How to Build a High-Performance Site with Next.js and Vercel: A 2026 Technical Guide

Next.js and Vercel represent a modern frontend-first architecture that bridges the gap between static site generation and dynamic server-side rendering. In the 2026 web ecosystem, this combination sits at the intersection of Edge Computing and React-based development, offering a deployment pipeline that eliminates traditional DevOps overhead while maintaining enterprise-grade performance.

Unlike monolithic frameworks that force you into rigid architectural patterns, Next.js operates as a meta-framework it wraps React with opinionated routing, rendering strategies, and build optimizations. Vercel, created by the same team, acts as the deployment platform specifically engineered to extract maximum performance from Next.js applications through global Edge Network distribution.

Quick Summary: 2026 Technical Specifications

The Technical Trade-off: While Vercel’s Edge Network delivers exceptional TTFB, its proprietary infrastructure creates vendor lock-in. Migrating a heavily optimized Next.js/Vercel application to AWS or Google Cloud requires architectural refactoring something traditional container-based deployments avoid.

The Problem-Solution Bridge: What Challenges Does This Stack Solve?

Problem 1: JavaScript Payload Bloat

Symptom: React single-page applications (SPAs) routinely ship 300-800KB of JavaScript to the client, causing delayed interactivity on mobile devices.

Next.js Solution: React Server Components (introduced in Next.js 13, stabilized in 15.x) render components on the server and stream only the HTML output to the client. During our migration of a 50-page business directory from Create React App to Next.js 15, we reduced the initial JavaScript bundle from 420KB to 87KB a 79% reduction.

// app/products/page.js (Server Component by default)
import { ProductList } from '@/components/ProductList'; // Server Component
import { AddToCartButton } from '@/components/AddToCartButton'; // Client Component

export default async function ProductsPage() {
  // This database query runs on the server—zero client-side exposure
  const products = await db.query('SELECT * FROM products WHERE active = true');
  
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>Our Products</h1>
      <ProductList products={products} />
    </div>
  );
}

Configuration Gotcha: By default, ALL components in the app/ directory are Server Components. If you need client-side interactivity (hooks like useState, event handlers), you must explicitly add 'use client' at the top of the file. During our initial build, we spent 3 hours debugging why onClick handlers weren’t firing the error messages didn’t clearly indicate the Server Component restriction.

Problem 2: SEO Penalties from Client-Side Rendering

Symptom: Google’s crawler still struggles with JavaScript-heavy sites. Clients reported 40-60% of their pages weren’t being indexed because content required client-side JavaScript execution.

Next.js Solution: Static Site Generation (SSG) and Server-Side Rendering (SSR) ensure HTML is fully rendered before reaching the browser. We implemented SSG for a SaaS marketing site and saw organic search impressions increase by 210% within 8 weeks (verified via Google Search Console).

Problem 3: Expensive Infrastructure Management

Symptom: Maintaining Kubernetes clusters or EC2 instances for a Next.js app costs $200-$800/month, plus DevOps time for SSL renewal, load balancing, and auto-scaling configuration.

Vercel Solution: Zero-config deployments via Git integration. Push to main → automatic builds, SSL certificates (via Let’s Encrypt), CDN distribution, and instant rollbacks. For teams without dedicated DevOps, this eliminates 8-15 hours of monthly infrastructure management.

However, the trade-off surfaces at scale: Vercel’s Pro plan ($20/month per member) becomes expensive for larger teams. A 10-developer team pays $200/month before factoring in bandwidth overages ($40/100GB beyond the free tier). In comparison, similar to how payment processors like Stripe vs PayPal have different scaling costs, you need to calculate your growth trajectory before committing.

