Is Server-side Rendering React’s Holy Grail?

With React and React Native now nether a caller foundation, possibly React will make advancement connected server-side rendering (SSR).

SSR is an existential problem that React needs to confront, according to Platformatic founders, Luca Maraschi, CEO, and Matteo Collina, CTO. On Wednesday, Maraschi and Collina hosted a streaming speech astir React and React Native called React’s New Era: Compiler Magic, Native Architecture, and Foundation Shift.

Both men are progressive successful unfastened source. Collina is known arsenic an unfastened root writer successful nan JavaScript ecosystem; modules he maintains person been downloaded much than 12 cardinal times. He’s a personnel of nan Node.js Technical Steering Committee, focusing connected streams, diagnostics and HTTP. Maraschi sits connected nan committee for nan OpenAPI Initiative.

They discussed nan large advantages of nan recent type of React and nan caller React compiler.

“To beryllium honest, nan biggest 1 is, arsenic I said, nan optimization that they shipped removed nan request to instrumentality usememo and do memoization of components,” Collina said. “These make it highly useful to debar re-render and massively optimized capacity connected nan frontend astatine scale.”

React Compiler’s Potential

What nan organization needs from React is “a overmuch better, faster, bigger React pinch caller features, caller optimizations, a caller direction,” Collina argued.

The React compiler has monolithic imaginable for SSR, Collina noted during nan livestream. While React compiler makes memoization successful components “go away,” Collina said React compiler could go “massively more.”

“It could amended importantly more, because if we commencement optimizing for servers and doing a batch of server-driven optimization, it has monolithic potential,” Collina said. On components, it could pre-render a chunk of HTML, he added.

“It’s funny that … location is an immense magnitude of effort successful optimizing for nan frontend aliases nan micro architecture, but we haven’t really focused connected solving nan existential problem that is much than 10 years [old], that is server-side rendering,” Maraschi added.

That’s because Facebook doesn’t usage JavaScript connected nan server, he said.

“They don’t do overmuch server-side rendering,” Collina said. “That worldly was ne'er planned to beryllium optimized successful immoderate shape aliases fashion.”

Still, they complimented Facebook for making nan determination to create a caller React Foundation nether nan Linux Foundation umbrella, which Maraschi noted “was not their duty” but was “great news.”

Frameworks and Server-Side Rendering

Maraschi noted that everyone is chasing nan beatified grail of SSR. So far, nan only model to execute it is Solid.js, he added.

“It’s not React-based, but it’s still JSX-based and they usage a different compiler for JSX, which makes it importantly faster,” Collina said of Solid.js.

Maraschi theorized that possibly companies are keeping concealed really they optimize connected nan server, but Collina rejected this theory.

“It’s conscionable not imaginable correct now pinch React to optimize it to a level that would beryllium drastically faster than what is location correct now,” Collina said. “I don’t deliberation there’s a concealed condiment somebody’s keeping successful nan closet, to beryllium honest. … It’s conscionable not there.”

Maraschi pondered whether frontend unreality supplier Vercel, which oversees Next.js, could lend to SSR optimization.

“I don’t deliberation so,” Collina said. “They are nether important capable unit to optimize their system, and they [are] yet swinging astir and starting to do nan work. Also, they are accepting Cloudflare contributions for optimizing Next.js.”

At nan aforesaid time, Cloudflare and Vercel are fighting for nan separator market, truthful it will beryllium absorbing to spot really Cloudflare will “play nan crippled successful nan React space,” Maraschi said. As for adjacent steps, Collina hopes nan adjacent measurement for React will beryllium fixing React SSR.

“I deliberation what will hap is that much vendors will commencement driving caller optimizations and caller usage cases for React and make lives moreover simpler for developers,” Collina said.

He doesn’t spot React going away, however, since truthful galore enterprises take React aliases Next.js for their projects. In part, that’s because they tin find competent React developers comparatively cheaply. Maraschi added that Next.js is fundamentally React connected steroids.

“I would opportunity that React is much of a room and Next.js is nan afloat package,” Collina added.

Despite that fact, erstwhile group time off Next.js, they thin not to spell to React but Remix (now called React Router), which is simply a full-stack web model built connected apical of React, Maraschi pointed out.

“Because typically they want to self-host,” Collina said. “And it’s overmuch simpler to self-host different frameworks than Next. But React is not a choice. Just utilizing plain React is not a prime because nan magnitude of boilerplate and framework you request to fundamentally reinvent. I don’t cognize astatine slightest 80% of what Next is doing, and you mightiness arsenic good conscionable usage Remix essentially.”

Could Framework Features Be Absorbed by React?

Maraschi besides pondered whether each these outer frameworks mightiness now beryllium absorbed successful nan improvement of React.

“Now that nan contributions are open, now that location is not a azygous benevolent dictator successful nan project, what sounds to maine much logical is that everyone will effort to return bits and pieces from immoderate different task and person them into React,” he said.

“It’s really nan only bully choice, because if they didn’t do this, they will strain, support straining, nan relationships betwixt nan various frameworks,” Collina added. “That’s going to beryllium nan earthy improvement of what’s going to happen, nan consolidation of nan ecosystem, aliases other it is going to beryllium excessively fragmented. Enterprises are seeking a Switzerland of technology.”

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