Choosing the right CMS for Next.js Project: 14 Key Questions

There is no way you don't need a CMS for Next.js (or any other project, honestly); let's make that clear from the beginning. Content management systems are content repositories that can impact your website or application's development, maintenance, and scalability.

I will not be persuasive in this guide or explain how a headless CMS will do magic for you. Instead, I will give answers to the most-googled questions when it comes to Next.js & CMS integration. To help you make an informed choice, I'll address the top 14 questions people ask when selecting a Next.js CMS.

Next.js is a React-based framework known for its exceptional performance, SEO capabilities, and developer-friendly features. If you're considering Next.js, you likely prioritize these aspects.

When selecting a CMS, ensure it seamlessly integrates with Next.js to leverage these advantages fully. So, the best thing to do is search for an open-source and headless CMS that can offer flexibility and support for Next.js features.

Before choosing a CMS, it's essential to define the types of content you'll be handling. Are you primarily dealing with text, images, videos, products, or a combination of these elements? This understanding will guide you in selecting a CMS that efficiently manages your specific content types.

Next.js is famous for server-side rendering (SSR), contributing to fast page load speeds and website performance. To maintain these advantages, your chosen CMS must support SSR. Evaluate how well the CMS integrates with Next.js for optimal performance.

Your project might require integration with databases, e-commerce platforms, external APIs, or other third-party services. Select an API-first CMS offering built-in integration options to streamline this process. A CMS with well-documented APIs will make integrating with external systems a smoother experience.

Next.js and headless CMS offer greater flexibility, scalability, and faster performance. By combining these various elements, your site's content can be managed more efficiently. With a headless CMS, content can be managed from a single source and utilized to build various online and mobile applications with NextJS. This gives you the chance to easily and conveniently manage all of your content.

Since Next.js elevates SEO, you need to choose a CMS that can do the same. Opt for a CMS that offers SEO support and provides features to enhance it. The best CMS for SEO must have SEO features such as customizable page elements, editable URL settings, automated sitemap generation, etc.

Once again, an excellent choice for high-level security would be an open-source CMS. A secure CMS platform leverages its SaaS nature to manage its security with platform updates.

Another thing you need to keep in mind is that you want to choose a CMS that uses a CDN because it often provides security features like distributed DDoS attack protection, which can help mitigate large-scale cyberattacks by spreading traffic across multiple servers and filtering out malicious requests.

Developers face challenges related to Next.js and CMS when developing web applications. Here are some of the most asked questions, and I hope my answers will help you understand better how to navigate Next.js and CMS together.

Fetching data from a CMS in Next.js is a common task. To pass data to your components, use server-side rendering (SSR) and the getServerSideProps or getStaticProps functions. This way, content is available at build time or runtime, improving performance and SEO.

Dynamic routes in Next.js allow you to create flexible, data-driven pages. For example, you can create a dynamic route for blog posts so that each post has a unique URL.

API routes in the Next.js CMS allow you to build your API endpoints directly within your project. This approach simplifies serverless functions and data retrieval.

Authentication in Next.js can be managed using various methods like third-party providers or session-based authentication. Choose a method that aligns with your project's security requirements and user experience goals.

A Next.js app can be deployed through various hosting providers, including Vercel, Netlify, and AWS Amplify. Different hosting providers offer various deployment methods. Here's a general approach:

Optimizing performance in Next.js involves techniques like code splitting, lazy loading, image optimization, and serverless deployment.

The short and brief answer would be: Whatever you want, whatever you need.

The long and detailed answer needs a new section in this blog, so here we go: for the long answer, keep reading.

The combination of NextJS and CMS gives limitless options for building dynamic websites. Paired with a headless CMS, NextJS offers a powerful combination of flexibility, ease of use, and performance.

Here are the most essential steps:

A mix of Next.js and CMS helps you to build composable and content-driven websites that are intuitive and user-friendly. Also, it opens the capability to make ready-to-use website starters that allow you to build a website or app effortlessly.

Here’s the list of the most popular things to build with Next.js and headless CMS:

Next.js and headless CMS are great for blogs because they combine the development benefits of Next.js with content management features.

In addition to providing an easy-to-use, flexible, and customizable platform for managing and delivering blog content efficiently, it enhances the overall user experience and helps bloggers create more engaging content.

Another thing that makes Next.js blogs special: is SEO. Next.js is beneficial for SEO because it supports server-side rendering and static site generation, making blogs load quickly and content easily indexable by search engines.

If you want a simple yet powerful blog without writing a lot of code and without sacrificing your SEO ranking, a Blog code starter for BCMS and  Next.js is the best choice.

Next.js CMS is great when it comes to building event and ticketing platforms. Next.js has serverless functions, real-time capabilities, and dynamic content rendering that enable fast-loading pages and smooth user experiences, critical for event booking and ticket sales.

Its flexibility and scalability in handling real-time updates make event management, such as event details, attendees, and reservations, easy to follow and maintain. Conference websites built in Next.js work efficiently and with no bugging, just like  Zoom or Google Meet.

Besides having SEO-friendly and dynamic content support, cooking and recipe websites built with Next.js and a headless CMS have a key feature that makes all this experience unique- user-generated recipe submissions.

While Next.js allows neat UX, Headless CMS’s custom form fields, custom post types, and content moderation make it an excellent choice for any website that accepts user-generated content or allows users to submit content via a front-end form.

Next.js recipe websites are user-friendly, highly customizable, and well-supported for collecting and managing user-generated content.

Speaking about effective submission handling, I need to include job boards in this list. Building a job board with Next.js offers performance and SEO but above developer benefits.

Besides supporting various data fetching methods, including server-side rendering static site generation and client-side data fetching, Next.js automatically code-splits, which means only the necessary code is loaded on each page, improving the website's load time and user experience.

This flexibility is useful for building a Next.js job board requiring real-time updates and dynamic content.

Streaming and podcasting platforms demand a smooth and responsive user experience by default. Next.js supports server-side rendering and client-side rendering, which is crucial for delivering multimedia content with no slow HTTP requests. In this way, streaming platforms and podcasts ensure fast and reliable page loading, crucial for an excellent streaming experience.

Additionally, Next.js allows for creating dynamic, interactive features that enhance user engagement, such as playlist management, episode categorization, and real-time comments. Its ability to handle serverless functions enables real-time chat, payment processing, and user interaction, making it a powerful choice for streaming and podcast platforms.

All of the above are good reasons to choose Next.js for creating E-commerce websites. E-commerce websites can benefit from its responsive design and out-of-the-box image optimization.

By using Next.js across all platforms, you can ensure an enjoyable and consistent shopping experience. E-commerce websites built with it are responsive and adapt seamlessly to different devices and screen sizes.

As Next.js automatically adapts to different screen sizes, it eliminates the need for separate mobile, desktop, and tablet versions. With Next.js, images are automatically optimized, reducing their size and improving website performance. In addition, it supports responsive images, lazy loading, and caching of images.

Suppose you want to learn how to build an E-commerce with Next.js ( similar to the one in the video above). In that case, you can do it in our step-by-step tutorial or download our Next.js E-commerce website starter and open doors to your E-commerce store today.

Choosing the right CMS for your Next.js project requires carefully assessing your specific needs and goals. By addressing these questions, I hope I helped you make an informed decision that sets your project up for success. If you need more specific advice or examples of CMS features that can make a difference in your Next.js development, look at 6 less obvious reasons to consider BCMS as your Next CMS.