Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Foundation VS Next.js

Compare Foundation VS Next.js and see what are their differences

Foundation logo Foundation

The most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world

Next.js logo Next.js

A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps
  • Foundation Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-20
  • Next.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-19

Foundation features and specs

  • Customizability
    Foundation offers a high level of customizability, allowing developers to adjust the framework to meet specific project requirements.
  • Responsive Design
    Foundation is built with mobile-first design principles, ensuring that applications look and function well on a variety of devices and screen sizes.
  • Semantic Code
    The framework encourages the use of semantic HTML, making code more readable and improving accessibility.
  • Range of Components
    Foundation provides a wide array of pre-built components such as buttons, forms, and navigation bars, which can accelerate development time.
  • Strong Community Support
    The Foundation community is active and provides extensive documentation, forums, and additional resources to help developers.
  • Flex Grid
    Foundation's Flex Grid system provides a powerful and flexible way to create responsive layouts that adapt to different screen sizes.

Possible disadvantages of Foundation

  • Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and customizability, Foundation can have a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Size
    The full-featured version of Foundation can be quite large, potentially slowing down load times if not optimized properly.
  • Browser Compatibility Issues
    While generally robust, Foundation has been known to have occasional compatibility issues with certain browsers, necessitating additional fixes.
  • Dependency on jQuery
    Foundation relies on jQuery for several of its components, which can be seen as outdated or unnecessary by some modern developers.
  • Complexity for Small Projects
    For smaller projects, Foundation might be overkill in terms of features and setup, making simpler frameworks or no framework a more optimal choice.

Next.js features and specs

  • Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
    Next.js supports SSR, allowing pages to be rendered on the server-side before being sent to the client. This results in improved SEO and faster initial page loads.
  • Static Site Generation (SSG)
    Enables pre-rendering pages at build time, which can further improve performance and scalability while allowing for dynamic generation when needed.
  • API Routes
    Next.js allows you to build API endpoints directly in the application, simplifying the process of creating back-end services and endpoints.
  • File-Based Routing
    Offers a simple file-based routing mechanism where the file structure maps directly to the app’s routes, making it easier to manage and understand.
  • Automatic Code Splitting
    Automatically splits code at the page level, reducing the initial load time and improving performance by only loading necessary JavaScript.
  • TypeScript Support
    Built-in support for TypeScript, allowing developers to use static type checking and other TypeScript features easily.
  • Developer Experience
    Provides a great developer experience with features like fast refresh, hot reloading, and detailed error reporting.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Benefiting from the rich ecosystem of the React community and integrating well with other libraries and tools.
  • Internationalization
    Built-in support for internationalization helps developers build multilingual applications with ease.
  • Community and Support
    Strong community and extensive documentation provide ample support and resources for new and experienced developers alike.

Possible disadvantages of Next.js

  • Learning Curve
    The robust feature set of Next.js can present a steep learning curve for developers who are new to React or server-side rendering concepts.
  • Configuration Overhead
    Although Next.js aims for simplicity, complex projects may still require significant configuration and customization.
  • Performance Overhead
    SSR can introduce additional server load and latency compared to static site generators, especially under high traffic conditions.
  • Deployment Complexity
    Deploying Next.js applications that leverage SSR or API routes may be more complex and could require more sophisticated server infrastructure.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    If heavily relying on Next.js-specific features, moving away from the framework to another solution could require significant refactoring.
  • Bundle Size
    Without careful optimization, client-side bundle sizes can become large, negatively affecting the application’s performance.
  • Build Times
    For large applications, build times can be significant, impacting the development cycle and deployment times.
  • Dependencies
    Next.js introduces its own set of dependencies and tooling, which might complicate version management and compatibility with other tools.

Foundation videos

BEST & WORST NEW FOUNDATIONS

More videos:

  • Review - BEST & WORST NEW FOUNDATIONS
  • Review - BEST & WORST FOUNDATIONS | Luxury & Drugstore

Next.js videos

Next.js: The React Framework - JS Monthly - July 2019

More videos:

  • Review - Gatsby vs Next.js: Which does SSG Better?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Foundation and Next.js)
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
9 9%
91% 91
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0
Web Frameworks
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Foundation and Next.js

Foundation Reviews

22 Best Bootstrap Alternatives & What Each Is Best For
The reason I picked Foundation for this list is its strong emphasis on creating responsive designs, a feature that many developers value in the era of mobile browsing. This framework differentiates itself with an ingrained mobile-first approach, ensuring that applications look great on smaller screens without sacrificing functionality or aesthetics on larger ones.
Source: thectoclub.com
15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
Semantic, coherent, and fully customizable, the Foundation empowers developers to create designs that are not only visually appealing but also adaptable to various screen sizes. Starting with small devices, developers can gradually enhance the complexity of their designs, ensuring a fully responsive experience layer by layer.
Source: coursesity.com
9 Best Bootstrap Alternatives | Best Frontend Frameworks [2024]
Not only this, but they also have ‘Foundation for Emails’, which is a framework to code responsive HTML emails. Hence, whenever you are looking for an alternative to Bootstrap, do give Foundation a try.
Source: hackr.io
11 Best Material UI Alternatives
Foundation is a responsive front-end framework with CSS and JavaScript components for building modern, mobile-friendly websites. It offers a comprehensive toolkit with a modular approach, allowing developers to customize and tailor their designs to meet specific project requirements.
Source: www.uxpin.com
Top 10 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-End Developers in 2022
One of the most advanced and sophisticated UI frameworks, Foundation enables quick website development. Just like Bootstrap, Foundation follows a mobile-first approach and is fully responsive. It is very suitable for huge web applications that need a lot of styling. Foundation is customizable, flexible, and semantic. And, there are over 2k contributors on Github and decent...
Source: hackr.io

