Next.js

What is it?

Next.js is an open-source React framework maintained by Vercel. It bundles rendering strategies (SSR, SSG, ISR, RSC), a file-based router, image optimisation, i18n, middleware, and a first-class API layer into one coherent toolchain. It runs on Node.js, Edge runtimes, and static hosts.

What does it do?

Next.js handles the entire frontend pipeline: routing, data fetching, caching, rendering, streaming, and deployment optimisations. Core Web Vitals stay green by default thanks to automatic code splitting, image/font optimisation, and a built-in CDN-aware cache model — all configured by convention, not wiring.

Where is it used?

Next.js powers the web surfaces of TikTok, Twitch, Notion, Hulu, OpenAI, Nike, and tens of thousands of marketing sites, dashboards, and SaaS products. It is the default pick when a team needs React's component model plus SEO-friendly server rendering — which is most business-critical web workloads.

When & why it emerged

Next.js was released by Vercel (then ZEIT) in 2016 to solve React's server-rendering problem. Single-page React apps were fast to build but bad at SEO, slow on first paint, and required weeks of webpack plumbing. Next.js packaged the solution — SSR, code splitting, file routing — into a zero-config framework.

Why we use it at Internative

Next.js is our default for every client web app in 2026. The site you're reading runs on Next 16 with App Router, React Server Components, and i18n routing via next-intl. It gives us one framework that covers marketing sites, authenticated dashboards, and SaaS frontends — with performance and SEO we don't have to retrofit later.