An honest opinion about the App vs Pages router

[RemyMachado]

I want to give my honest opinion about the direction that Next.js has been taking with the App router, because I really care about this project.

I have been a user of Next.js since version 10 and have been stunned by this framework capabilities. I used Next.js (Pages router) with my clients and with my personal projects and it was always a great experience. It solved with consistency and simplicity most of the use cases and sometimes just a little configuration was enough to solve edge cases.

Now, I have been using the App router since a few months for one of my new clients and let me say that it's still working great, but the complexity that came with this new router is disappointing. Things that were simple are now quite complex and it's regrettable.

I'm glad the Pages router is still maintained to this day, but I know it's supposed to become deprecated.

It's obvious to me that the previous router had a far better developer experience and I'm wondering if I'm an ousider or not.

I'm curious to know what the Vercel team thinks about it and what feedback they received apart from this discussion.

Also, I understand that the new router supports new react features (e.g., server components), but is it enough ?
I found one advantage of the Pages router is to be clear and unambiguous about how to do server vs client side instructions. The App router on the other hand seems to erase the border between these two and I find it hard to resonate and to implement things.

Thank you for hearing my opinion, and I'd be glad to hear yours.
With respect to all contributors,

[christianjuth]

I appreciate making this a poll, but I'm not sure I can simplify my opinion to app router or pages router.

I was really excited for app router but there is a lack of documentation (for common use cases), performance, and stability around Next.js 13 and 14.

In it's current state I am extremely disappointed with the app router. However, I could see myself being happy with app router if Next.js stops working on new features and spends the next year+ solving performance, stability, and documentation (videos, podcast, more example apps, etc.).

For example: there seems – to me – to be a lack of documentation on handling/sharing authentication between server components and client component when using an external API that was not build through Next.js. Should I just not use server component for any api endpoint that is authenticated? Are server components best when only used for public routes? I love the simplicity of data fetching within server components, but once a request requires an auth token this all becomes way more confusing.

Pages to App router (with server component) is such a huge shift in how React works. I'm sure there are a lot of implications here that the community is lacking clarity on. I would really love some more help on understanding best practices moving forward. I fear Next.js team is moving so fast they don't even know what the best practices are anymore.

[bilalmohib]

Hi @RemyMachado You are absolutely right sir I am using NextJS since start and I became fan of it when it supported server side rendering. I was previously using React but when I learned React dosent have SSR then I searched for further frameworks and found NextJS to be highly beneficial in that case.
In my opinion only pages router is one capable of supporting SSR and while whenever you are going to use use client at the top of app router you are going to fail your seo and its worse. I dont know why Vercel team is behind focusing and recommending app router. I swear if one day they are going to make pages router deprecated I am the first one to leave using NextJS and I know there will be many millions of people using NextJS will be affected.

Here are some of the very important points which @rauchg sir please consider.

1. @vercel Says that App Router supports SSR which is one of the major features and the only feature which attracts to use NextJS instead of ReactJS but this is a big lie. App Router dosent support SSR. I recently worked on a client project it was previously in React and only reason I was shifting to NextJS was because client wanted better SEO and wanted to render html in page source which happens in ssr but believe App router completely failed here.
2. I tried every solution and the thing is when I have used useState or useEffect it said you must use 'use client' at top of the component or page making it completely inaccessible for SEO benefits.
3. @rauchg please if you want to save @nextjs to be deprecated among developers please make app router deprecated or work on a solution which makes app router support ssr always without making it client component and if your team is incapable of doing that then stop using this bad app router client component approach.
4. I tried app router and its not fast even and at the end I had shifted to pages router and I got everything what I wanted.
5. @rauchg please consider my request. Its very sensitive topic and NextJS must consider it for the sake of its life.

[bilalmohib]

@RemyMachado I just found a way using app router to utilize ssr I will soon be posting tutorial to have ssr fully using NextJS soon.
I have found the solution and I can say that yes NextJS app router supports SSR. The problem only comes when you dont know how to utilize App Router Correctly.

[markoleavy]

I confirm app router do support SSR.

