As the web has evolved from static pages to dynamic experiences, the importance of performance, user experience, and SEO has become paramount, leading to a crucial choice between React and Next.js for web development. React predominantly uses Client-Side Rendering, which can delay the visibility of fully interactive pages, while Next.js leverages Server-Side Rendering to deliver pre-rendered content more quickly, thereby enhancing load times and initial user experience. Next.js also simplifies the development process by offering server-side rendering and static site generation out of the box, whereas React requires additional setup for these features. Code splitting, a performance optimization technique, is more seamless in Next.js, and its built-in server-side rendering capabilities make it more SEO-friendly compared to React’s client-side approach, which can hinder content visibility to search engines. Consequently, Next.js is often recommended, especially when performance and SEO are critical, and its use is advocated by React’s own documentation as an optimal framework for new projects.