Spa vs server side rendering

In "Spa vs server side rendering" I share my thoughts on these 2 approaches to web app design.

[joaomarcoscarvalho]

A great video. This answer the question of "What should I use?" "What process for rendering page?". I liked the way you explain why polarization is so dangerous and why is it important to choose the right technology at the right tasks and the process's demand.

[_neuromanser_]

Man, I end up saving all of your videos in favorites :) I have been making web sites since 2000. and I often tell people exactly what you are saying now. Problem is that they don’t do their own research and this hyped up way of thinking in JS world is only creating more problems. Right now, any project that is created in some new and “revolutionary” JS framework is practically dead on arrival - if by any chance you don’t update it regularly and then come back after a year to make some changes, you would be in a lot of trouble. First because of the insane amount of changes that will happen in your NPM plugins, because most of them will be incompatible with your old workflow and secondly because your main framework would change a lot. This uncertainty mixed with hype is the doom of JavaScript. We are all exhausted and something must be done to stop this madness.

[markcoren]

People need to hear this today more than ever... nicely done!

[coolguy]

You exactly said what I was thinking almost all the time for past few years....

[CrazyDanceGrp]

Hi Fredrik, you really nailed it and that was my thought process as well when I went into exploring these front end framework. It's really important to use the right set of tool. I can see now Angular and React are offering server side rendering (SSR) to solve certain problems so yeah seems things came back to point where it all started.

[scigama]

I enjoy the logic of what you say in your videos :)

[ozzyfromspace]

Hi Fredrik! I genuinely find your discussion of the contrast between SPAs and Server-generated webpages fascinating! As a relatively new developer (got into web stuff in late 2017) I've been exposed to SPAs as a way to structure the front-end, while using tools like fetch() to interface with an API that's hooked up to your database. In this way, you get the "near-native" SPA experience, while retaining a lot of the flexibility of your server. That being said, I 100% see how this can make things way more complicated, especially if certain parts of your SPA are protected. So, all in all, I'm not ardently on one side or the other; I think a responsible mix of both technologies is the way forward. Awesome video, and yeah, I'm subbed! Best wishes, and warm greetings from the US! 🎊🙌🏽

[pradeepn]

Thanks for your very Frank Talk. You saved me a lot of PAIN!

[saumyamajumder]

I agree with you 100%. Recently I was also thinking about the same thing wondering should I build my next project with these js frameworks. Now please note that on the JS side I work with Vue. So, currently, I'm working on a project that is basically a complex dashboard for a client and Vue is working fine for the project. But after this project is done, I've to work on another project which is basically building a normal website. Now initially I thought I would use WordPress, then I thought why not use these new systems. As I keep digging down to the rabbit hole, I figured out that one of the major problems with SPAs are SEO. As I use firebase as my backend for my apps, I tried to see if I can use prerender.io to render the pages using Firebase Cloud Functions but couldn't find a single proper tutorial explaining for to do it. I've searched a lot and still
Then I thought why not use NuxtJS which is basically VueJS but with server-side rendering, but then as I dig deeper I realized, it is way harder to host a NuxtJS app. If I use now.sh they are gonna charge me a fortune for the app hosting, whereas if I just used PHP based WordPress as my CMS but building the website with eCommerce features and other thing, it would have taken a way less time.

[lasanthabasnayake]

Hi Fedrik, Have you done any kind of video on client side rendering? I couldn’t find any. Would you be able to talk more about critical rendering path and stuff like that. Thanks

[randy-russ]

Absolutely, right now the industry is fucked up by all these "teachers" on udemy hyping the crap out of React.. Happened to me, I was using react for everything; luckily I got a job. That job was a smack in the face and I realized I didn't know why I was using React; this job was mostly WordPress.I began studying PHP and MVC and started using multiple page applications for my projects and I can say it has expanded my knowledge significantly.


Great video man!

[aurelianspodarec]

What would you use for the back-end? PHP?

[bmanq]

Fredrik, as always, great video! I keep learning a lot from you!

I think one of the reasons js frameworks and js in general became so popular is the fact the devices are getting more and more powerful and it's better to make client render, than take up resources of server.

So if you have a very high traffic site than client side rending is better.
Am i right here? Or not necessary?

We have small ecommerce store in travel niche. I am always checking dev blogs/medium of leaders in our niche(booking com, expedia, hoteltonigh, airbnb, etc) and read about challenges they have. For the ecommerce store is there a point when it makes sense to look at react/angular/SPA/client side rendering vs more traditional server side rednering? And if yes, what is this point. Would be great to see a video on the topic :)

[yongzeyao]

I am a fan of SPA, maybe my comment is biased...
But I think SPA provides much better UI/UX. It feels like you are using an app without having to go to appstore and download it.

[evans]

can you make a full stack application without a library || framework ?

[artintheraw]

Awesome video, nice explanation. I have to say, I agree. ASP.NET Developer for the last 18 years and I have seen it all. Love React and Angular, but Yes, the complexity isn't worth it sometimes and each project can become more and more expensive. My company uses SPA's where needed, like you said. The right tool for the job is my practice and I point that out to all my clients and leave up to them to make the ultimate decision. I personally think server side is most reliable and flexible. Time to Market is very important and I have spent 18 years in the Corporate world building solutions for individuals who had no clue what the underlining technology was even doing, they just wanted the new shiny toy. Me being a conservative Engineer, I would always push back with no success. They wanted what they didn't quite understand and project took months and sometimes years. 2 Instances in my career, Management came in after 2 years and $20 Million dollars, and cancelled the project. Poorly Managed from the start with Non-Technical Folks leading the way making all the decisions. Lessons to learn from, but they kept repeating the same thing over and over. From a Developers standpoint, this is an awesome setup, but Companies are throwing away money at massive amounts. And the Government leads the way with their terrible systems. The stories I can tell you about the Government contracts I have been a part of. We are in Debt because of no oversight. Give Children a loaded weapon and they will use it. It's just a toy to them. LOL. Take Care...

[alvinkonda]

Great point. However, the problem in my opiniom is that people start coding directly, without taking the time to think first about the subject

[matteogilardoni]

I agree it's not healthy to over optimised a product with a full fledge applications tools but I think is possible to start adopting UI framework gradually.


React is not the only one I think Vue was the first one to be defined as progressive framework.

I think what the industry really want is to have one way to define UI components and be able to share that piece of functionality across different projects.

It's easy to share service logic but it's not easy to package components (HTML, CSS, JS) across different UI solutions (SPA, SSR node, SSR PHP...).

Also having shared components could be seen as superfluous in some cases but if you have a brand and you want to keep consistency you need to think about what tech you want to use across your projects.