Yes, I am claiming that for building new websites, I would always choose NextJS over CRA. NextJS already provides everything CRA does (client side rendering) but also gives me the option to server side render specific pages. Server side rendering provides better SEO/performance. Server side rendering allows users to see content faster (since it's already rendered), which Google rewards by placing it higher than purely client side rendered apps.
There may be scenarios where we want to render everything on the client side. In this case, it might be overkill to use NextJS if we are never going to use the additional features. However, even for apps where SEO is not important, there are often specific pages that we want good SEO.
One example I can think of where I would use CRA is if I'm building an Electron app. Electron apps mimic native applications where everything is rendered on the client side. The landing page for my Electron app might still be in NextJS, but I can see myself using CRA to kickstart an Electron app...since Electron apps by definition aren't websites and do not show up on search results.
Fair enough! The only thing that confused me is when I thought that you suggested that NextJS somehow magically solves all performance problems ... if your React code is poorly designed or written, causing slow performance, then NextJS won't suddenly make it run fast, I think we'll agree on that.
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Yes, I am claiming that for building new websites, I would always choose NextJS over CRA. NextJS already provides everything CRA does (client side rendering) but also gives me the option to server side render specific pages. Server side rendering provides better SEO/performance. Server side rendering allows users to see content faster (since it's already rendered), which Google rewards by placing it higher than purely client side rendered apps.
There may be scenarios where we want to render everything on the client side. In this case, it might be overkill to use NextJS if we are never going to use the additional features. However, even for apps where SEO is not important, there are often specific pages that we want good SEO.
One example I can think of where I would use CRA is if I'm building an Electron app. Electron apps mimic native applications where everything is rendered on the client side. The landing page for my Electron app might still be in NextJS, but I can see myself using CRA to kickstart an Electron app...since Electron apps by definition aren't websites and do not show up on search results.
Fair enough! The only thing that confused me is when I thought that you suggested that NextJS somehow magically solves all performance problems ... if your React code is poorly designed or written, causing slow performance, then NextJS won't suddenly make it run fast, I think we'll agree on that.