Mithril vs Next.js: What are the differences?
Developers describe Mithril as "Client-side MVC framework - a tool to organize code in a way that is easy to think about and to maintain". Mithril is around 12kb gzipped thanks to its small, focused, API. It provides a templating engine with a virtual DOM diff implementation for performant rendering, utilities for high-level modelling via functional composition, as well as support for routing and componentization. On the other hand, Next.js is detailed as "*A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps *". Next.js is a minimalistic framework for server-rendered React applications.
Mithril can be classified as a tool in the "Javascript MVC Frameworks" category, while Next.js is grouped under "Frameworks (Full Stack)".
Some of the features offered by Mithril are:
- Only 12kb gzipped, no dependencies
- Small API, small learning curve
- Safe-by-default templates
On the other hand, Next.js provides the following key features:
- Zero setup. Use the filesystem as an API
- Only JavaScript. Everything is a function
- Automatic server rendering and code splitting
"Lightweight" is the primary reason why developers consider Mithril over the competitors, whereas "Automatic server rendering and code splitting" was stated as the key factor in picking Next.js.
Mithril and Next.js are both open source tools. It seems that Next.js with 38.2K GitHub stars and 4.6K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Mithril with 11.3K GitHub stars and 859 GitHub forks.
According to the StackShare community, Next.js has a broader approval, being mentioned in 79 company stacks & 66 developers stacks; compared to Mithril, which is listed in 5 company stacks and 5 developer stacks.