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⚙️Server-side rendering without Next.js, Remix, Nuxt.js, etc. 🔥

Anthony Max on February 13, 2025

Hello everyone! Perhaps you want to implement server-side rendering in your project, but do not want to rework its established architecture? Then t...
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Sadiq Salau

This has always been the way, and it's faster than calling thousands of functions to render a single tag.. It's funny how nextjs and other frameworks makes this look like a new feature..

And looking at the comments, I would say don't bash PHP if you aren't an artisan, do you remember jQuery? Don't be surprised some sites still use such tools..

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Thomas St. Pierre

Agree, there is a stark difference between an engineer and a coder these days.

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Stephen Potter

It’s wild to me how SSR is perceived as a new thing considering that’s how it was done for decades. Glad to see the pendulum swinging back a bit.

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Anthony Max

Next.js changed everything back. Everyone got used to react, but without SEO optimization it was not really necessary for business. Now there is no such problem.

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Martin Green

Good article. I would also compare it with php

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Anthony Max

Thank you! The comparison with php is a bit incorrect, since it is a bit different

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Thomas St. Pierre

No, it's spot on, PHP became one of the most used servers side languages of the internet.

It's also the devil and atrocious.

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John

Well, I don’t know, frameworks define the architecture of the application, but that’s also ok when you can do it on each site

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Anthony Max

But how much code is needed?

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Anthony Max

I think server-side rendering is the future, so this is a cool idea.

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Priyansh Dwivedi

How can SSR be the future if it has been there since decades!

Did you mean back to the future? 😄

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Anthony Max • Edited

Everything new is a well-forgotten old. People, when they made sites on wordpress in the 10s and saw Angular and Vue for the first time, were shocked, I'm sure, for them it was the future. I'm not talking about php, but it's obvious here.

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Thomas St. Pierre

Uh bro, we were doing this with Visual Basic and DLLs in the 90s before Google even exists a company.

That's what so many of these comments are about.

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ThatAdwaithGuy

Htmx + a static compiled Language (go or rust) is much, much better than this method. For more interactivity, Alpine.js. this stack is much better and just dominates your stack. THIS IS ALL IN MY OPINION

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Anthony Max

htmx - depends on DOM. Try to use HTMX normally from js (spoiler - it's difficult, if not impossible). Regarding Alpine.js - it's not HTMX, it's a mix of some interactivity with html. Like jsx, only somehow different. It's not 100% server-oriented. Depends on the task, again.

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Maksiks

Just use Nuxt or any other framework in the title, you plug it in and you get SSR, and copy paste your code. If you want a quick little website the performance difference is going to absolutely neglegable and for blocking out search engines robots.txt exists. (Although since search engines are just indexing stuff and they typically wait for SSR websites, why would this block out SEO?)

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James

I don't entirely understand the SEO point either, to be honest. Isn't this post saying "hey have you considered doing things the way we did for decades"?

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Carlos Echeverria

I've worked SSR all my life no matter the language; Spring boot, Node.js

SSR means simplicity, and avoid tech jargons from vendors overbuild frameworks (which are ok to try and innovate, I don't blame them).

You are mixing SSR with CSR, and is ok, but that will lose SEO as part of your initial rendering is done after page loads.

Rule of SSR:

  • First page rendering is 100% from server side as you mention using any template engine.
  • Avoid CSR rendering on first page load, as it will partially block SEO.
  • Avoid CSR rendering, implements http methods that will render pieces of your page from server side (plain vanilla hydration).

SSR disadvantage:

  • Some way you'll need to handle client controls state in server side (tradeoffs if you pursue SEO)

Simplistic approach that will live across any new hype on web development.

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arcahyadi

Blud bash php ☠️ if that me, i wouldn't do it, php is scary, that thing literally undead creatures

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Insat Vipbio

Good article. I would also compare it with php ..thehaircuts.net/