The author delves into whether a pre-rendered site can handle a traffic surge from popular platforms like Hacker News, testing Next.js performance on a VPS. Surprisingly, the VPS struggled with just a few simultaneous visitors, prompting a switch to a dedicated server. A comparison between server-side rendering (SSR) and pre-rendering showed that SSR significantly decreased page load performance. The author shared valuable insights into server capabilities and potential upgrades to enhance website resilience. Controversially, Cloudflare and Vercel were dismissed due to privacy concerns and costs, while a dedicated server emerged as a reliable option for handling traffic spikes. Stay tuned for upcoming articles exploring server optimization and Hacker News frontpage experiences.
https://martijnhols.nl/blog/how-much-traffic-can-a-pre-rendered-nextjs-site-handle