Hey all, as someone ignorant to this whole SSR/Next.js stuff: I understand that Next.js is particularly popular for creating landing pages that require strong SEO. What I don't understand is, in what way is it better than say, using something like HUGO or Jekyll? If you require some dynamic content, wouldn't it be easier (and faster to build) to use a SSG and ship the JS along with all the other static assets? What am I missing here? Thanks.
Both hugo and jekyll use some kind of templating engine, and as far as templating engines go, react is better in a lot of cases. Especially when you can leverage its ecosystem of libraries, or the components for react you already have.
That gur feeling like you are missing something important is nothing more than psuedo FOMO. Its complicated and contrived for no good reason at all. SSG are good. Plain HTML is even better.
I would always advocate for plain HTML, or some basic templating engine. But such a statement highly depends on your needs. Plain HTML is great when you know exactly what you're building. As soon as you're going for something a bit more dynamic, or when certain elements require conditions, you quickly move to either SSG or some for of SSR.
Not saying you have to use whatever latest technology people are advocating, but use whatever makes sense to use. Plain HTML has its limitations, that could be solved with SSG or SSR.
