Create a Next.js App

To build a complete web application with React from scratch, there are many important details you need to consider:

  • Code has to be bundled using a bundler like webpack and transformed using a compiler like Babel.
  • You need to do production optimizations such as code splitting.
  • You might want to statically pre-render some pages for performance and SEO. You might also want to use server-side rendering or client-side rendering.
  • You might have to write some server-side code to connect your React app to your data store.

A framework can solve these problems. But such a framework must have the right level of abstraction — otherwise it won’t be very useful. It also needs to have great "Developer Experience", ensuring you and your team have an amazing experience while writing code.

Next.js: The React Framework

Enter Next.js, the React Framework. Next.js provides a solution to all of the above problems. But more importantly, it puts you and your team in the pit of success when building React applications.

Next.js has the best-in-class "Developer Experience" and many built-in features; a sample of them are:

Next.js is used in tens of thousands of production-facing websites and web applications, including many of the world's largest brands.

About This Tutorial

This free interactive course will guide you through how to get started with Next.js.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn Next.js basics by creating a very simple blog app. Here’s an example of the final result:

https://next-learn-starter.now.sh (source)

Let’s get started!

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of JavaScript and React. If you’ve never written React code, you should go through the official React tutorial first.

If you’re looking for documentation instead, visit the Next.js documentation.