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App Router architecture
Route structure, layouts, streaming boundaries, and caching strategy decided deliberately. Server components by default, with client boundaries pushed down to the leaves that genuinely need interactivity.
SERVICE · FRONTEND
React & Next.js Development
Front-end performance is not a phase at the end of a project — it is a set of architectural decisions made at the start and defended afterwards. We build in Next.js with server rendering as the default and client JavaScript as a deliberate exception, then hold the result to a budget that shows up in review rather than in a report six months later.
THE PROBLEM
Sites do not become slow. They are built slow, one reasonable decision at a time.
No single library makes a page heavy. What makes it heavy is a date formatter here, an animation package there, a state manager pulled in for one screen, a chart component that loads on every route, and a component tree where a single interactive control turned an entire page into client-rendered JavaScript. Each addition was defensible on its own; the aggregate is a bundle nobody can account for and a Largest Contentful Paint that arrives after the visitor has decided. Fixing this late means unpicking a hundred small choices. Setting a budget and enforcing it in review costs almost nothing.
Signals you might recognize
The site feels heavy and the team is not sure which part is responsible.
Search visibility and the single-page application are working against each other.
Every new page starts by copying the last one, and the differences quietly accumulate.
Lighthouse scores well on a developer laptop and badly on the devices customers use.
WHAT WE DELIVER
What this actually includes.
Concrete engineering capabilities deployed as part of this service practice.
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Design systems and component libraries
A typed component set with tokens, documented states, and accessibility built into each primitive rather than added to each page. Fewer decisions per page, and the same decision every time.
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Rendering strategy
Static, dynamic, or streamed, chosen per route against how the data actually changes. Static where it can be, revalidated where it should be, and dynamic only where the content genuinely varies per request.
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Core Web Vitals work
Measured on real devices and real networks, not a local machine. Layout stability, image and font strategy, and a JavaScript budget enforced in continuous integration.
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Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 AA
Keyboard operation, visible focus, contrast, and semantics verified with automated checks and manual passes. Reduced motion treated as a designed state, not a disabled one.
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Migration from an older front end
Moving from Create React App, the Next.js Pages Router, or a server-rendered template, route by route, with both running until the last one moves.
HOW WE WORK
How we approach React & Next.js Development.
Milestone-driven delivery, so integration problems surface in week two rather than in week ten.
01
Measure what exists
Where there is a current site, we start with field data and a bundle breakdown. The interesting number is rarely the headline score — it is which route regressed, on which device class, and what shipped in the release before it.
Stage 01 activities
- Field metrics by route and device class
- Bundle composition down to individual dependencies
- Render-path review: what is server, what is client, and why
- An accessibility baseline before anything moves
02
Set the architecture and the budgets
Route structure, data-fetching boundaries, and caching decided up front, alongside explicit budgets for JavaScript, image weight, and third-party scripts. A budget that is not enforced automatically is a preference.
Stage 02 activities
- Route and layout structure with streaming boundaries
- Caching and revalidation strategy per data source
- Byte budgets wired into the build so a regression fails the check
- Rules for where a client boundary is allowed to appear
03
Build the system before the pages
Tokens, primitives, and layout components first, so pages are assembled rather than invented. This is what stops page eleven from looking like a different site than page three.
Stage 03 activities
- Design tokens as the single source for colour, type, and spacing
- Accessible primitives with documented keyboard behaviour
- Composition patterns for the page types the site actually has
- A component inventory that is checked before anything new is written
04
Build the routes
Pages assembled from the system, each with metadata, structured data, and its accessibility and performance checks running as part of the pull request rather than as a later audit.
Stage 04 activities
- Per-route metadata and structured data from typed content
- Automated accessibility checks in the pull request
- Preview deployments for review on real devices
- Visual and keyboard passes at the widths the analytics actually show
05
Hold the line after launch
Field monitoring, budget enforcement, and a short regression review on each release. Performance is a state that decays without maintenance, and the decay is always gradual enough to ignore.
Stage 05 activities
- Real-user monitoring segmented by route
- Automated budget checks on every build
- A dependency review rhythm rather than a yearly panic
- Documentation for the patterns the team will extend
TECHNOLOGY DEPTH
Technologies behind React & Next.js Development.
The libraries, runtimes, and services we standardise on for this work, and keep patched.
Frontend
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
Backend
- Node.js
Data
- PostgreSQL
Cloud
- Vercel
- Docker
DELIVERABLES & OUTCOMES
What you receive, and what actually changes.
We measure success by durable working software in your possession, not presentation slides.
What you get
A typed component library with documented states and keyboard behaviour
Route architecture with an explicit rendering and caching strategy
Byte budgets enforced automatically on every build
Accessibility test suite covering keyboard, contrast, and reduced motion
Metadata, structured data, and sitemap generated from content, not hand-written
Field performance monitoring segmented by route and device class
What changes
Pages that render their content before JavaScript arrives, so crawlers and slow connections both get the text
A front end where adding a page is assembly rather than invention
Performance regressions caught in review instead of in a quarterly audit
An accessibility position that holds up to an actual audit
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Questions about React & Next.js Development.
Direct answers to common technical and engagement questions.
For new work, the App Router. It is where the framework's development is going, and server components are the mechanism that keeps client JavaScript small. For a large existing Pages Router application, the answer is usually to migrate incrementally rather than to rewrite — both routers can run in the same project while routes move across.
Yes, when the content is server-rendered and present in the initial HTML. The failure case is a site where the text only appears after client-side JavaScript executes. That is a decision, not a framework limitation, and it is the decision we design around from the start.
No. Vercel is the shortest path and usually the cheapest for a marketing or content site, but Next.js runs in a container anywhere, and we deploy to Azure and AWS regularly. The decision belongs with your operations position, not with the framework.
Budgets enforced in the build, so a regression fails a check rather than appearing in a report. Plus documentation of the patterns, and a short list of the decisions that would be expensive to reverse. Enforcement has to be automatic — a guideline in a wiki loses to a deadline every time.
Yes, and it usually goes better that way. We build the token layer and component primitives to match what the design tooling already defines, so the two stay in step instead of drifting into two separate systems with similar names.
Have something ambitious to build?
Tell us what you're working on. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right team for it.