Getting started with Next.js: A step-by-step guide for beginners

Next.js is a powerful React framework that helps you build scalable and high-performance web applications. It provides many features out of the box, such as server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and optimized performance.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how to get started with Next.js, step by step.

Step 1: Set up a new Next.js project

The first step is to set up a new Next.js project. You can do this by running the following command:

$ npx create-next-app my-app

This will create a new Next.js project in a directory called my-app. Once the installation is complete, you can navigate to the project directory and start the development server by running the following commands:

$ cd my-app

$ npm run dev

This will start the development server at http://localhost:3000/.

Step 2: Create pages

Next.js uses the file system as its router. This means that you can create a new page by creating a new file in the pages directory. For example, if you create a file called about.js in the pages directory, Next.js will automatically create a route for the /about URL.

Step 3: Create components

Next.js allows you to create reusable components that can be used across multiple pages. To create a new component, create a new file in the components directory.

Step 4: Styling with CSS

Next.js provides several ways to style your components. One of the most popular methods is to use CSS modules. CSS modules allow you to write CSS in your component files and have the styles automatically scoped to that component.

Step 5: Deploy your app

Once you have built your app, you can deploy it to a production environment. Next.js provides several ways to deploy your app, including hosting platforms like Vercel, Netlify, and AWS.

To deploy your app to Vercel, you can follow these steps:

Install the Vercel CLI by running npm i -g vercel
Run vercel login to log in to your Vercel account
Run vercel in your project directory to deploy your app

Conclusion

In this blog post, we covered the basics of getting started with Next.js. We walked through setting up a new project, creating pages and components, styling with CSS, and deploying your app to a production environment.

Next.js is a powerful framework that can help you build scalable and high