React is a pretty narrow framework. It focuses on the components and doesn't really dictate how your app should be structured, which is part of why it's been su

React is a pretty narrow framework. It focuses on the components and doesn't really dictate how your app should be structured, which is part of why it's been successful: you can adopt it gradually and replace pieces of an existing app with it, until eventually your whole app is React. Next.js is a framework built on top of React. It has a more defined structure for things like routing, and it provides useful tools for server-side rendering. It is definitely used in production by major companies and not just by "barely funded startups." Vercel makes Next, among other popular JS and serverless offerings, and they offer various managed hosting services. I don't use Vercel's paid offerings, but they strike me as operating in the Heroku space, where they make it easy to get a simple app off the ground.