I'm using Next.js for a few reasons:
- SEO was the initial draw.
- First time doing real frontend web for prod, wanted to use React + MUI.
- Did not want to use Django, Rails, WASM, etc.
- I come from backend and devops (less a reason than a general note for context).
Right now, I'm most curious about DIY hosting in EC2 with Go (or Rust) instead of using Vercel.
This might seem old-fashioned in the days of ECS/EKS etc., but I'm really comfortable with EC2 and love the cost-savings and control (I build my own load balancers, NAT instances, reverse-proxies, health-checkers/deployment managers; saves a ton of money).
I want to leverage Next.js but not Vercel (if I don't have to). I have experience with backend and devops, so I care about and want to deal with the backend myself (cost-savings, control, decoupling).
The sentiment and complaints seem to sum up to, "if you're using Next.js, you basically [or eventually] have to use Vercel." But I do not want this to be true. That said, I also don't want to sacrifice benefits of Next.js or have to "fix" things constantly or unnecessarily.