WordPress vs Next.js

Table of Contents

Introduction

With the rise of static site generators, there’s no shortage of options for building your next website. Both WordPress and Next.js are great tools for creating websites. However, each has its own pros and cons that you should consider when choosing one over the other.

What is WordPress?

You may have heard the term “content management system” (CMS) thrown around a lot. A CMS is software that helps you manage your website, whether it’s a blog or a full-blown e-commerce site. WordPress is the most popular and well-known CMS in the world. It was originally built by Matt Mullenweg as an open source blogging platform, and has since grown into much more than that.

WordPress is written in PHP, which stands for “PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor”—a programming language that allows developers to create dynamic websites and apps with text, images, video content and more displayed on each page. The beauty of PHP is that because it’s an open source project (meaning anyone can modify or contribute code), there are many developers who are constantly working on improving WordPress’ features and functionality as well as fixing bugs with regular updates every few weeks!

What is Next.JS?

Next.JS is a static site generator built on top of React and Webpack. It uses the same Babel and CSS modules as Create React App, but in NextJS you don’t need to install or configure any dependencies manually. The only thing you have to do is run next init in your project’s directory!

You can use NextJS with create-nextjs-app, which provides an opinionated way of setting up a new project using the latest version of NextJS. All you have to do is run npm run start and your app will be up and running at http://localhost:3000/.

Performance

WordPress is faster than NextJS.

NextJS is faster than Jekyll and Hugo, but not as fast as Gatsby when used with React. In general, if you’re starting a new project or considering a static site generator, I recommend evaluating all four on your own terms before making any decisions about which one is best suited for your use case.

Cost

WordPress is a free, open-source platform—meaning your WordPress website will always be free.

Next.js, on the other hand, is not open source and requires a paid license to use.

However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of free tools you can use with Next.js! The community has created an ecosystem of tools such as Gatsby and React Storybook that help make development easier and more accessible for beginners.

Development Ease

WordPress is the easier option for developers to work with. It’s a content management system that’s used by many large websites, and has a huge community of developers who are always working on new plugins and features.

Next.JS offers a lot to developers who already know JavaScript well, but it does have some drawbacks when compared with WordPress:

  • It’s more difficult to develop with because there are fewer people using it as their primary platform (and therefore less documentation available)
  • The process of setting up a Next.JS site can be more complex than it is for WordPress

Security

Security is a major concern for any web project. Next.js is a well-known and trusted framework, whereas WordPress’s security reputation has been tarnished by the proliferation of poorly-coded plugins. That said, WordPress does have the advantage of having more plugins to choose from when it comes to functionality.

Next.js also has less plugins than WordPress, but this means that code quality is higher and there are fewer security issues overall with its core components—which means fewer bugs in general!

Conclusion

It’s important to understand that WordPress is great for blogs and not so good for websites. In fact, it’s probably the best blog engine available. On the other hand, Next.JS is awesome for building simple websites and SPA (single page apps) but it can’t handle blogging well without plugins like BlogEngine or GhostPress.

If you need a blog, use WordPress. If you need a website, use NextJS (or something else).

When choosing a static site generator, keep in mind your needs and preferences.

When choosing a static site generator, keep in mind your needs and preferences. Here are some things to consider:

  • How much time do you have?
  • What’s your development process like?
  • Is security important to you?

Conclusion

This article has covered the basics of what you need to know when comparing WordPress vs Next.JS. There are many other factors involved in choosing which option is right for you, but hopefully this article helped provide insight into how these two platforms compare against each other on a more fundamental level.

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