# Next.js 127 Hacker News commenters recommended Next.js and 256 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 3 years (6 owners). **Verdict:** A full-stack React framework recommended for server rendering, file-based routing, ISR and an opinionated structure, though critics widely find it complex, churn-prone and tilted toward Vercel hosting. ## Why people recommend it - Server-side rendering built in (4 comments): "One of the reasons Next.js is attractive to me, is exactly they have rediscovered why so many of us have stayed with SSR." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46344376)) "Next.js and TanStack Start don't send any JavaScript to the client if you decide to server-render everything." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49077501)) "Next.js gives us SSR plus built-in routing for 4 languages, ISR for cache invalidation on ~900K pages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47643784)) - File-based routing and ISR (3 comments): "Nextjs static export has features such as dynamic chunking, eager-loading of chunks when you hover over a link, routing etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50240194)) "Next.js really shines, especially with file based routing and ISR making things much easier to manage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47643256)) "Next.js gives us SSR plus built-in routing for 4 languages, ISR for cache invalidation on ~900K pages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47643784)) - Opinionated, batteries-included full stack (3 comments): "Leaning into the opinionation it provides/encourages keeps my team from bickering too much about how to structure things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48886842)) "they did the heavy work of building things that need to already exist when building an application" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46925523)) "it's just good enough with all the backend stuff within the same Next.js process as the front-end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46324890)) - Fast loads when used properly (3 comments): "Nextjs can get you 100 if you use it properly. Like anything it's just a tool that can increase complexity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50239152)) "It also made image optimization almost effortless, greatly improving load times for my websites." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50030473)) "We shipped file system caching in 16.1 that greatly improves the initial route loads." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47225100)) ## What people warn about - Complex and hard to debug (7 comments): "Next is very complex, largely because it has incrementally grown and kept somewhat backwards compatible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47142927)) "a lot is accidental (backwards compatibility, enterprise features most people don't use, etc.)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873820)) "Nextjs ups the complexity orders of magnitude, I couldn't even figure out how to set any breakpoints on the RSC code within next." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46240134)) - Tied to Vercel, self-hosting pain (4 comments): "It's yet another backend framework, added that it only runs on vercel infrastructure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495733)) "Most people assume you can just throw a Nextjs project into a docker container and don't realize that there are many features that don't just work "out of the box"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250873)) "Next in particular is designed for the way Vercel runs applications and comes with extra pain if you don't run on edge." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47469113)) - Breaking changes and paradigm churn (5 comments): "Switching from Next's pages router to app router (RSCs by default) is a major shift in architecture" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47349776)) "they pile new shiny bit on top of new shiny bit without caring about the regular user experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649122)) "it feels like the first few, early, iterations of Next were great, and then it all started progressively turning into slop from a design perspective" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46242753)) - Heavy JavaScript and slow builds (2 comments): "They are downloading and executing megabytes of JS while in-page interactions tends to be limited to few basic stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47687326)) "the complexity tax of a full framework is hard to justify once you measure what you are actually paying in build time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47697378)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Ruby on Rails](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruby-on-rails.md): 337 recommend - [Django](https://hackerapproved.com/p/django.md): 277 recommend - [Phoenix Framework](https://hackerapproved.com/p/phoenix.md): 85 recommend - [Laravel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/laravel.md): 71 recommend - [SvelteKit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sveltekit.md): 67 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Next.js", https://hackerapproved.com/p/next-js/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).