Hey everyone! I'm working on a blogging platform that leans heavily on media content, and most of the blogs are private. Users can share access to their blogs with others. The only areas that are public are the landing page, the subscription page (where users do need to log in to make a purchase), and the explore page showcasing public blog posts by professionals. Since SEO is crucial for the explore page, I'm debating whether to go with server-side rendering (SSR), single-page application (SPA), or a hybrid model that leverages selective SSR for the public pages while keeping the private content as an SPA for speed. My backend is Fastify, and I'm also planning to use it for a mobile app. What approach do you think would work best?
5 Answers
Since SEO isn’t your main concern, it might boil down to personal preference. I’ve been transitioning to SSR because everything loads in one go without waiting on partial content or placeholders, which I find much smoother. Not to mention, SSR means you can save the entire page with Ctrl + S, which is super convenient! But remember, SPA isn’t always faster—sometimes, it can lead to multiple requests slowing things down. SSR generally gives you everything up front, making it feel snappier, even with larger responses thanks to compression.
Go for SSR wherever possible, especially for blog posts. Cache what you can on the server, and just ensure that any user-specific data is handled client-side to keep things dynamic without complicating the SSR process.
A hybrid approach sounds ideal! Use SSR for the public pages to boost SEO while keeping everything behind the login as an SPA for a faster user experience. This way, you get the benefits of both without overloading your resources.
I think going full SPA is overkill, even for the logged-in features. Making a server-rendered site fast is usually easier than maintaining speed with a client-side app. SSR can often keep up or even be faster, plus it simplifies things since you won't have the overhead of a SPA. Go for a straightforward approach with server-rendered HTML and add interactivity as you feel the need for it.
Definitely! Next.js does provide some nice optimizations for SSR, so it could work out well!
If I do opt for the SSR route, I'd probably stick with Next.js and React. Does that change your viewpoint?