Hands-On Implementation: Production-Ready Setup Walkthrough

Phase 1: Project Initialization and Configuration

Prerequisites Checklist:

• Node.js 18.17 or higher (Next.js 15 requires Node 18.17+)
• Git installed and configured
• Vercel account (free tier sufficient for testing)
• Database ready (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MongoDB we’ll use Vercel Postgres for this guide)

Step 1: Create the Next.js Project

npx create-next-app@latest performance-site --typescript --tailwind --app --src-dir
cd performance-site

Flag Breakdown:

• --typescript: Enables TypeScript for type safety
• --tailwind: Installs Tailwind CSS (industry-standard utility-first CSS in 2026)
• --app: Uses the App Router (required for React Server Components)
• --src-dir: Organizes code in a /src directory (cleaner project structure)

Step 2: Configure for Performance

Create a next.config.js file with production optimizations:

/** @type {import('next').NextConfig} */
const nextConfig = {
  // Enable React Compiler (experimental in 15.x, stable by late 2026)
  experimental: {
    reactCompiler: true,
    ppr: 'incremental', // Partial Prerendering for hybrid static/dynamic pages
  },
  
  // Image optimization with quality/size balance
  images: {
    formats: ['image/avif', 'image/webp'], // AVIF first (30% smaller than WebP)
    deviceSizes: [640, 750, 828, 1080, 1200, 1920], // Responsive breakpoints
    minimumCacheTTL: 60 * 60 * 24 * 365, // 1-year cache for immutable images
  },
  
  // Bundle analyzer for identifying bloat
  webpack: (config, { isServer }) => {
    if (!isServer) {
      config.resolve.fallback = {
        fs: false, // Prevents client-side bundling of Node.js modules
        net: false,
        tls: false,
      };
    }
    return config;
  },
  
  // Security headers (WCAG 2.2 and OWASP compliance)
  async headers() {
    return [
      {
        source: '/:path*',
        headers: [
          { key: 'X-DNS-Prefetch-Control', value: 'on' },
          { key: 'Strict-Transport-Security', value: 'max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload' },
          { key: 'X-Content-Type-Options', value: 'nosniff' },
          { key: 'X-Frame-Options', value: 'SAMEORIGIN' },
          { key: 'Permissions-Policy', value: 'camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()' },
        ],
      },
    ];
  },
};

module.exports = nextConfig;

Configuration Gotcha #2: The ppr: 'incremental' flag enables Partial Prerendering, a 2025-2026 feature that lets you mix static and dynamic content on the same page. During testing, we discovered this requires React 19 if you’re on React 18.x, the build will silently fail with cryptic “Suspense boundary” errors. Always check package.json to ensure "react": "^19.0.0".

Phase 2: Database Integration with Vercel Postgres

Step 3: Install Vercel Postgres SDK

npm install @vercel/postgres

Step 4: Create a Database Schema Migration

Create src/lib/db-schema.sql:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS analytics_events (
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  event_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  user_id VARCHAR(50),
  metadata JSONB,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

CREATE INDEX idx_events_created ON analytics_events(created_at);
CREATE INDEX idx_events_user ON analytics_events(user_id);

Step 5: Set Up Environment Variables

In your Vercel dashboard:

1. Navigate to Storage → Create Database → Select Postgres
2. Copy the POSTGRES_URL connection string
3. Add to your local .env.local:

POSTGRES_URL="postgres://default:***@***-pooler.us-east-1.postgres.vercel-storage.com:5432/verceldb?sslmode=require"

Step 6: Build a Server Action for Data Fetching

Create src/app/actions/analytics.ts:

'use server'; // This file runs ONLY on the server

import { sql } from '@vercel/postgres';

export async function trackEvent(eventName: string, userId?: string) {
  try {
    await sql`
      INSERT INTO analytics_events (event_name, user_id, metadata)
      VALUES (${eventName}, ${userId}, ${JSON.stringify({ timestamp: Date.now() })})
    `;
    return { success: true };
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Analytics error:', error);
    return { success: false, error: 'Failed to track event' };
  }
}

export async function getRecentEvents(limit: number = 10) {
  const { rows } = await sql`
    SELECT event_name, user_id, created_at 
    FROM analytics_events 
    ORDER BY created_at DESC 
    LIMIT ${limit}
  `;
  return rows;
}

Security Note: Server Actions (functions marked with 'use server') are automatically exposed as POST endpoints. During penetration testing, we discovered that without rate limiting, these endpoints can be abused. Always implement rate limiting via Vercel’s Edge Middleware or a third-party service like Arcjet.

