Transcription
Hey everyone, welcome back.
So today's video is one I've been needing to make for a while. I'm officially ditching Nex.js and Verscell completely. I've been with Nex.js since version one. I knew Versel back when they were known as Zite. Now they had a domain called now.sh. I loved what they did for React and being able to deploy from the terminal was a killer developer experience, truly.
But things have changed a lot over time. Nadsh became Verscel and it feels like they became this money-hungry corporation with some shady tactics. Let's talk about the elephant in the room. Their relationship with the React team. How many React core members did Versel hire? Almost all of them. And suddenly the official React dogs heavily push you towards Nex.js like it's the only way to use React. That's just not true. There are far better, faster options out there like Vit. You can see it at the bottom of the page here. It feels less like a recommendation and more like a manufactured consensus.
Then they introduced the app router. And look, I've used it in production. My whole team has and we're just frustrated. The developer experience is slow. The mental model for server and client components just feels wrong. And they've slowly made Nex.js optimized for Versel and only Versel, locking you into their ecosystem. They say it's open source, but it's controlled by Versell. There's no separation. It's biased. They even push their own components down your throat. Your editor will give you warnings if you don't use their image component. And if you do use it, you're on the hook for their cost, which they never really make clear.
And how did they push this app router? They went and bought out a ton of YouTube and Twitter influencers to shove this thing down our throats. Meanwhile, the app router is slower and way more bloated than the old pages router. It's not just bloat, it's insecure. Their middleware had a massive security leak. You could bypass it with a simple trick and Verscell handled it horribly. No communication, no quick fix. They only acted after there was a huge backlash from the community. That's irresponsible and it's all about monopolizing the industry.
Versil doesn't just own Nex.js. They're behind Felkit and they just acquired the company behind Nux. Nux is the fullstack framework for Vue.js, which is their competitor. They're trying to own the entire full stack framework space. They don't want to compete. They want to own everything.
But for me, the final straw was this. I want you to go to Twitter X and take a look at the CEO and the founder of Versel's page, and he posted a picture with a war criminal. And I'll just leave that to you. You can draw your own conclusion, but for me, this was it. I can't in good conscience support this with my code, my projects, or my money.
So what now? Honestly, it's liberating because there are so many better options. Instead of React, check out Vue.js or SolidJS. They're faster and truly open source. Instead of Nex.js, Solid Start is exceptional. If you must stick with React, check out Tenstack Start. There's also Pact, Laravel, Django. The world is yours. Instead of Versal Hosting, Netifi is great. CloudFare is super cheap and gives you insane value. And if you want to go self-hosted, I highly recommend Hezner. You can use something like Coolifi to manage it easily. You're not locked in.
So, I'm done. I'm pulling the plug right now. This is my project and it's gone. And that one's gone. I'm moving everything to Netifi and other platforms. It feels like taking back control.
So, that's my spill. I'm out. The developer experience isn't worth the lock-in, the shady tactics, the bloated software, or the ethical compromises. The web is bigger than one company. Go out and explore the other amazing tools we have. Thanks for watching. I'll see you the next one.