Deployment Options for Sitecore Headless Next.js Apps

Introduction

As we observe, many organizations are currently prioritizing the transition from Sitecore Traditional MVC and SXA to Sitecore Headless Architecture. When considering this popular architectural shift, it's crucial for everyone involved to understand the pros and cons associated with this migration or new core development. There exists a wide array of options to cater to customer needs. From my perspective, adopting this approach represents one method to develop flexible applications/websites utilizing a content management system.

Deployment

When selecting the technology stack, the subsequent step involves deploying the applications/website. Every architect must contemplate various aspects of deployment, such as where to deploy, what deployment options are available, which type of deployment aligns with budgetary constraints, and which type of deployment offers scalability from a maintenance standpoint.

In this article, we'll explore the deployment options for front-end applications using Sitecore Headless, with a specific focus on the trendy Next.js framework. As Next.js is built on top of React.js, it offers additional features that provide added benefits to both customers and developers during application development.

Deployment Options

I've extensively explored various options for deploying Next.js apps. These experiments were crucial in pinpointing the most cost-effective and maintenance-free solutions for hosting and deploying Next.js applications.

Next.js applications offer flexibility in hosting options, catering to different prerendering forms and individual preferences.

There are some options to deploy the Next.js application, we are going to see one by one here.

Deploying on Vercel

The easiest way to deploy Next.js to production is to use the Vercel platform developed by the creators of Next.js.

Vercel is a serverless platform designed for static and hybrid applications, specifically tailored to integrate seamlessly with your headless content, commerce, or database systems.

Vercel fully supports all Next.js features right from the start, including incremental static site regeneration, hybrid rendering, and internationalization. With Vercel, you can deploy your application directly from source control and optimize it using our edge network and serverless functions.

I will write the article, how to deploy Next.js application in Vercel in future. If you want to check the document from Sitecore, please click the following link deploying-next-js-apps-to-vercel .

Deploying on Netlify

Next way to deploy the Next.js application using Netlify . For that, we need to create the account in Netlify.

Netlify also fully supports all Next.js features, such as incremental static site regeneration, hybrid rendering, and internationalization. You can easily integrate your GitHub repository with Netlify to streamline the process of building and deploying your solution, resulting in quicker turnaround times.

All the available options in Netlify are similar to the Vercel, It will provide the public domain name which we need to configure for all the API's to extract the content (from Edge).

Deploying on Node.js Server

By using this options, we can deploy the Next.js application in Node.js server (IIS) like traditional method of hosting. Next.js application can be deployed in any hosting provider or environment which supports Node.js. You can check the following Next.js document for how to deploy the Next.js application in Node.js server (It covers docker container, static html export method as well) ==> Next.js Deployment in Node.js server

Deploying on Cloud Platform

In today's trending world, hosting websites on cloud platforms has become one of the primary methods due to several advantages. In the cloud, you only pay for the resources you use, ensuring cost-effectiveness. Additionally, cloud platforms offer high availability, tight security measures, and high reliability. Maintenance is also simplified, as cloud providers handle much of the infrastructure upkeep, allowing you to focus on your core business activities.

Once all essential factors have been taken into consideration, the next step is to configure the domain name and address according to the chosen provider. In this theoretical article focusing on deployment options, we will explore how to configure any one of the deployment options to successfully run the applications in the future article.

Happy Sitecoring !