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To build a complete web application with React from scratch, there are many important details you need to consider:

• Code has to be bundled using a bundler like webpack and transformed using a compiler like Babel.
• You need to do production optimizations such as code splitting.
• You might want to statically pre-render some pages for performance and SEO. You might also want to use server-side rendering or client-side rendering.
• You might have to write some server-side code to connect your React app to your data store.

A framework can solve these problems. But such a framework must have the right level of abstraction — otherwise it won’t be very useful. It also needs to have great "Developer Experience", ensuring you and your team have an amazing experience while writing code.

Next.js: The React Framework

Enter Next.js, the React Framework. Next.js provides a solution to all of the above problems. But more importantly, it puts you and your team in the pit of success when building React applications.

Next.js aims to have best-in-class developer experience and many built-in features, such as:

• An intuitive page-based routing system (with support for dynamic routes)
• Pre-rendering, both static generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR) are supported on a per-page basis
• Automatic code splitting for faster page loads
• Client-side routing with optimized prefetching
• Built-in CSS and Sass support, and support for any CSS-in-JS library
• Development environment with Fast Refresh support
• API routes to build API endpoints with Serverless Functions
• Fully extendable

Next.js is used in tens of thousands of production-facing websites and web applications, including many of the world's largest brands.