fast Refresh for development
- Zero-configuration for common use cases
- Turbopack provides fast incremental bundling
- Unified graph for multiple output environments
- Automatic lower-level tool configuration
- Strong React Server Components support
- Comprehensive documentation and guides
- Turbopack not available on all platforms (falls back to WASM on FreeBSD, OpenBSD)
- Some advanced Sass features not supported (custom functions)
- Learning curve for developers new to React
- Requires Node.js 20.9 or higher
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