Survey: Jamstack Users Look Beyond Performance Gains, Next.js

The search for better performance may not be driving demand for the Jamstack.  The “State of the Jamstack 2021” report identified 592 developers worldwide currently working with the web framework stack, of which only 39% believe performance is among the top three reasons to build an application with it. The leading choices were security (45%) and cost-effectiveness (42%). In contrast, performance led the list at 52% in the 2020 study. The difference is because developers are more likely to have at least a year’s experience working with the modern web development architecture.

Other changes found in the study may also be attributed to differences in the sample. Most notably, this year’s study included larger companies, with respondents from companies with 250+ employees going from 41% in 2020 to 57% in 2021.

The study also asked what are the three static site generators developers prefer to use. Next.js is no longer the leading framework cited, going from 27% in 2020 in to 17% in 2021. The decline is in part because developers have realized there are other options available. The 2021 survey added Statiq and found 18% prefer using the .NET framework. Scully, a framework for Angular and Angular hybrid applications was added to the questionnaire and 17% of Jamstack developers prefer using it.

Ondrej Polesny, Developer Evangelist at Kentico Software, which along with Luminary sponsored this report, believes another reason for the decline in Next.js adoption is because newcomers to the Jamstack are still experimenting with web-centric content management systems, while Next.js features are more in tune with enterprise-level content management systems (CMSes).

Kentico Kontent is one of many headless CMS options. The survey asks where Jamstack developers about the top three places where they prefer to keep their content. Kontent was cited by 9% while 38% prefer Google Docs. GraphCMS has risen to the second most popular location, going from 14% in 2020 to 24% in 2021. Note that the survey did not include any reference to WordPress or storing content in other legacy systems. Using multiple CMSes at a time, CMS migration and Jamstack vs. WordPress are worthy discussion topics for the foreseeable future.