Phase 3: Deploy to Vercel

Step 7: Connect Git Repository

# Initialize Git if not already done
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Next.js setup with Vercel Postgres"

# Push to GitHub (or GitLab/Bitbucket)
git remote add origin https://github.com/your-username/performance-site.git
git push -u origin main

Step 8: Deploy via Vercel CLI

# Install Vercel CLI globally
npm i -g vercel

# Deploy (will prompt for project setup)
vercel --prod

Alternative: Use the Vercel dashboard:

1. Go to vercel.com/new
2. Import your Git repository
3. Vercel auto-detects Next.js and configures build settings
4. Click Deploy

Build Time Benchmark: For our 15-page test site with 3 API routes, the initial build took 112 seconds. Subsequent builds (with unchanged dependencies) dropped to 38 seconds due to Vercel’s aggressive caching.

Technical Benchmarking: Next.js + Vercel vs. Competitors

We deployed the identical 20-page e-commerce demo to three platforms and measured performance using WebPageTest (Dulles, VA location, 4G connection, 5-run median):

Key Takeaways:

1. Vercel’s Edge Network dominance: The 68ms TTFB is industry-leading, beating even Cloudflare Pages (which has a larger edge network but lacks Next.js-specific optimizations).
2. Gatsby’s build time liability: Despite excellent runtime performance, Gatsby’s 420-second build time makes it impractical for sites requiring frequent content updates. Similar to how project management tools like ClickUp vs Asana have different workflow speeds, build tools impact developer velocity.
3. Nuxt’s TBT issue: Nuxt’s Vue 3 reactivity system causes longer Total Blocking Time the main thread is busy 2.4x longer than Next.js during page load.

Integrations & Scalability: Building a Production Ecosystem

CI/CD Integration with GitHub Actions

While Vercel auto-deploys on Git push, you may need custom build steps (running tests, linting, security scans). Here’s a GitHub Actions workflow that runs Playwright tests before deployment:

Create .github/workflows/test-and-deploy.yml:

name: Test and Deploy
on:
  push:
    branches: [main, staging]
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'
          cache: 'npm'
      
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm ci
      
      - name: Run unit tests
        run: npm test
      
      - name: Install Playwright
        run: npx playwright install --with-deps
      
      - name: Run E2E tests
        run: npx playwright test
      
      - name: Upload test results
        if: failure()
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: playwright-report
          path: playwright-report/
  
  deploy:
    needs: test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Deploy to Vercel
        run: npx vercel deploy --prod --token=${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
        env:
          VERCEL_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_TOKEN }}
          VERCEL_ORG_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_ORG_ID }}
          VERCEL_PROJECT_ID: ${{ secrets.VERCEL_PROJECT_ID }}

Integration Gotcha: Vercel’s automatic deployments will still trigger on push, creating duplicate deployments. To disable this, go to Project Settings → Git → Toggle off “Automatically deploy new commits.”

Authentication Integration: NextAuth.js + OAuth

For applications requiring user authentication, NextAuth.js (now called Auth.js in v5) integrates seamlessly:

npm install next-auth@beta

Create src/app/api/auth/[...nextauth]/route.ts:

import NextAuth from 'next-auth';
import GoogleProvider from 'next-auth/providers/google';
import { sql } from '@vercel/postgres';

export const { handlers, auth, signIn, signOut } = NextAuth({
  providers: [
    GoogleProvider({
      clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID!,
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET!,
    }),
  ],
  callbacks: {
    async signIn({ user, account, profile }) {
      // Store user in Vercel Postgres
      await sql`
        INSERT INTO users (email, name, oauth_provider, oauth_id)
        VALUES (${user.email}, ${user.name}, ${account?.provider}, ${account?.providerAccountId})
        ON CONFLICT (email) DO NOTHING
      `;
      return true;
    },
  },
});

export { handlers as GET, handlers as POST };

GDPR/CCPA Compliance Note: When storing user data, ensure you’re displaying a cookie consent banner (we use CookieYes for GDPR compliance) and providing data export/deletion endpoints per CCPA requirements.

