Why I Finally Embraced Server Components in React and You Should Too
It's been a wild ride working with React Server Components since they moved from experimental to stable. For the longest time, I resisted the change—clinging to my client-side rendering comfort zone like it was the last slice of pizza at a hackathon.
But last month, I finally took the plunge on a medium-sized project at work. And let me tell you—it was an eye-opener.
The Backstory: My RSC Skepticism
Like many React developers, I've been building apps in a particular way for years: load a mostly empty HTML shell, inject a ton of JavaScript, and let React take over from there. It worked. Users got interactive experiences, and I got to work with a mental model I understood.
When Server Components arrived, my first reaction was honestly defensive:
"Great, we're going back to server rendering? Didn't we leave PHP behind for good reasons?"
"This is just going to complicate my build pipeline for minimal gains."
"Do I really need to refactor my entire component organization?"
I'm guessing some of you have had similar thoughts.
The Turning Point
What changed my mind was a specific performance problem we couldn't solve in our dashboard app. We had a complex widget that displayed real-time analytics with a bunch of chart libraries. No matter how much we optimized, the initial load was still causing significant CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) issues, and our Core Web Vitals were suffering.
Our users were complaining about that dreaded white screen followed by the jarring layout shift when everything finally rendered. You know the one.
My tech lead suggested we try refactoring just this one part to use Server Components. I reluctantly agreed, figuring it would at least make for an interesting comparison.
The results shocked me.
The Real-World Impact
Here's what happened after we moved our analytics dashboard to Server Components:
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) improved by 67%. Users were seeing meaningful content in less than a second on average connections.
JavaScript bundle size for the initial page load dropped by 58%. We were sending way less JS over the wire because many components didn't need client interactivity.
Time to Interactive decreased by 42%. Even though we still had client components for interactive parts, the overall page became responsive much faster.
But more importantly, the user complaints about layout shift and loading delays virtually disappeared overnight.
A Simple Example to Illustrate
Let me show you a simplified version of what we did. Here's how our analytics component looked before:
// Before: Everything is client-rendered
import { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import ExpensiveChart from 'chart-library';
import { fetchAnalyticsData } from '@/lib/api';
export default function AnalyticsDashboard() {
const [data, setData] = useState(null);
const [isLoading, setIsLoading] = useState(true);
const [error, setError] = useState(null);
useEffect(() => {
async function loadData() {
try {
const result = await fetchAnalyticsData();
setData(result);
} catch (err) {
setError(err);
} finally {
setIsLoading(false);
}
}
loadData();
}, []);
if (isLoading) return <LoadingSkeleton />;
if (error) return <ErrorMessage message={error.message} />;
return (
<div className="dashboard">
<h2>Analytics Overviewh2>
<div className="stats-grid">
{data.stats.map(stat => (
<StatCard key={stat.id} {...stat} />
))}
div>
<div className="charts-container">
<ExpensiveChart data={data.chartData} />
div>
div>
);
}Here's how we refactored it with Server Components:
// After: Server Component with client interactive parts
import { Suspense } from 'react';
import { fetchAnalyticsData } from '@/lib/api';
import { InteractiveChartControls } from './ClientComponents';
// This component now runs on the server
export default async function AnalyticsDashboard() {
// Data fetching happens on the server without useState/useEffect
const data = await fetchAnalyticsData();
return (
<div className="dashboard">
<h2>Analytics Overviewh2>
<div className="stats-grid">
{data.stats.map(stat => (
<StatCard key={stat.id} {...stat} />
))}
div>
<div className="charts-container">
<ServerRenderedChart initialData={data.chartData} />
<Suspense fallback={<p>Loading controls...p>}>
{/* Only this part is a client component */}
<InteractiveChartControls data={data.chartData} />
Suspense>
div>
div>
);
}
// This renders the chart on the server
function ServerRenderedChart({ initialData }) {
// Generate SVG representation of the chart on the server
const svgContent = generateChartSVG(initialData);
return (
<div className="chart" dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: svgContent }} />
);
}Look at what changed:
- No loading state management - the component simply waits for data on the server
- No client-side data fetching
- The expensive chart rendering happens on the server
- Only the interactive controls are client components
- The page arrives pre-rendered to the browser
The Hard-Earned Lessons
This transition wasn't without challenges. Here are some lessons I learned the hard way:
Rethinking data fetching patterns - We had to move all our data fetching code out of React hooks and into server components or data loading functions.
Component organization requires more thought - I had to be much more intentional about which components need interactivity (client components) and which don't (server components).
State management gets more nuanced - Global client-side state (Redux, Zustand, etc.) won't work with server components, so we had to rethink our state strategy.
The "use client" directive feels awkward at first - Explicitly marking components as client components seemed strange initially, but makes more sense once you internalize the mental model.
Build and deployment configurations needed updates - Our build pipeline needed some tweaking to properly handle the server component compilation.
The biggest mental shift was accepting that not every component needs to be interactive. I was bundling and shipping tons of JavaScript for components that were essentially just displaying data.
When Server Components Make the Most Sense
Based on my experience, here's where Server Components really shine:
- Data-heavy dashboards and reports - When you're showing lots of information that doesn't need immediate interactivity
- Content-focused pages - Blog posts, documentation, product details
- SEO-critical sections - When complete server rendering improves your search ranking
- Complex visualizations - Charts, graphs, and other CPU-intensive renderings
They're less beneficial for highly interactive UIs like editors, games, or applications where nearly every element needs client-side interactivity.
The "Aha!" Moment
My personal "aha!" moment came when I realized Server Components aren't about going backwards to traditional server rendering. They're about being more intelligent about the division between server and client work.
The question becomes: "Does this component actually need to be interactive?" If not, why send all that JavaScript to the browser?
Getting Started Without the Pain
If you're considering Server Components, here's my advice for a smoother transition:
Start with a hybrid approach - Convert data-fetching and display-focused components first while leaving interactive elements as client components.
Use the Next.js App Router - It provides the infrastructure for Server Components without having to configure everything manually.
Refactor incrementally - You don't need to convert your entire application at once. Start with high-impact, low-complexity components.
Leverage Suspense boundaries - They help manage loading states between server and client parts of your application.
Keep client components focused - They should only handle interactivity, not data fetching or complex rendering when possible.
The Bottom Line
I went from being a Server Component skeptic to an advocate after seeing the real-world performance benefits. The user experience improvements were substantial enough that I can't imagine going back to purely client-side rendering for our data-heavy interfaces.
Is it perfect? No. There are still edge cases and complexities to work through. The mental model takes time to click. But for many applications, especially content or data-focused ones, the benefits are too significant to ignore.
I'd love to hear about your experiences with Server Components. Have you made the transition? What challenges did you face? Drop a comment below—I'm particularly interested in how others have handled state management across the server/client boundary.
When I'm not refactoring React apps, I'm usually rock climbing or trying to teach my cat to high-five. So far, the climbing is going better than the cat training.
