Next.js Development
Next.js is our default framework for production web applications. Not because it's popular — because it solves real problems. Server-side rendering for SEO. Static generation for speed. The App Router for clean, composable layouts. We've shipped Next.js projects for e-commerce, marketing sites, web apps, and internal dashboards. adeptive.se itself runs on Next.js — we eat our own cooking. Why Next.js React is the foundation. Next.js is the framework that makes React production-ready. Here's what matters to us and why we recommend it to clients: App Router and Server Components. The App Router replaced the old pages/ directory with a layout-based routing model. Server Components run on the server by default — less JavaScript shipped to the browser, faster initial loads, better Core Web Vitals. We structure every project around this. Layouts nest. Loading states are granular. Error boundaries are route-specific. The result: applications that feel fast and stay maintainable as they grow. SSR and SSG — the right tool for each page. Not every page needs the same rendering strategy. Product pages with dynamic pricing? Server-side rendered on each request. Blog posts and marketing pages? Statically generated at build time, revalidated with ISR. Landing pages that change weekly? On-demand revalidation via webhook. We pick the rendering strategy per route, not per project. Image optimization. Next.js Image component handles lazy loading, responsive sizing, and format conversion (WebP, AVIF) out of the box. We configure it for each project's CDN setup — whether that's Vercel's built-in image optimization or a custom loader pointing to Sanity's image pipeline. Vercel deployment. Next.js and Vercel are built by the same team. The deployment pipeline is zero-config: push to main, preview deploys on PRs, production deploy on merge. We set up environment variables, edge middleware, and caching headers as part of every project. The CI/CD pipeline is done on day one, not as an afterthought. What We Build with Next.js We've used Next.js for every type of web project. The framework handles all of them well — the difference is in how you configure routing, data fetching, and caching for each use case. E-commerce storefronts. Headless commerce with MedusaJS on the backend and Next.js on the frontend. Product listing pages are statically generated. Cart and checkout are client-side with server actions for mutations. We handle product variants, inventory sync, payment integrations (Stripe, Klarna), and multi-currency — all typed with TypeScript end-to-end. Marketing sites and landing pages. Content managed in Sanity CMS, rendered by Next.js with ISR. Marketing teams edit content in Sanity Studio, changes go live within seconds via on-demand revalidation. No developer needed for content updates. Pages score 90+ on Lighthouse without extra optimization work because Server Components keep the JavaScript bundle small. Web applications and dashboards. Internal tools, admin panels, analytics dashboards. Next.js middleware handles authentication. Server Components fetch data without exposing API keys to the client. Route groups organize admin vs public sections. We use Tailwind CSS for all UI work — consistent design tokens, responsive by default, no CSS-in-JS runtime overhead. Next.js + Our Stack Next.js is the frontend layer. What sits behind it matters just as much. We've built specific integration patterns for the tools we use daily. Next.js + MedusaJS. MedusaJS is an open-source headless commerce engine. We connect it to Next.js through a typed API client layer. Product data fetches happen in Server Components — no client-side loading spinners for product pages. Cart state lives in cookies and syncs via server actions. Checkout flows use Next.js route handlers as a proxy to MedusaJS, keeping API keys server-side. We've built custom modules for MedusaJS (fulfillment providers, payment plugins) and integrated them into Next.js storefronts with full type safety. Next.js + Sanity CMS. Sanity's real-time content lake pairs well with Next.js. We use GROQ queries in Server Components for published content and Sanity's live preview for draft content in development. The pattern: fetch in a Server Component, pass to a client component only when interactivity is needed. On-demand revalidation via Sanity webhooks means content updates go live in under 5 seconds. We configure Sanity Studio as an embedded route inside the Next.js app — one deployment, one domain, one codebase. Next.js + Tailwind CSS. Every project uses Tailwind CSS. It works perfectly with Server Components because there's no runtime — just CSS classes compiled at build time. We set up design tokens (colors, spacing, typography) in tailwind.config.ts and use them consistently across the project. Component libraries are built with Tailwind variants. Dark mode, responsive breakpoints, and animations are all handled through Tailwind utilities. Our Next.js Projects We don't just recommend Next.js — we build with it every day. Forge — a headless commerce storefront built on Next.js App Router + MedusaJS. Server Components for product pages, client components for cart interactions, server actions for checkout mutations. Deployed to Vercel with edge middleware handling geolocation-based pricing. ParaMe — a web application with complex user flows, data visualization, and real-time updates. Built with Next.js App Router, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. Authentication handled through Next.js middleware with session tokens. adeptive.se — this website. Next.js App Router + Sanity CMS. Content is managed in Sanity Studio, pages are statically generated with ISR, and the site scores consistently above 95 on Lighthouse Performance. We use it as our testing ground for new Next.js features before recommending them to clients. Technical Depth: How We Use Next.js This section is for the engineers evaluating us. Here's how we work with Next.js internals. App Router patterns. We use route groups to separate public and authenticated sections without affecting URL structure. Parallel routes for modals and side panels that work with browser back/forward. Intercepting routes for patterns like click product card, show modal — direct URL, show full page. Loading.tsx files for granular suspense boundaries per route segment. Error.tsx for route-level error recovery without crashing the whole app. Caching strategies. Next.js has four caching layers: Request Memoization, Data Cache, Full Route Cache, and Router Cache. We configure each one intentionally. Fetch requests in Server Components use the cache and next.revalidate options to control staleness. For dynamic data (cart contents, user sessions), we opt out of caching with no-store. For product catalogs, we use time-based revalidation combined with on-demand revalidation via revalidateTag() when the CMS updates. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR). ISR lets us statically generate pages at build time and update them after deployment without a full rebuild. We use it for product pages (revalidate every hour), blog posts (revalidate on webhook from Sanity), and category pages (revalidate every 15 minutes). For large e-commerce catalogs, we generate the top 100 products at build time and let the rest generate on first request — then cache them for subsequent visitors. Server Components and Client Components. We follow a clear rule: Server Components by default, Client Components only when the browser needs to be involved (event handlers, useState, useEffect, browser APIs). Data fetching always happens in Server Components. Client Components receive data as props. This keeps the JavaScript bundle small — we've seen 40-60% reductions in client-side JavaScript compared to the old pages/ architecture on the same projects. Server Actions. We use server actions for form submissions, cart mutations, and any write operation. They replace API routes for most use cases — the function runs on the server, the client calls it like a regular function. Type-safe with TypeScript. We validate inputs with Zod on the server side. Progressive enhancement: forms work without JavaScript enabled. Work with Us If you're building a new product, migrating from an older React setup, or need a team that knows Next.js beyond the getting-started tutorial — talk to us. We'll scope the project, pick the right rendering strategies, and ship it to Vercel. No account managers, no handoffs. You work with senior developers who write the code.
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