React Based Static Site Generators in 2024

Often critiqued for NOT delivering on a promise of transforming front-end development, since its release in 2013, React JS has been under the fray of the dev world.

Last year's annual State of JS report on front-end frameworks and libraries survey showed interest may be falling, but React usage is growing (source link). Furthermore, insights from the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023 reinforce React's position in the ecosystem as the most loved web framework, with a notable percentage of developers either using it or expressing interest in using it shortly (source link).

While we wait on fresh stats, one could argue it is the framework of the web. Still, web development is an ever-changing beast. Yesterday's underdogs are today's hyped frameworks/libraries/approaches/architectures/concepts _________________(add anything here).

Not long ago, most businesses relied on monolithic solutions for content management (CMS) and eCommerce with coupled front and back end. That became a problem as new screens, markets, and channels emerged. The rise of headless architecture allowed businesses to think differently.

New technologies/frameworks significantly simplify the web development, management, and distribution processes while allowing for better reach, performance, and the web in general.

Why are we mentioning this here? Well, if you know React and are ready to take advantage of headless architecture in your blog or online store, all you'll need is a static site generator to get you going  (so to speak).

A static site generator generates a website with entirely static HTML files, pre-built without any calls to the database or external data sources and server-side processing.

SSG takes Markdown files, HTML templates, or React components you give and generates static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that can be served directly from the server to users.

As the online world evolved, websites have become highly complex. An influx of plugins and add-ons caused the websites to become slow, insecure, and complex to maintain. Static site generators address these problems.

Static site generators bring many benefits by solving problems associated with dynamic websites.

Loading Speed

Unlike dynamic websites, which generate their pages in real-time, static site generators deliver a pre-built HTML file when users request a page. The file is usually hosted on a content delivery network (CDN), enabling maximum loading speeds for your web pages and winning you the trust of search engines and users alike.

Security 

Static site pages are HTML files that aren't connected to any database. Because of this, cybercriminals cannot do SQL database injections (for example) or find similar server-side flaws. That significantly brings down any security risks.

Simplification of Development and Management

We've established that static site hosting doesn't need databases, packages, libraries, or a backend server. This alone makes static sites easy to use in development, managing, and migrating to another host whenever you please, without any complexity or compatibility issues.

Flexible and Scalable

Dynamic websites frequently encounter server overloads during traffic spikes. With static sites, that's no issue, making them incredibly easy to scale and serve as large a traffic spike as needed.

React.js is an open-source Javascript library used for front-end development, usually for user interfaces of single-page web or mobile apps, allowing web pages to change data without reloading the entire page.

Facebook first introduced it for its news feed, designed to be fast and simplify the user experience. It is most often used for dynamic websites. However, you may have noticed that these websites no longer deliver on the speed promise.

That’s why it’s often used for static generation today, too.

React’s ability to enable pre-built HTML files that increase loading speed makes it a perfect framework for building an SSG. By allowing you to edit only one component file, React allows for a granular approach to making changes to your static website.

That means that the number of React-based static site generators is growing daily. Still, not all of those are the same.

From a developer standpoint, ReactJS is also “sexy” because it’s simple, efficient, and ready to be embraced. The developer experience with React JS is fantastic:

• You kind of create your HTML tag.
• You give them behavior easily (React Hooks are great).
• You decoupled and organized your code as usual.
• No syntax to learn compared to Angular, Vue, or Svelte.

Last year, Next.js and Gatsby.js were at the forefront of React-based SSGs. Since then, Gatsby’s support from maintainers and the community has dwindled. Right now, there are several React-based SSGs from which to choose. The most popular ones are Next.js and Astro. Others include Qwik, Waku, Gatsby, etc. All these frameworks provide excellent performance but take different approaches to achieving it. Take Next.js, for example. It uses server-side rendering and automatic code splitting, while Astro generates static HTML files at build time, similar to what Gatsby does.

Some of the features include:

• Server-side rendering (SSR): Next.js enables you to render your web application on the server, which makes it faster and more SEO-friendly. However, it also supports CSR if you need it.
• Automatic code splitting: Next.js automatically splits your code into smaller chunks, which helps reduce your web application's initial load time.
• Built-in API routes: Next.js provides a built-in API route that enables you to create API endpoints for your web application without needing an external server.
• Incremental Static Generation (ISG): With ISG, you can pre-generate static pages at build time and then incrementally generate them on-demand at runtime.
• Image optimization: Built-in image component and automatic image optimization.
• Edge and Node.js Runtimes: i.e., two server runtimes where you can render parts of your application code.
• TypeScript support: Automatic TypeScript configuration.
• Partial Prerendering Development: Next.js 14 introduced partial prerendering, aiming to enhance the user experience by ensuring that essential metadata like viewport, color scheme, and theme are sent with the initial page content.
• Next.js is highly scalable: which is particularly important in eCommerce, where sites must handle large traffic volumes and transactions.

These reflect Next.js's commitment to improving performance, developer experience, and flexibility in web development practices. It is relatively easy to learn; if you are stuck, they have a vibrant Discord community.

To get going with Next, you must complete the requirements: install Node.js and npm (or npx). When that's done, it's time to create your app manually or manually through create-next-app. Thankfully, Next.js has provided extensive documentation to quickly get you up and running. 

Finally, Next.js also comes with the added value of Vercel, a platform for frontend frameworks and static sites designed to integrate with headless content, commerce, or databases. Vercel lets you develop, preview, and ship every Next.js feature without configuration.

The flip side is that not using the Next + Vercel combo can complicate things much more.

Let’s discuss some prominent features of Astro:

• Islands: Astro divides up your UI into isolated components aptly named islands. These components render in isolation and add interactive elements to a page that would otherwise be static HTML. This results in an overall improvement in performance, as the page loads faster.
• SSG and SSR: Astro is not only a static site generator. It can also serve content on demand from a server. This choice is totally up to you. Based on the project/page, you can choose SSG, SSR, or a mix of both.
• Astro themes: To make it easier to start an Astro project, you get access to several themes built by other developers. You don’t need to start from scratch. The themes are categorized based on use cases and can be found on the Astro website.
• Integrations: To make the development process even smoother, a number of integrations are available developed by both the Astro team and involved developers. There are integrations for CSS, accessibility, adapters to deploy the project to different platforms, etc.

Come on, guys, another framework to learn?

What if I want to use the UI framework syntax I’m already familiar with😞Well, with Astro, you can do just that. It has integrations for several of your favorite UI libraries, including React, Svelte, Vue, and many more. Want to use more than one UI library? You can do that, too! Isn’t that cool?

There are top dogs, and then there are contenders. Smaller in support, they are usually built with a purpose, for example, specifically for documentation, etc. Let’s mention a few.

It won’t be anything new to hear us say that it depends on your business goals, the website you are making, and team proficiency, right? But it is true.

For example, Docusaurus is built with documents in mind, and Waku is a good option for small websites, as are others mentioned here. Astro and Next JS work great on almost any project, no matter the size, and we’re emphasizing size here.

React-based static site generators offer powerful solutions for building static sites with dynamic capabilities. However, they come with their own downsides or challenges, like learning curve, build times, hosting and infrastructure, dependency management, and dynamic data handling.

Despite these, React SSGs are a powerful choice for many projects, offering a blend of speed, scalability, and developer experience.

Not sure which one would be the best fit for your project? We can help.

START building for FREE with Crystallize, or schedule a 1-on-1 demo so we can show you how you can utilize the power of headless commerce and static site generators on your next project.