I've built a bunch of frontend apps and landing pages over the years. Some simple, some complex, some just to ship something and see what sticks.

And like a lot of people, I started with Next.js.

It’s battle-tested, well-documented, comes with everything. But over time, I found myself reaching for it less and less — especially for frontend-only projects. It started to feel too heavy, too opinionated, too “big” for what I needed.

That’s when I found Vike. And honestly? It changed the way I build.

What is Vike?

Vike is a meta-framework built on top of Vite and React.

It gives you proper server-side rendering (SSR) with full flexibility — without turning your project into a full-stack ecosystem.

No forced routing conventions, no CLI magic, no weird config layers.

Just SSR, per-route control, and Vite under the hood.

Why I use it (and keep using it)

🧠 1. The learning curve is almost flat

Most devs today are already familiar with Vite + React.

Vike builds on that — it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.

If you’ve used Vite and know React Router, you’ll feel at home fast.

There’s no "framework DSL" to learn. You just write components and define routes.

🧼 2. No lock-in, no magic

With Next.js, I often felt like I was in a world of “Next’s way or no way” — pages directory, app directory, file-based routing, etc.

With Vike, I can structure things however I want. I define my routes, my data fetching, my page layout, and that’s it. No black boxes.

It’s not a full-stack platform. It’s just SSR on top of Vite, and that’s all I needed.

⚡ 3. SSR that actually feels clean

Vike gives you actual SSR by default — not static export hacks or weird hydration layers.

You define a route, set its metadata via +Head.jsx, and it just works.

For SEO, this setup is way easier to reason about than messing with Helmet or dynamic meta tags inside useEffect. You don’t fight the framework to render HTML for bots.

🔥 4. Perfect for frontend-first projects

If I’m building a full-stack app with auth, API routes, edge functions etc. — fine, maybe Next.js makes sense.

But for:

  • Landing pages
  • Marketing sites
  • Public dashboards
  • Docs pages
  • SaaS frontends that talk to a separate backend

…Vike is such a nice fit.

It stays out of the way. You build your UI. You ship. That’s it.

What I’ve learned using Vike

  • I spend less time reading docs and more time building
  • I structure my code in ways that make sense to me, not the framework
  • I think more clearly about what’s happening between client/server
  • I don’t dread SEO anymore
  • I never have to fight it — and that’s rare in web dev

Is it perfect?

Nope. The community is small.

Docs are improving but not flawless.

You won’t find a hundred tutorials on YouTube.

But honestly? That hasn’t stopped me.

Final thoughts

I’m not getting paid to write this. I just really like the dev experience, and I hope more people give it a shot — because tools like this deserve attention.

If you’re building something frontend-heavy and want real SSR without full-stack lock-in, try it.

Here's the link for Vike: https://vike.dev/

Here’s a site I built with Vike: https://satsu.pro

Feel free to poke around, or message me if you’re curious how it works under the hood.

Let’s make cool stuff — and ship it fast.