Hybrid Approach

How It Works

• Initial Load with SSR: When a user first visits a page, the server sends a fully rendered HTML document, ensuring that the content is quickly visible. This step is crucial for improving the Time to First Paint (TTFP) and Time to Interactive (TTI), which are important metrics for user experience and SEO.
• Subsequent Interactions with CSR: After the initial load, navigation and interactions within the site are handled client-side. JavaScript takes over to dynamically update the content without needing to reload the entire page from the server. This allows for a seamless, app-like user experience.
• Selective Rendering: Not all parts of an application need to be server-rendered. The hybrid approach allows developers to choose which pages or components are rendered on the server based on their impact on performance and SEO. For example, static pages like blog posts or product descriptions might be SSR, while dynamic sections like user dashboards can be CSR.

Benefits of the Hybrid Approach

• Improved SEO: The server-side rendering component of the hybrid approach ensures that search engines can crawl and index content effectively, improving the visibility of the web application.
• Enhanced Performance: By serving fully rendered pages on the initial load, the application can provide content to users faster, improving metrics such as TTFP and TTI.
• Rich Interactivity: Once the initial page is loaded, CSR takes over, providing users with a smooth, interactive experience without the need for full page refreshes.
• Flexibility: Developers can strategically decide which parts of their application benefit most from SSR or CSR, allowing for optimized performance and resource utilization.

SSR is a technique used in web development where the HTML of a webpage is generated on the server rather than in the browser. This means when a user requests a webpage, the server prepares the HTML document by executing the necessary logic and sends it to the client’s browser, fully formed and ready to be rendered. This approach is different from CSR, where JavaScript runs in the browser to generate HTML content dynamically.