Next.js Reviews

Top 10 Next.js Alternatives You Can Try
Next.js is a well-known platform most of you utilize to build a responsive website. However, if you are annoyed by its limited features, consider Next.js alternatives because flexibility and faster loading speed are always the top concerns of every developer. For this reason, you might need to read this article to explore the top 10 Nextjs Alternatives for the exciting world...
20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
When it comes to building modern web applications, finding the right framework can be a game-changer. Next.js is often a top choice, but there are several Next.js alternatives worth considering.
10 Best Next.js Alternatives to Consider Today
For those who have been accustomed to the benefits of React Next.js, keeping an eye on the latest version is crucial. Next.js's continuous improvement and updates in Next.js enhance its capabilities, ensuring developers can access cutting-edge features and optimizations. Whether starting a new project or maintaining an existing Next.js website, staying informed about the...
9 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023
Next.js uses JavaScript and React components to create the UI. Next.js is influenced by React Router, Webpack, Node ecosystem, and community libraries. The feature that sets Next.js apart from other frameworks is its ability to automatically generate pages based on the file system structure of the project. For example, if there is a _posts folder in the root directory,...
Source: ninetailed.io
JavaScript: What Are The Most Used Frameworks For This Language?
Some of its top features include server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, client-side routing, built-in CSS support, static site generation and API routes. Overall, Next.JS is a powerful and flexible framework that provides developers with a simple and intuitive way to build complex React applications with ease. It is widely used in the React community and has a...
Source: www.bocasay.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Next.js seems to be a lot more popular than Foundation. While we know about 1067 links to Next.js, we've tracked only 21 mentions of Foundation. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Foundation mentions (21)

  • Blazor #3 - How to Install Foundation into a Blazor Project
    Foundation is a mobile-first responsive front-end framework that provides a range of CSS and JavaScript components for creating websites quickly. It’s often seen as a competitor to Bootstrap, offering more flexibility and customization options. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    Foundation: An easy-to-use, powerful, and flexible front-end framework for building web applications on any device. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Show HN: LangCSS – An AI Assistant for Tailwind
    Here is a thought you might want to consider and see if it makes sense. This is personal, but I also believe this is where design codes (especially CSS) are going to go. It is not going to be Tailwind or more new frameworks. Honestly, I think all of these Bootstrap, Foundation, and Tailwind, etc. Are like middle-layer abstractions are for designs that are neither small nor large. Bootstrap won because of the... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Front-end Framework: Comparing Bootstrap, Foundation and Materialize
    Foundation is another popular open-source front-end framework, similar to Bootstrap, but with its own set of features and design principles. It was created by ZURB a design and development company in 2011. And is also maintained by a community of developers. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • I hate CSS: how can I build UIs?
    Are you cool with JS frameworks? If so, you can use a higher level of abstraction that takes care of the CSS for you. If you just want to mock something up, you can use a pre-built UI system / component framework and just put together UIs declaratively, without having to worry about the underlying CSS or HTML at all. Examples include https://mui.com/ and https://chakra-ui.com/ and https://ant.design/ Really easy... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

Next.js mentions (1067)

  • We Fell Out of Love with Next.js and Back in Love with Ruby on Rails
    3. Load personalized data (json) But usually step 1 and 2 are served from a cdn, so very fast. On subsequent requests, 1 and 2 are usually served from the browser cache, so extremely fast. SSR is usually not faster. Most often slower. You can check yourself in your browser dev tools (network tab): https://www.solidjs.com/ vs. https://nextjs.org/ So much complexity and effort in the nextjs app, but so much slower. - Source: Hacker News / 2 days ago
  • 25+ Top UI frameworks & libraries for Next.js
    If you are overwhelmed with dozens of UI frameworks and libraries available, you are not alone as a developer. With so many UI Frameworks for Nextjs each claiming to be the best it’s tough to decide which one truly fits your project. - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • Build a Job Application and Interview App with Next.js, Stream & Firebase
    In this tutorial, you will learn how to build a job application and interviewing platform using Next.js, Stream, and Firebase. This app will allow recruiters to post job openings, review applications, and schedule interviews. Job seekers can also apply for jobs and communicate with recruiters. - Source: dev.to / 13 days ago
  • Next.js Localization: How to Build a Multilingual Website with Next-Intl
    In this section, you will learn how to bootstrap a basic Next.js application. - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • Progressive frustration
    How do I retro-fit nextjs instructions on the Flagsmith website to fit Deno's fresh over preact? - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Foundation and Next.js, you can also consider the following products

Bootstrap - Simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions

Vercel - Vercel is the platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.

Materialize CSS - A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Semantic UI - A UI Component library implemented using a set of specifications designed around natural language

Nuxt.js - Nuxt.js presets all the configuration needed to make your development of a Vue.js application enjoyable. It's a perfect static site generator.