In modern web development, performance and user experience are key components of building a successful application. One of the best ways to achieve these goals is by implementing Server-Side Rendering (SSR). Next.js, a popular React framework, makes SSR incredibly easy and efficient. In this blog, we’ll dive into the fundamentals of Server-Side Rendering with Next.js and explore how you can leverage it to optimize your applications.

Server-Side Rendering is the process of rendering a web page on the server, rather than in the browser. With SSR, the server generates the HTML content of the page and sends it to the browser fully rendered. This approach results in faster page loads, better SEO performance, and a more seamless user experience. Traditional client-side rendering (CSR) typically renders the page in the browser using JavaScript after an initial HTML skeleton is loaded. While CSR has its advantages, SSR provides critical benefits for performance and SEO, making it the preferred approach for many web applications.

Next.js offers several rendering methods, but SSR is one of the most widely used for dynamic content. Here’s how SSR works in Next.js: Server-Side Data Fetching: When a user requests a page, Next.js fetches the necessary data on the server before rendering the HTML. This ensures that the page has all the data it needs before it’s sent to the browser. Pre-rendering the Page: Once the data is fetched, Next.js renders the page on the server and sends the fully-rendered HTML to the browser. The browser then takes over, making the page interactive. Hydration: After the HTML is delivered, React takes over and “hydrates” the page, making it interactive by attaching event listeners and state management.

// pages/posts.js import React from 'react'; const Posts = ({ posts }) => { return ( <div> <h1>Posts</h1> <ul> {posts.map((post) => ( <li key={post.id}>{post.title}</li> ))} </ul> </div> ); }; export async function getServerSideProps() { // Fetching data from an API or database const res = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts'); const posts = await res.json(); // Returning the fetched data as props return { props: { posts } }; } export default Posts;