[bilalmohib]

@RemyMachado I just found a way to use App Router in NextJS with SSR always and here is an article.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/using-app-router-nextjs-right-way-achieve-ssr-always-muhammad-bilal-sw8ye/
Using SSR Always in NextJS App Router

[markoleavy]

I recently migrate to next app router. I'm quite satisfied with it (I'm also happy with the dev experience, though it was a big confusing at the beginning), I got slightly better performance, but I had to stay with the 13.4.12 to avoid LCP high values.
My question is: was it necessary? Good 'client' react apps perform great even on old devices.

[bilalmohib]

Hi Devs I think now app router is full stable the only problem is most developers dont know how to use it properly.

…

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 5:03 AM hi ***@***.***> wrote: Hello, devs As you can see we have to build the app with App router. App router has a lot of useful functions but it has yet some problems. Because it is on growth now. But I believe Vercel will make perfect App router!. ❤️ — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#59373 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AOEOKDOROPCGQSRWZO6H42TYXZH7NAVCNFSM6AAAAABALLLNIKVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM4DONJSHEZTS> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: <vercel/next. ***@***.***>

[maxratajczak]

I've been working on a project for a very long time using NextJs 12, the developer experience was great. Then they introduced NextJs 13 and everything went downhill. I'm now learning NextJs 14 on a new project and so far the app router has been an absolute mess. I've read countless threads and posts discussing how NextJs 13 & 14 is not production ready (at least with the app router) and I can say I'm seeing this clearly as I dive more into it.

I won't be using the app router anytime soon as it's too unstable. I may even move my project to NextJs 12 if it comes to it. It's been 2 years since Vercel announced the app router and it's no where close to where I expected it would be. I still see posts and comments in the recent months of developers and their frustration with the app router and all the changes Vercel is making with NextJs. It feels like Vercel is trying to re-invent the wheel instead of sticking to what works and putting their developer power to where it really would benefit from.

[ParfectShot]

Exact Same story. I'm quite happy with pages router and don't want to break what is already working. I'm getting crazy performance in pages routes and SEO is working perfectly for Marketing team so don't want to mess that up.

Landed on this discussion as I was starting on a new project and it confirmed my earlier decision that pages router is the way to go

[j2is]

There is no page transition support in the app router for a year now, so definitely pages for me

[fikriwildannugraha]

Multi-language in App router much more difficult to implement than on page router 😢

[chozzz]

Interesting, I didn't face this challenge at all while migrating from v12 pages router to latest app router with react-i18next.
In fact, its more stable to have locale under directory root, which can support more sophisticated layout in my use case.

[aphougat]

you would need to change the project structure if you were using i18 config in next.config in page router. App router has a strict mapping to folder stricture so create a [lang/locale] folder under app and move everything inside it. Now in middleware simply set the pathname with a locale in the beginning if its missing.

[markoleavy]

I've just written a guide on a strategy to implement server-side i18n on app router with nexti-intl! Take a look!

[zakidze]

just add passing data to root layout and share data between server component and pass data to layouts and server component will much better

[mfa777]

When they strongly recommend using app router, it means that the page router is likely to be deprecated or undergo major changes in future versions.

Even if the page router can still be used currently, for projects that do not require an app router, especially those new projects with their own backend API, it may be worth considering an alternative framework as a better choice.

[cuongzdn]

I noticed that the App router is slower than the Page router even though both are newly created. The App router has a response time of 80ms-130ms, while the Page router only takes 14ms

[ArifAA14]

App router is terrible and if you are using a Windows machine, it gets worse than that.

Its been so much of a bother recently that I have started leaning towards Remix because the app router is just not stable enough. The developer experience has gone down drastically compared to the Pages router. The build and load times have gone through the roof in development and lets not forget the biggest issue - App router hot refresh isn't HOT at all. The documentation is extremely poor and incomplete. Its a disappointment to say the least since NextJS used to be my go to tool for any kind of web work.

Its all good though, we get cool landing pages and billboards!

[Umamad]

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well.
I've been tracking things that go along with the app router and I'm looking for an opportunity to switch to the app router. However, the app router only brings limitations for me and I can't handle things freely within it. Things like multi-language support, separate server and frontend in one file, etc., really create quite a mess in the app router.

In conclusion, I have preferred the page router for almost 2 years now and I'm certain to continue with the page router. If the page router gets deprecated, I will switch to Remix or Laravel. I hope the Vercel team understands the priorities for developers.

[maxratajczak]

Same here, if it gets deprecated I'll be looking for something else.