The Most Common Misunderstanding in Web Development
Most developers love React. But when businesses ask "should we build our website in React", the answer is almost always: **use Next.js instead**.
Here's why.
What's the Difference?
**React** is a UI library. It builds Single Page Applications (SPAs) where the browser runs JavaScript to render content.
**Next.js** is a full framework built on top of React. It supports:
SEO: The Biggest Difference
Google needs to see your HTML to index your content. React SPAs render in the browser — meaning by the time Google's crawler arrives, the page may be blank or incomplete.
Next.js pre-renders pages on the server, delivering complete HTML to both users **and** search engines.
When to Use Each
Use Next.js when:
Use plain React when:
Our Verdict
At WEB CREST LAB, we exclusively use **Next.js** for all client-facing websites. It gives us the full power of React while ensuring each page loads fast, looks great on mobile, and ranks well in search engines.