A default, not a mandate
We still choose the right tool for each project, but when a client doesn't have a strong existing stack preference, Next.js has become our starting point for the large majority of new web builds — for reasons that are more about long-term maintainability than any single feature.
One framework for marketing pages and full applications
Next.js lets us build the same project's marketing site, authenticated dashboard, and API routes in a single codebase with a consistent mental model, which meaningfully reduces the surface area a client's engineering team needs to maintain after handoff.
Rendering flexibility
The ability to choose static generation, server rendering, or client rendering per-route — instead of committing an entire application to one strategy — lets us optimize marketing pages for SEO and performance while still building rich, interactive authenticated experiences.
Ecosystem and hiring
React's talent pool remains the largest in front-end engineering, which matters directly to clients who need to staff and maintain the product long after our engagement ends.
Where we choose something else
For content-heavy marketing sites with non-technical editors, we often still recommend a headless CMS pairing or even WordPress. For highly interactive, app-like experiences with complex client state, we sometimes reach for Vue or a dedicated SPA architecture instead. The framework should fit the problem, not the other way around.
