DEV Community: Yousif

Why I keep choosing Vike over Next.js for frontend apps

Yousif — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 00:53:35 +0000

I've built a bunch of frontend apps and landing pages over the years. Some simple, some complex, some just to ship something and see what sticks.

And like a lot of people, I started with Next.js.

It’s battle-tested, well-documented, comes with everything. But over time, I found myself reaching for it less and less — especially for frontend-only projects. It started to feel too heavy, too opinionated, too “big” for what I needed.

That’s when I found Vike. And honestly? It changed the way I build.

What is Vike?

Vike is a meta-framework built on top of Vite and React.

It gives you proper server-side rendering (SSR) with full flexibility — without turning your project into a full-stack ecosystem.

No forced routing conventions, no CLI magic, no weird config layers.

Just SSR, per-route control, and Vite under the hood.

Why I use it (and keep using it)

🧠 1. The learning curve is almost flat

Most devs today are already familiar with Vite + React.

Vike builds on that — it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.

If you’ve used Vite and know React Router, you’ll feel at home fast.

There’s no "framework DSL" to learn. You just write components and define routes.

🧼 2. No lock-in, no magic

With Next.js, I often felt like I was in a world of “Next’s way or no way” — pages directory, app directory, file-based routing, etc.

With Vike, I can structure things however I want. I define my routes, my data fetching, my page layout, and that’s it. No black boxes.

It’s not a full-stack platform. It’s just SSR on top of Vite, and that’s all I needed.

⚡ 3. SSR that actually feels clean

Vike gives you actual SSR by default — not static export hacks or weird hydration layers.

You define a route, set its metadata via +Head.jsx, and it just works.

For SEO, this setup is way easier to reason about than messing with Helmet or dynamic meta tags inside useEffect. You don’t fight the framework to render HTML for bots.

🔥 4. Perfect for frontend-first projects

If I’m building a full-stack app with auth, API routes, edge functions etc. — fine, maybe Next.js makes sense.

But for:

Landing pages
Marketing sites
Public dashboards
Docs pages
SaaS frontends that talk to a separate backend

…Vike is such a nice fit.

It stays out of the way. You build your UI. You ship. That’s it.

What I’ve learned using Vike

I spend less time reading docs and more time building
I structure my code in ways that make sense to me, not the framework
I think more clearly about what’s happening between client/server
I don’t dread SEO anymore
I never have to fight it — and that’s rare in web dev

Is it perfect?

Nope. The community is small.

Docs are improving but not flawless.

You won’t find a hundred tutorials on YouTube.

But honestly? That hasn’t stopped me.

Final thoughts

I’m not getting paid to write this. I just really like the dev experience, and I hope more people give it a shot — because tools like this deserve attention.

If you’re building something frontend-heavy and want real SSR without full-stack lock-in, try it.

Here's the link for Vike: https://vike.dev/

Here’s a site I built with Vike: https://satsu.pro

Feel free to poke around, or message me if you’re curious how it works under the hood.

Let’s make cool stuff — and ship it fast.

I just wanted to know if someone visited — so I built my own analytics

Yousif — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 20:23:38 +0000

I build too many small projects.

Some are half-finished ideas, some are landing pages, some are just “let’s see what happens” sites.

Most don’t get traffic. But still — sometimes I want to know:

Did anyone actually land here?

GA always felt like overkill.

Consent banners. Cookie hell. Pages of charts I never look at.

And the alternatives? Either self-hosting pain, or SaaS tools that cost €12/month for sites that maybe get 8 visitors.

So I built my own thing.

It’s called Satsu.

No cookies.

No fingerprinting.

No GDPR banners.

Just a tiny snippet and a clean dashboard.

It shows:

pageviews
top pages
referrers
devices
rough location (just country)

That’s it. Nothing more. No fluff. No upsell. Free.

Why?

Because I got tired of adding Google Analytics to every dumb idea I shipped.

I just wanted to know if anyone showed up — without making users feel like they’re being watched.

If that sounds like you, you can try it here:

👉 https://satsu.pro

Not gonna tell you it’s the best thing ever.

It’s just simple, and it works.

Would love your feedback if you try it — or if you hate it, that’s fine too 😄

I built my own analytics tool out of frustration — and now I’m stuck at 7 users

Yousif — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 00:48:42 +0000

Like most devs, I build way too many small tools, landing pages, experiments...

Some of them get traffic. Most don’t. But I still like knowing whether anyone actually landed there.

That’s where analytics usually comes in — and that’s where the pain starts.

Why existing tools annoyed me

I’ve tried them all:

Google Analytics — bloated, weird UI, needs a cookie banner, feels creepy
Fathom / Plausible — solid, but pricing adds up if you’ve got 10+ small projects
Matomo — too heavy, and self-hosting just drains my soul
Server logs — noisy and not enough insight

All I wanted was:

pageviews
top paths
referrers
device types
country-level location

...and I wanted that without cookies, fingerprinting, or sketchy tracking.

So I built my own thing

It’s called Satsu.

It’s free. No cookies. No fingerprinting. No GDPR drama. Just a small JS snippet and a clean, fast dashboard.

I built it for myself, but figured: maybe other devs feel this pain too?

The reality check

So far?

7 users.

One is me
Three are friends
Two are the same guy
One probably came from Reddit 😅

Turns out: building something useful ≠ people will use it

What I'm learning

Devs love tools, but they don't switch unless the pain is really big
Being “free” isn’t enough
YouTube comments > Reddit for conversion
Product Hunt needs an aged account 😭
Marketing is an actual skill
Launching is not the same as getting users

What now?

I'm gonna keep building, iterating, and seeing where it goes.

Even if Satsu ends up being just for me — that's still a win.

But if you're also someone who:

builds way too many side projects
hates cookie banners
just wants to know if someone showed up

Then Satsu might be useful to you too.

Would love to hear how you track your small projects — or if you even bother at all.

Let’s talk!