Gatsby, Next and React
Gatsby is built on React, it is a powerful framework for quickly building rich and engaging UIs (user interfaces).
React is a comprehensive and popular framework for developing web apps, it provides powerful tools that enables our development team to build rich UIs (User Interfaces) quickly. It is free and open-source front-end JavaScript library used for building user interfaces based on UI components.
Gatsby provides the static capability and React provides the core functionality, Gatsby brings together key tools like React, GraphQL and others into a single framework for building websites.
Next. JS & Gatsby
Next.js and Gatsby are both React-based frontend frameworks, an application built with Gatsby or Next is still a React application. Both frameworks offer front-end enhancements for rich user experiences however there are two key differences between them – the way in which they fetch and handle data, and the requirement of a server.
Next.js is often used for large dynamic enterprise sites/apps that require significant flexibility to scale, with its support for server-side rendering, it is the ideal framework to support apps with content that undergoes frequent changes throughout the day. Therefore, consider Gatsby to be better suited for small to medium sized applications with less frequent content changes.
Key considerations to help with the decision on which framework should be used:
1: Will the site undergo frequent changes within the day such as an Ecommerce store that also involves multiple interactions?
If the answer is yes: A Gatsby static site generator would not be the recommended framework, you would consider having a React front end with .net core API
2: Will the app remain under 100k pages with small amounts of data?
If the answer is yes: Gatsby is the best option here for a smaller site with small amounts of data to deliver an incredibly fast static site.
In summary Gatsby is the perfect fit for creating static websites with infrequent content changes, Next.js although used for its server-side rendering at I‑Finity we would recommend an architecture built on React supported with a .net core API.