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Despite React being around for 7 years, it still seems slower to develop, slower in performance, and buggier than an equivalent SSR app. Despite having a coupl

Despite React being around for 7 years, it still seems slower to develop, slower in performance, and buggier than an equivalent SSR app. Despite having a couple years more experience in React than SSRs, I can knock out a 10 page web app with an SSR framework from scratch in a day (security, frontend, backend, data schema, deployment) but it takes me a couple more to knock out the same app in React. (Crud/Search/Reporting app) *Not counting certain types of highly interactive apps (like a Word Processor) which React excels at.

dgb23 6y ago
It depends on the project. I’m way, way more productive with a React frontend environment (webpack, babel, tailwind, next) when working with handcrafted designs. Even when the interactivity is trivial. And I know from experience that interactivity inevitably becomes more involved very often. One key feature is that JSX works on both the frontend and the backend.
arcturus17 6y ago
I’m in the same boat, SPA feels slower to develop than SSR to me, despite being fairly more experienced in SPA. However, I find it hard to justify choosing SSR for new projects anymore because: - React makes certain basic things (eg, fetching data, auth) more complex than in SSR, but the overall experience is weirdly addictive and exhilarating at times, especially component reusability on a well set up project. - My clients love it. I am 100% in the camp of “users don’t give a shit how the sausage is made”, but I constantly get praise on how “smooth” the UX feels. I know there are SSR technologies (eg Turbolinks) that can emulate this, but at this point I’m having a hard time justifying learning them properly and risking missing out on that maybe superficial, but addictive, customer praise. - It is indeed what I know best, so what the hell... I believe a competent web developer should know both SPA and SSR and apply what best fits the requirements at hand, but I can also appreciate why devs form biases one way or the other and how this has become a hotly contested topic, and I think we may still be in the same spot in three to five years.
- nthj 6y ago
  Turbolinks takes a day to learn, tops, and then you just build more SSR and it continues to work. And the abstraction rarely leaks.
Aeolun 6y ago
I think this is partially because people suddenly ask for a thousand things that are impossible on a server rendered app.

dgb23 6y ago

It depends on the project. I’m way, way more productive with a React frontend environment (webpack, babel, tailwind, next) when working with handcrafted designs. Even when the interactivity is trivial. And I know from experience that interactivity inevitably becomes more involved very often. One key feature is that JSX works on both the frontend and the backend.

arcturus17 6y ago

I’m in the same boat, SPA feels slower to develop than SSR to me, despite being fairly more experienced in SPA. However, I find it hard to justify choosing SSR for new projects anymore because: - React makes certain basic things (eg, fetching data, auth) more complex than in SSR, but the overall experience is weirdly addictive and exhilarating at times, especially component reusability on a well set up project. - My clients love it. I am 100% in the camp of “users don’t give a shit how the sausage is made”, but I constantly get praise on how “smooth” the UX feels. I know there are SSR technologies (eg Turbolinks) that can emulate this, but at this point I’m having a hard time justifying learning them properly and risking missing out on that maybe superficial, but addictive, customer praise. - It is indeed what I know best, so what the hell... I believe a competent web developer should know both SPA and SSR and apply what best fits the requirements at hand, but I can also appreciate why devs form biases one way or the other and how this has become a hotly contested topic, and I think we may still be in the same spot in three to five years.

nthj 6y ago
Turbolinks takes a day to learn, tops, and then you just build more SSR and it continues to work. And the abstraction rarely leaks.

Aeolun 6y ago

I think this is partially because people suddenly ask for a thousand things that are impossible on a server rendered app.