I’ve just watched the React team video about Server React Components.
Now of coure I have massive respect and admiration for the whole React team. I think React is fantastic.
But I’m a bit puzzled about Server Side React Components.
The benefits are:
- Server components can access the database on the server, removing latency of database calls from the client to the server
- Server components can use dependencies that never get uploaded to the client, saving page weight
Isn’t this just what all web sites used to have before Client-Side Rendering was introduced? Everything was rendered on the server. There was no CSR. The benefit of CSR was you only had to send data over the wire to the client - not heavy DOM elements.
The example in the video does not appear to present a compelling use case in which Server Components would be needed.
And you still have potential latency waiting for the server to send back the rendered DOM elements to the client – which they dramatize in the video.
Plus you get the substantial mental and context-switching overhead about having to think in terms of Server Side vs Client Side vs. Any Side React components.
What are some use cases where Server Side Components could be worth implementing?