[code_biologist]

Can you elaborate on why Astro is better or what type of fight with Next? Your type of post with strong opinions but none of the underlying _reasons_ are one of the reasons why JS framework wars are tiring. I'm really interested in alternatives to Next, but it's difficult to good, non-vitriolic, shop talk.

We bolted Next onto the React/Python application at work for SEO stuff. There's a number of self-inflicted problems with our integration but Next seems serviceable. Vercel's direction as a whole is not aligned with our needs though. The framework and paradigm churn is a huge time suck.

[leerob]

What direction would you prefer Vercel went in?

[code_biologist]

I don't really have a strong opinion. Vercel is a really loud voice in the React world, so I guess I'd like them to survive a post-zero interest rate policy world (many growth companies have struggled). Or at least, not push paradigms and features specific to their needs on the React world, then run low on cash, leaving those paradigms functionally unsupported and half adopted by other React libraries.

My needs that Next solved mid-2021 when I picked it: framework that can build on existing React code with strong SSR/ISR primitives + tools for bundle size control for SEO. Nice DX with hot reload was a big plus. My backend is Python and that's pretty set in stone.

Vercel seems to be very focused on solving full stack problems, with the app vs pages routing changes, RSC, server actions. It's clear they're listening to paying customers and I wouldn't tell them to stop. It's just not the problem I have.

[0xblinq]

I think all this RSC is a big fuck up.

A feature nobody needed that breaks the ecosystem and introduces huge amounts of complexity.

It hurts to see.