Discovering Next.js and Vercel: A Modern Developer Experience
2025-08-26
Over the last couple of years, I’ve shifted from working with AdonisJS to building projects in Next.js, and along the way I’ve picked up React as well. The transition has been fascinating—not just from a technical perspective, but from a workflow and collaboration perspective too.
Next.js, combined with Vercel’s platform, has completely changed how I think about building and shipping applications. Features like the Vercel Toolbar, which lets stakeholders leave comments directly on a running web app, have made collaboration feel effortless. Iterating on ideas with real-time feedback has cut out so much friction in the process.
From AdonisJS to Next.js
Coming from AdonisJS, I thought I already knew what an “opinionated framework” felt like. AdonisJS advertises itself as one, but in practice it still gave me a lot of flexibility. That flexibility had benefits, but it also led me to experiment with very different programming styles—server-side HTML rendering in some places, huge chunks of traditional JavaScript on the frontend in others.
It worked, but it wasn’t always consistent.
Next.js, by contrast, is very opinionated, and I’ve actually found that to be liberating. The framework enforces a structure, and the rules it lays down make collaboration with other developers far easier. Instead of thinking about ten different ways I could solve a problem, I lean into the Next.js way—and the results are cleaner, clearer, and more maintainable.
Learning React Along the Way
Of course, adopting Next.js meant embracing React. At first, React felt like a big shift compared to the templating systems I was used to. But once I got into the rhythm of building with components, hooks, and props, it started to make sense.
What I really appreciate is how the component-driven mindset encourages clarity. Each piece of the UI becomes a self-contained building block. Combined with Next.js’s conventions, it’s been a breath of fresh air compared to juggling server-rendered HTML and heavy JavaScript code in my older AdonisJS projects.
The Vercel Experience
Vercel adds another layer to this story. Deploying a Next.js app is seamless—push to GitHub, and within moments you’ve got a production-grade deployment. But what has really impressed me is the developer experience:
- The Vercel Toolbar allows stakeholders to comment directly on the app, speeding up feedback loops.
- Previews for every branch make collaboration natural—you can test features in isolation without breaking the main product.
- Hosting, SSL, and scaling are handled automatically, so you can focus purely on development.
It really does feel like the workflow has caught up to 2025. The tooling gets out of your way and just works.
A Breath of Fresh Air
What strikes me most is how much clarity this stack has brought me as a developer. With AdonisJS, the flexibility was a double-edged sword. With Next.js and Vercel, the guardrails feel empowering rather than restrictive.
It’s given me new ideas about how to structure code, how to make projects easier for others to contribute to, and how to keep development moving quickly without losing consistency.
For me, Next.js has been more than just a framework—it’s been a shift in mindset. And paired with Vercel, it feels like the modern web development experience I’d been waiting for.
What’s Next?
I’ll be continuing to build most of my frontend projects with Next.js, especially when collaboration is key. For internal tools, dashboards, or even ecommerce projects, it just makes sense. And I’m excited to see where Vercel takes things next, because the pace of innovation in this ecosystem is clearly not slowing down.
For now, I can say this with confidence: Next.js and Vercel have made development fun again.