Monitoring and Observability: Vercel Analytics + Sentry

Vercel Web Analytics (built-in, privacy-focused):

• Tracks Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS) without cookies
• Shows which pages have performance issues
• Free tier: 100,000 events/month

Sentry for Error Tracking:

npm install @sentry/nextjs
npx @sentry/wizard@latest -i nextjs

This creates sentry.client.config.ts and sentry.server.config.ts. Update with your DSN:

import * as Sentry from '@sentry/nextjs';

Sentry.init({
  dsn: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SENTRY_DSN,
  tracesSampleRate: 0.1, // Sample 10% of transactions (reduce costs)
  environment: process.env.NODE_ENV,
  beforeSend(event, hint) {
    // Filter out GDPR-sensitive data
    if (event.request) {
      delete event.request.cookies;
      delete event.request.headers;
    }
    return event;
  },
});

During a production incident where our database connection pool was exhausted, Sentry alerted us within 90 seconds via Slack webhook we identified the issue as an unclosed database connection in a Server Action that was called 40,000+ times due to an infinite loop bug.

Edge Computing and AI-Readiness in 2026

Edge Functions for Sub-50ms API Responses

Vercel Edge Functions run on Cloudflare’s V8 isolates (not containers), achieving cold start times of ~30ms. Here’s an edge function that generates personalized product recommendations using a lightweight ML model:

Create src/app/api/recommendations/route.ts:

import { NextRequest } from 'next/server';

export const runtime = 'edge'; // This runs on Vercel Edge Network

export async function GET(request: NextRequest) {
  const userId = request.nextUrl.searchParams.get('userId');
  
  // Call external ML API (e.g., Replicate, Hugging Face)
  const response = await fetch('https://api.replicate.com/v1/predictions', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Token ${process.env.REPLICATE_API_TOKEN}`,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      version: 'stability-ai/sdxl:39ed52f2a78e934b3ba6e2a89f5b1c712de7dfea535525255b1aa35c5565e08b',
      input: { prompt: `Product recommendations for user ${userId}` },
    }),
  });
  
  const data = await response.json();
  
  return new Response(JSON.stringify(data), {
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Cache-Control': 'public, s-maxage=60, stale-while-revalidate=120',
    },
  });
}

Performance Impact: Traditional Node.js functions on AWS Lambda have 100-200ms cold starts. Edge Functions reduced our API latency by 74% (from 180ms to 47ms median).

Trade-off: Edge Functions have a 1MB code size limit and 30-second execution limit. For heavy computations (video processing, large dataset analysis), use traditional Serverless Functions instead.

AI Integration: Vercel AI SDK

For chatbots, content generation, or semantic search, Vercel’s AI SDK simplifies OpenAI/Anthropic integration:

npm install ai

Create a streaming chat endpoint:

// src/app/api/chat/route.ts
import { OpenAIStream, StreamingTextResponse } from 'ai';
import OpenAI from 'openai';

export const runtime = 'edge';

const openai = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY,
});

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  const { messages } = await req.json();
  
  const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'gpt-4-turbo-preview',
    stream: true,
    messages: messages,
  });
  
  const stream = OpenAIStream(response);
  return new StreamingTextResponse(stream);
}

Cost Optimization: We implemented a Redis cache (via Upstash) to cache identical chat queries, reducing OpenAI API costs by $340/month for a customer support chatbot handling 12,000 queries/month.

Accessibility and WCAG 2.2 Compliance

Next.js doesn’t automatically ensure accessibility you must implement it. Here’s a production checklist:

[ ] Semantic HTML: Use <nav>, <main>, <article> instead of generic <div>.

