Next.js with express.js or without express.js?

Question

I have seen many people using nextjs with expressjs and without expressjs framwork. Can someone please explain why do we need expressjs with nextjs? Nextjs works as SSR without expressjs. What does expressjs add to nextjs when we use it together? Assuming that we are using different rest api server.

Answer 1

You don't need to use expressjs if all you want is server-side rendering. But if you want to go beyond that by adding an API, as an example, then you need to be able to override the routing and that's when you'd add expressjs in front. Express will get the request and see if it is for the API or if it's just a normal nextjs page. LogRocket has a very good tutorial on this https://blog.logrocket.com/how-to-build-a-server-rendered-react-app-with-next-express-d5a389e7ab2f/

Answer 2

You most likely don't need to override Next's default server. For edge cases where you do, you'll see examples showing a custom server extending Next's default. You can use whatever server framework you want – Express, Hapi, etc.

https://nextjs.org/docs/advanced-features/custom-server