Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is the process of rendering React components on the server and sending the fully rendered HTML to the client. This improves initial page load speed, SEO, and performance.

🆚 Client-Side Rendering vs. Server-Side Rendering

🚀 SSR with Next.js (Popular SSR Framework for React)

Next.js makes SSR simple in React. It uses special functions like getServerSideProps for SSR.

1️⃣ Setting Up Next.js

npx create-next-app@latest ssr-example
cd ssr-example
npm run dev

2️⃣ Example: SSR in Next.js

// pages/index.js
export default function Home({ user }) {
return (
<div>
<h1>Welcome, {user.name}! 👋</h1>
<p>Email: {user.email}</p>
</div>
);
}

// This function runs on the server at request time
export async function getServerSideProps() {
// Simulating data fetching (e.g., API call)
const user = {
name: 'Naveen',
email: 'naveen@example.com',
};

// Pass data as props to the page component
return {
props: { user },
};
}

⚡ How It Works:

1. getServerSideProps runs on every request.
2. Fetches data on the server.
3. Sends pre-rendered HTML with user data to the client.
4. No loading spinners—the data is already there when the page loads.

3️⃣ API Call Example in SSR

export async function getServerSideProps() {
const res = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/1');
const user = await res.json();

return { props: { user } };
}

🌟 Why Use SSR?

• ✅ SEO Benefits — Pre-rendered content is crawlable.
• ✅ Faster Initial Load — Especially for users on slow networks.
• ✅ Dynamic Data — Ensures fresh data on every request.

🚫 When Not to Use SSR?

• ❌ Static content — use Static Site Generation (SSG) instead.
• ❌ Highly interactive pages — CSR may be better.

⚡ Pro Tip:

• Combine SSR with Client-Side Rendering for interactive parts.
• Use Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR) in Next.js for hybrid solutions.