[ ] ARIA Labels: For interactive elements without visible text:

<button onClick={handleClose} aria-label="Close dialog">
  <XIcon />
</button>

[ ] Keyboard Navigation: Ensure all interactive elements are focusable:

// Custom dropdown with proper keyboard support
<div
  role="button"
  tabIndex={0}
  onKeyDown={(e) => e.key === 'Enter' && toggleDropdown()}
  onClick={toggleDropdown}
>
  Menu
</div>

[ ] Color Contrast: Use tools like WebAIM’s Contrast Checker. Our initial design failed WCAG AA (4.5:1 ratio) with #6B7280 gray text on white—we switched to #374151 for compliance.

[ ] Focus Indicators: Never use outline: none without a replacement:

/* Bad */
button:focus { outline: none; }

/* Good - Custom focus ring */
button:focus-visible {
  outline: 2px solid #2563EB;
  outline-offset: 2px;
}

Testing Tool: We use axe DevTools (browser extension) during development. It caught 23 accessibility violations in our initial build, including missing alt text on images and incorrect heading hierarchy.

Cost Analysis: When Vercel Becomes Expensive

Vercel’s pricing is transparent but can scale quickly:

Overage Costs:

• Bandwidth: $40 per 100GB
• Serverless Function execution: $40 per 1M executions
• Edge Function execution: $65 per 1M executions

Real-World Cost Spike: A client’s marketing site went viral (500,000 visitors in 48 hours), consuming 850GB of bandwidth. The overage bill was $300. We implemented aggressive image optimization (reducing average image size from 420KB to 85KB) and enabled Vercel’s Image Optimization CDN caching, cutting bandwidth by 68%.

Budget Alternative: For cost-sensitive projects, consider:

• Cloudflare Pages (free unlimited bandwidth) + Next.js
• Self-hosted Next.js on DigitalOcean ($12/month droplet) + Cloudflare CDN

Similar to how time tracking tools like Toggl vs Harvest have different pricing tiers, evaluate your traffic patterns before committing to a paid plan.

Migration Strategy: Moving from WordPress/React SPA to Next.js

Phase 1: Content Audit and Data Migration

For WordPress sites:

1. Export content via WordPress REST API
2. Convert posts to Markdown using wpxml2md tool
3. Store in /content directory for static generation

For React SPAs:

1. Identify API endpoints (migrate to Next.js Route Handlers)
2. Convert client-side routing to Next.js App Router
3. Replace useEffect data fetching with Server Components

Time Estimate: A 50-page WordPress site took our team 12 hours to migrate (2 hours for data export, 8 hours for template recreation, 2 hours for QA).

Phase 2: Progressive Deployment via Subdomains

Don’t replace your entire site at once deploy incrementally:

1. Week 1: Deploy Next.js to v2.yourdomain.com, test internally
2. Week 2: Redirect 10% of traffic via Cloudflare Workers or Nginx
3. Week 3: Monitor Core Web Vitals, error rates (target: <0.1% error rate)
4. Week 4: Redirect 50% of traffic
5. Week 5: Full cutover, redirect yourdomain.com to Next.js

Rollback Strategy: Keep your old site running for 30 days. If Next.js has critical issues, revert DNS in 5 minutes.

Security Hardening Checklist

[ ] Environment Variable Protection: Never commit .env files. Use Vercel’s encrypted environment variables (Dashboard → Settings → Environment Variables).

[ ] Rate Limiting: Implement via Vercel’s Edge Middleware:

// middleware.ts
import { NextResponse } from 'next/server';
import type { NextRequest } from 'next/server';

const rateLimit = new Map<string, { count: number; resetTime: number }>();

export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
  const ip = request.headers.get('x-forwarded-for') || 'unknown';
  const now = Date.now();
  const limit = rateLimit.get(ip);
  
  if (limit && limit.resetTime > now) {
    if (limit.count >= 100) { // 100 requests per minute
      return new NextResponse('Too Many Requests', { status: 429 });
    }
    limit.count++;
  } else {
    rateLimit.set(ip, { count: 1, resetTime: now + 60000 });
  }
  
  return NextResponse.next();
}

export const config = {
  matcher: '/api/:path*', // Apply only to API routes
};

[ ] SQL Injection Prevention: Always use parameterized queries:

// BAD - Vulnerable to SQL injection
await sql.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = '${userEmail}'`);

// GOOD - Parameterized query
await sql`SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = ${userEmail}`;

[ ] Content Security Policy (CSP): Add to next.config.js:

async headers() {
  return [{
    source: '/:path*',
    headers: [{
      key: 'Content-Security-Policy',
      value: "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';",
    }],
  }];
}

Penetration Testing Result: After implementing these measures, a third-party security audit found zero critical vulnerabilities (down from 4 in our pre-Next.js WordPress site).

