Gatsby.Js vs Next.JS. Which one to choose?

Static site generators are on the rise and it's a bit sophisticated development technology that works around pre-rendered pages. It is due to the trending JAMstack web development revolution that is going to change this industry in 2022.

Frameworks like Gatsby.js and Next.js include this functionality as defaults, enabling React developers to easily build full sites without much upfront configuration. Additionally, since their individual parts were optimized to work together (vs. installing libraries that came from different places), you begin with an incredibly performant site.

When deciding between Gatsby and Next, how do you determine which framework is best? Let’s explore the key differences between the two. We’ll end with some questions to ask yourself to make the best choice.

Whether you should use Gatsby or Next depends very much on your use case, as really they are both awesome.

If you have lots of content or if you expect your content to grow a lot over time, then static generated web pages are not the best solution for you. The reason is that it takes much time to build the site if you have lots of content.

When creating a very large app with thousands of pages it can be fairly slow to rebuild. And if you have to wait for a chunk of time when you hit publish before it goes live it’s not a perfect solution.

So if you have a site with content that you will expect to grow and grow over time, then Next.JS is the best choice for you.

Also, if you want more freedom with how you access your data, Next.JS is worth a shout.

It's worth mentioning here that the documentation for Next is some of the best I have ever come across. It has an interactive introduction that quizzes you as you go through the content to make sure you are following along.

I tend to, and this is my personal preference, use Gatsby when I am building small-scale websites and blogs. The eco-system is perfect for hooking up to a CMS (it is a breeze) and there are some awesome guides on how to get going with it all.

It is (in my mind) easier to get up and running with Gatsby, so that is worth keeping in mind. Again, the documentation is to a high level, packed full of tutorials for you to follow along.

Gatsby also comes with some "starter" templates, as well as relatively recently introduced "themes" which all make getting a fully functioning web app up and running a quick process.

If you are looking for the best headless eCommerce solution then you will definitely come across these two technologies as an option. Hope this short article helps you with that. 

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