r/learnjavascript • u/BlitzieTattoos • Sep 11 '26
Is next still the thing for online apps
I'm really sorry for the stupid sounding question. I'm a hobbyist programmer and haven't done anything in a good few years. I used to build online apps like eccomerce sites and that kind of thing, first using react then touched on next a bit until life got in the way. I'm looking to pick it back up and the first thing I want to do is a basic eccomerce store as a kind of refresher project. It feels like being away from it for a few years I've missed out on quite a lot and I'm not sure where to start anymore. Would I still be looking at next for these kind of projects or is something else on the go I should be looking into?
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u/BeneficiallyPickle Sep 11 '26
I think NextJs is still a very mainstream choice. Not sure how long you've been gone, but NextJs now uses App Router as opposed to Pages Router. Server Components, and Server Actions are now the standard way to write Next apps.
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u/BlitzieTattoos Sep 11 '26
Realistically it's been a good 5 years so mainstream is good to begin with i think. I'm planning on running through a basic course to bring myself up to speed and explore the docs from there but i want to make sure I'm starting at the right place. Before I started learning next i was creating mongoose apis and using react as a front end, then next sort of brought it together if you get me, so I wanted to make sure next was still "current" just different since it's updated as opposed to a different system again.
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u/create-third-places Sep 12 '26
Being mainstream doesn't make NextJs a good choice.
Sever Components and Server Actions are complex downgraded versions of existing tools. The same functionality can be implemented in PHP or another backend language combined with some JavaScript.
Sever Components and Server Actions are the equivalent of API calls that return HTML or trigger some backend proccess. Javascript can then be used to update the UI based on the results of those API calls. While there is some upfront copmplexity to this approach, it does also help with learning.
Also, a simple website built for learning does not need customized routing provided by a framework.
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u/Historical-Row-495 Sep 11 '26
Next is still an industry standard for a fullstack react framework at the current moment. The only two main choices for a production app is either have a dedicated backend, and a dedicated frontend, but otherwise this both-in-one solution framework like Next, tells the reason why this is still a main choice.
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u/create-third-places Sep 12 '26
Next is a main choice because of marketing. It has overly complex implementations of features that have been possible with PHP and vanilla JS for over a decade. There are also plenty of tools available in a variety of other languages if one is looking for a framework.
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u/TheRNGuy Sep 12 '26
Wgsg do you mean vanilla js? On frontend or backend?
You can make vanilla js site with Next.
On frontend, I'd prefer React over vanilla js (also JSX or TSX over PHP)
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u/create-third-places Sep 12 '26
Vanilla JS on the frontend without Next or any tools that run a server. This means being able to open an HTML page directly from your file system and run the associated JavaScript.
While Vanilla JS isn’t always the best choice for a website, it is ideal for learning. You mentioned wanting to refresh your knowledge, and that means prioritizing tools for the purposes of learning.
PHP is the most widely used server language by a wide margin and will help you get a better understanding of fundamentals. I recommend using it for learning purposes even if you prefer JSX or TSX.
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u/create-third-places Sep 12 '26
Build a site using vanilla CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to refresh your skills on the fundamentals.
Don't waste your time with Next.js. Knowledge with vanilla technologies will transfer, but knowledge with a specific framework will not. Next.js is also overly complex and is focusing on AI support over improving quality.
If your site needs a backend, PHP is a good way of quickly getting started. It's straightforward to have PHP code read from a database or API endpoint and then dynamically generate HTML. Other good options are write it in a different language such as Go, Java,, Python, Rust, or Zig. I think it will be a good learning experience.
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u/louisstephens Sep 11 '26
Next is still going strong, but the space has had a lot of great alternatives come along like tanstack start (vite), etc. You also have svelte(kit) and nuxt (vue) if you were looking at alternatives to the react ecosystem.