Gatsby vs Next.js – Full Comparison
At JAMStack.org, Next.js is #1, Hugo is #2, and Gatsby is #3 (sorted by Github stars).
All the static site generators have their own advantages and disadvantages. It can’t be judged just by the number of Github stars.
Here’s a full comparison of Gatsby and Next.js in a nice tabular format.
Table of Contents
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Gatsby vs Next.js
Excellent: Fully available
Good: Partially available
Fair: Limited
Poor: Not possible
Performance Comparison
| Category | Gatsby | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Static content | Excellent | Excellent |
| AMP support | Good | Good |
| Progressive image loading | Excellent | Good |
| Responsive image loading | Excellent | Good |
| Inlines critical CSS | Excellent | Excellent |
| Fontself-hosting | Excellent | Excellent |
| Offline access | Excellent | Excellent |
| Prefetching of linked pages | Excellent | Excellent |
| Page caching | Excellent | Excellent |
| No extraneous code fetching | Excellent | Excellent |
Developer Experience
| Category | Gatsby | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Serverless features | Excellent | Excellent |
| Preview on refresh or withlink | Excellent | Excellent |
| Hot reloading of content | Excellent | Excellent |
| Hot reloading of code | Excellent | Excellent |
| Componentization | Excellent | Excellent |
| One-way data binding | Excellent | Excellent |
| Declarative data queries | Excellent | Excellent |
| Declarative UI building | Excellent | Excellent |
| Asset pipelines | Excellent | Excellent |
| CSS Extensions (e.g. Sass) | Excellent | Excellent |
| Modern JavaScript syntax | Excellent | Excellent |
Governance
| Category | Gatsby | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| XSS protection | Excellent | Excellent |
| Access control (CORS) | Excellent | Excellent |
| Environment variables | Excellent | Excellent |
| User authentication | Good | Good |
| Programmatic design | Good | Good |
| Design systems | Good | Good |
| Component libraries | Good | Good |
Accessibility Comparison
| Category | Gatsby | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Progressive enhancement | Excellent | Excellent |
| Landmark elements | Good | Good |
| Semantic HTML | Good | Good |
| Accessible routing | Excellent | Fair |
| Accessibility statement | Excellent | Poor |
| WCAG 2.0 AA compliance | Good | Fair |
Documentation
| Category | Gatsby | Next.js |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory tutorial | Excellent | Excellent |
| Sourcing data | Excellent | Fair |
| Incorporating CSS libraries | Excellent | Excellent |
| Routing | Excellent | Excellent |
| Testing | Excellent | Fair |
| Debugging | Excellent | Fair |
| Performance | Excellent | Fair |
| Adding media assets | Excellent | Good |
| Adding search | Excellent | Fair |
| Adding analytics | Excellent | Fair |
| Adding authentication | Excellent | Fair |
| Adding SEO | Excellent | Fair |
All these data has been taken from Gatsby official website.
That’s it.
