React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It was created by Facebook in 2011 and made open source in 2013. React quickly gained popularity among developers due to its simplicity and effectiveness in building complex web applications.
In 2016, Vercel (formerly Zeit) released Next.js, a framework for building server-side rendered React applications. Next.js provides benefits over regular React applications such as easier server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and optimized performance.
Next.js was created to solve some of the challenges that developers faced while building React applications. These challenges included the complexity of server-side rendering, which required a lot of configuration and setup, and the lack of optimized performance for large-scale applications.
Next.js simplifies the process of building server-side rendered React applications by providing a set of tools and conventions that make it easier to get started. It also provides automatic code splitting, which helps to optimize the performance of the application.
Overall, Next.js has many advantages over regular React applications, including easier server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and optimized performance. It continues to be popular among developers and has been adopted by many companies for building complex web applications.