CSR vs SSR vs SSG: Which Rendering Strategy Does Your Website Actually Need?
Most React apps are built with client-side rendering by default — but that's rarely the best choice. Here's a plain-English breakdown of the three main rendering strategies and when to use each.
If you've built a website with Vite or Create React App, your site is almost certainly Client-Side Rendered (CSR). That means when a user visits your site, their browser downloads a blank HTML file and a large JavaScript bundle, then runs the JavaScript to build the page.
It works — but it comes with real costs.
The Problem with CSR
Search engines like Google need to crawl your page to index it. With CSR, the crawler often sees nothing but an empty <div id="root"></div>. Your content lives inside JavaScript that may or may not be executed by the crawler.
The result: poor SEO and slow perceived load times, especially on low-end devices or slow connections.
Option 1: Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
With SSR, the server generates a complete HTML page for every request. The browser receives real content immediately — no waiting for JavaScript.
Best for:
- Dashboards with user-specific data
- Pages that change frequently (news feeds, stock prices)
- Any page where content depends on who is logged in
Trade-off: Every request hits your server, which adds latency and cost at scale.
Option 2: Static Site Generation (SSG)
With SSG, pages are pre-rendered at build time. The output is pure HTML that gets served instantly from a CDN — no server involved at runtime.
Best for:
- Marketing sites and landing pages
- Blogs and documentation
- Portfolios and agency websites
Trade-off: Content is only as fresh as your last build. For data that changes hourly, SSG alone isn't enough.
Option 3: Hybrid (the Next.js sweet spot)
Next.js lets you mix strategies per page. Your homepage? SSG. Your user dashboard? SSR. Your blog? SSG with on-demand revalidation.
This is the approach we use for almost every project — and it's why we migrate CSR apps to Next.js rather than rebuilding them from scratch.
How to Know Which One You Need
| Your site has... | Use |
|---|---|
| Mostly static content | SSG |
| User-specific data | SSR |
| A mix of both | Hybrid (Next.js) |
| Heavy interactivity | CSR for that component only |
The Migration Path
If your site is currently on Vite or CRA, migrating to Next.js is usually less work than you'd expect. React components transfer almost verbatim — the main changes are routing and data fetching patterns.
Most migrations we handle take 1–2 weeks and result in Lighthouse scores jumping from 40–60 to 95–100.
If your site is invisible to Google or loading slowly, the rendering strategy is almost always the root cause. Get in touch and we'll diagnose it for free.