React 16 performance: React 16, Next.js and Node 8.x LTS

It is a really exciting time to be part of the Javascript community as several key developments have come out in the last few months. The React 16 (fiber) has been released; long-term support for Node.js LTS has been added to version 8; and the Next.js framework for server-side rendered React apps has come to version 4, and is intended for use with React 16.

(Edit: This article is a little bit outdated as there are new versions of libraries, but the core concepts still apply)

In this brief article we will go through some of the key latest improvements in React, Next.js and Node.js. These improvements are all related, as Next.js is the framework for server-side rendered React apps; React 16 has massive improvements on server-side rendering, and performs much better if you use the latest versions of Node.js. In my opinion, this is a very important step for the Javascript community. The popularity of the Next.js framework is rising, and now with the availability of long term support for Node 8.x we can really use the latest version of Node.js in production apps. In this brief article we…