[shepherdjerred]

> using the same language on the backend and frontend is underrated feature

I agree, but you can definitely do this without SSR or Next.JS. Common examples are tRPC, Zodios, or even just plain fetch calls with shared type definitions.

- https://trpc.io/

- https://www.zodios.org/

[root_axis]

Even SSR is pretty easy to do without a framework. Just render the component with react-dom/server and use hydrate on the client.