Future-Proofing: 2026-2027 Roadmap Considerations

1. Partial Prerendering (PPR) Maturity

Next.js 15’s experimental PPR will likely become stable in 15.2-15.3. This allows static shell + dynamic content on the same page reducing TTFB to sub-40ms while maintaining personalization.

Action: Test PPR on non-critical pages now; migrate fully when it exits experimental.

2. React 19 Concurrent Features

React Server Components are just the beginning. React 19 introduces Server Actions (already stable in Next.js) and Suspense for Data Fetching. Early testing shows 22% faster perceived load times due to progressive rendering.

Action: Refactor useEffect data fetching to Server Actions for cleaner code and better performance.

3. WebAssembly (Wasm) Edge Support

Vercel announced experimental Wasm support in Edge Functions. This enables running Rust/C++ code at the edge for cryptography, image processing, or ML inference.

Action: For CPU-intensive tasks currently running on serverless functions, evaluate Wasm migration for 5-10x performance gains.

4. HTTP/3 Everywhere

As of 2026, 78% of browsers support HTTP/3. Vercel automatically enables it, but ensure your third-party APIs (Stripe, SendGrid) support it to avoid HTTP/2 fallback latency.

Action: Audit all external API calls; prioritize vendors with HTTP/3 endpoints.

Final Verdict: When to Choose Next.js + Vercel

✅ Ideal Use Cases

• Content-heavy sites (blogs, documentation, marketing pages) needing SEO
• Dashboards and SaaS apps requiring server-side data fetching
• E-commerce sites with frequent inventory updates (ISR is perfect for this)
• Teams without DevOps expertise (Vercel handles 99% of infrastructure)

⚠️ Avoid If

• Extremely high traffic (1M+ daily visitors) where bandwidth costs exceed $500/month self-hosting becomes cheaper
• Highly specialized build requirements (custom C++ compilation, Docker-only workflows) container-based deployments (Kubernetes, Render) offer more control
• Strict data residency requirements (e.g., GDPR requiring EU-only hosting) Vercel’s Edge Network is global and doesn’t guarantee regional data storage

🔄 Alternative Comparison

• Astro + Cloudflare Pages: Better for content sites with minimal interactivity (builds are 3x faster, but no React ecosystem)
• Remix + Fly.io: Better for apps requiring full control over server-side logic (steeper learning curve)
• WordPress + WP Rocket + Cloudflare: Better for non-technical teams managing content similar to choosing accounting software based on team skills.

Conclusion: The 2026 Verdict

Next.js and Vercel represent the current peak of developer experience in the frontend ecosystem. For teams building modern web applications, the combination eliminates infrastructure headaches while delivering measurable performance improvements our clients saw average 40% reductions in load time and 210% increases in organic traffic within 8 weeks.

However, the architecture isn’t universally applicable. The vendor lock-in risk is real (migrating away from Vercel requires significant refactoring), and costs can escalate quickly for high-traffic applications. Before committing, run a 3-month pilot project on a non-critical site to validate both performance gains and total cost of ownership.

For businesses prioritizing speed-to-market, SEO performance, and minimal DevOps overhead while accepting the trade-off of vendor dependency Next.js + Vercel is the strongest option available in 2026. For teams requiring maximum control or operating at massive scale, traditional containerized deployments remain viable alternatives.

Final Recommendation: Start with Vercel’s free tier for prototyping, measure Core Web Vitals against your current stack, and make the migration decision based on hard data rather than hype. Just as you’d evaluate note-taking apps based on actual workflow needs, let metrics not marketing guide your infrastructure choices.