Next.js

What Next.js is

Next.js is an open-source React framework for building full-stack web applications, maintained by Vercel. Where React is the library that gives you components, Next.js wraps a full framework around it: file-based routing, server-side rendering, data fetching, back-end API routes and a build system, all configured for you. That means you can build both the user interface and the server logic of an application in a single project.

Its modern App Router is built on React Server Components, so much of an app can render on the server, sending complete HTML to the browser and shipping less JavaScript than a traditional client-side app. That server-first rendering is what lets a highly interactive Next.js app still be fast and readable by search engines, which a plain client-side React app often is not.

How HDC uses Next.js

We treat Next.js as a deliberate choice for a specific kind of project: genuinely app-like products. We reach for it when a client needs something closer to software than to a website, a customer portal with logins, a staff dashboard, a booking platform, a data-heavy tool with constant interactivity.

In those projects, Next.js lets us:

• Build the front end and the data layer in one codebase, using its built-in API routes.
• Server-render the pages that need to be public and searchable, while keeping the interactive app behind a login fast and responsive.
• Structure a large application cleanly with file-based routing, shared layouts and nested routes.

We pair it with TypeScript for safety across the whole stack and Tailwind CSS for styling, the same disciplines we apply everywhere.

Why we apply it

Some projects are simply not websites, they’re applications, and trying to force them into a static-site approach makes them fragile and frustrating. Next.js is purpose-built for that app-like work. Its server rendering means a client doesn’t have to choose between rich interactivity and being found in search: the public pages stay SEO-readable while the interactive parts feel like real software.

It’s also a mature, heavily supported framework with an enormous ecosystem, so a client’s product isn’t built on anything obscure. For the right project, that maturity is exactly what you want under something people depend on every day.

How Next.js fits our stack

Next.js is the framework we layer over React when a build crosses the line from site into application. It sits alongside TypeScript for end-to-end type safety and Tailwind CSS for styling, and we host and secure it through Cloudflare at the edge. It’s the natural step up from our default: where Astro handles fast content and marketing sites, Next.js handles the app-like products that need routing, server logic and constant interactivity. The two cover the full spectrum of what a growing business might need online.

When Next.js isn’t the right tool

We’re honest about fit, and most of the time that means not using Next.js. For a marketing site, a trades website, a brochure site or a blog, Next.js is more framework than the job needs, it ships more JavaScript and costs more to host than a static Astro build that loads almost instantly and ranks just as well. We reserve Next.js for projects that are genuinely applications: portals, dashboards, booking systems, SaaS products. If your project is really a website, we’ll build it on Astro and tell you why.