Next.js 15.3: A Mixed Bag of Updates
Next.js 15.3 brings significant improvements, particularly with the near-completion of Turbopack support. This Rust-based bundler promises faster build times, scaling effectively with more CPU cores. Vercel claims it's up to 83% faster than Webpack with 30 cores. However, Turbopack is still in alpha, so it's not recommended for mission-critical production applications just yet.
<img src="https://devclass.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/turbopack-1024x428.jpg" alt="Turbopack progress towards full compatibility with Next.js">Alongside Turbopack, Next.js 15.3 offers:
- A client instrumentation hook for easier monitoring and analytics integration.
- New navigation hooks for improved client-side routing.
- A significantly faster TypeScript language server plugin (around 60% faster).
React Server Components Under Fire
Despite the advancements, React Server Components (RSCs) are facing criticism. Shopify engineer Michael Jackson voiced concerns about their practicality after five years, stating they haven't lived up to expectations. This sentiment was echoed by Evan You, the creator of Vue.js, who believes the bet on RSCs as the idiomatic way to use React has failed due to complexity and tradeoffs.
Faster Alternatives Emerge?
The debate around RSCs and Next.js's complexity has led to the exploration of alternatives. Fastify, a high-performance web framework, offers a React renderer (@fastify/react) claiming speeds up to 7 times faster than Next.js.
While these criticisms originate from developers involved with competing frameworks, it reflects a growing concern regarding Next.js's increasing complexity.
Read more about the Fastify/React renderer here
Discuss the complexity of Next.js in this Hacker News thread
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