Excerpt:
In an article for Contraption comparing Ruby on Rails and Next.js, Philip I. Thomas writes:
The truth is that the new wave of Javascript web frameworks like Next.js has made it harder, not easier, to build web apps. These tools give developers more capabilities - dynamic data rendering and real-time interactions. But, the cost of this additional functionality is less abstraction.
Using cutting-edge frameworks introduces instability through frequent updates, new libraries, and unexpected issues. Next.js applications often rely on a multitude multiple third-party services like Vercel, Resend, and Temporal that introduce platform risk.
This problem has been exacerbated by developers themselves. I don’t like Vercel, Resend, Temporal, Prisma, or any of the SaaS platforms whose business model seemingly relies on ~~abstracting~~ obfuscating away control of an application by selling their services to new and impressionable developers who hear about them for the first time from their favorite social media personalities. Indeed, all three links in the paragraph I quoted above from Thomas’s article are affiliate links. (This is not to say Thomas is doing what these creators do, I’m just pointing out how deeply rooted this economic model has become).
As an industry, we’ve shifted from the millenial devlog to the YouTube tutorial. And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with video as a format, the incentive for monetizing content makes developers-turned-creators perpetuate this cycle of overcomplicating software through third-party services, because at the end of the day, advertising these services and not architecting software is what pays their bills.
This trend of aggressive advertisement for a fragmented app ecosystem preys on the ever-present FOMO in the industry. If Meta and Netflix and the rest of the FAANG companies are using the latest technology… why not me?! But FAANG companies solve unique problems for their products, and thus write solutions that work for them. See also: Ruby on Rails is slow and doesn’t scale. When your app reaches a large enough amount of users to bring Rails to its knees, you’re not going to regret choosing Rails, you’re going to laugh and feel proud and incredulous that so many people have found value in your work.