Partial prerendering Building towards a new default rendering model for web applications

 

Partial pre-rendering in Next.js 14 refers to the ability to pre-render only specific parts of a page, as opposed to the entire page, improving performance and flexibility. There are two primary pre-rendering modes in Next.js: Static Generation (SSG) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR). Partial pre-rendering combines elements of both.

Key Concepts of Partial Pre-rendering:

1. Pre-rendering Specific Components: Only certain components or sections of the page are pre-rendered ahead of time (using SSG), while others are rendered on the server (using SSR) or dynamically loaded on the client.
2. Optimizing Performance: This approach improves the initial load time by pre-rendering the static parts (that don't change often), and fetching the dynamic data for other sections during runtime (e.g., user-specific or frequently updated data).
3. Hybrid Pages: Next.js supports hybrid pages, where part of the page is pre-rendered statically, and other parts use client-side rendering or server-side data fetching. This allows for a mix of SSG and SSR on the same page.
4. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR): Partial pre-rendering works well with ISR, allowing parts of the page to be re-rendered on-demand in the background, ensuring that even static content stays up-to-date without rebuilding the entire site.