Inertia.js adoption guide: Overview, examples, and alternatives

Inertia.js serves as a bridge between modern frontend frameworks like React and traditional backend frameworks such as Laravel, allowing developers to build single-page applications (SPAs) without needing an API intermediary. Introduced in 2019 by Jonathan Reinink, Inertia simplifies the development process by enabling the integration of popular frontend and backend frameworks within a single codebase, effectively creating a monolithic application. Over time, Inertia.js has expanded its framework support beyond its initial Vue and Laravel compatibility to include React, Svelte, and others, while offering features like server-side rendering, automated asset versioning, and lazy loading. Despite its advantages, such as improved initial performance and SEO benefits due to server-side routing, Inertia presents challenges like a moderate learning curve, a smaller community, and increased testing complexity. It is particularly tailored for Laravel projects, providing a robust solution for developers looking to leverage both PHP and modern JavaScript libraries while maintaining server-side routing.