It is common knowledge that JavaScript isn’t SEO-friendly. The nature of how the content is generated requires search engines to spend more resources and time rendering JS content before it can be indexed.
If your JavaScript website has been struggling to reach the top rank on Google SERPs or achieve high scores on Core Web Vitals and PageSpeed scores, you should consider adopting a JavaScript rendering tool to improve its performance.
In this comparison blog of the best JavaScript rendering tool, we’ll discuss five top JS pre-rendering solutions. We’ll look at their characteristics and best use cases, helping you choose the right JavaScript rendering software that matches your needs.
1. Prerender.io
First on our list is Prerender.io. It is one of the best JS React rendering tools built to address a very specific pain point: making JavaScript-heavy websites fully indexable by search engines.
Prerender.io sits between your hosting environment and incoming requests. Whenever it detects a request from a search engine bot, social media or AI crawler, Prerender.io’s dynamic rendering solution instantly supplies a pre-generated HTML snapshot of your JS page.
This means that search engines can easily see your JavaScript-generated content without any extra hassle to render it. At the same time, human visitors still get the “live” version of your site—the fully interactive JS front end you’ve built.
Prerender.io is perfect for enterprise-level websites built with many JavaScript frameworks or single-page applications (SPAs). Its plug-and-play installation system allows you to improve your site’s SEO performance without the need for complex integration or rebuilding your site from scratch. Learn more about Prerender.io’s process and benefits here.
Why Choose Prerender.io as Your JavaScript Rendering Tool?
- A plug-and-play JavaScript rendering tool is compatible with popular JS frameworks (React.JS, Angular.JS, Vue.JS, and more. See the complete list here).
- Affordable price (starts at $90 per month or leverages the forever free plan).
- Customizable re-cache intervals to update your dynamic content automatically.
2. Next.JS
Next.JS, built by Vercel and powered by React, has become a go-to choice for developers seeking to optimize website performance. By supporting various rendering techniques like SSR, static generation, and on-demand revalidation, Next.JS empowers developers to tailor each page for the optimal combination of speed, SEO, and content freshness.
Next.JS comes packed with smart features like automatically breaking up code into bite-sized pieces (so pages load faster), built-in image handling to serve the right file sizes, and smooth live reloading that makes coding feel more like a breeze than a chore. Plus, its seamless integration with Vercel simplifies global site deployment, and automatic scaling ensures you can handle increased traffic and quickly revert any problematic changes.
All these little extras add up to a development experience that feels modern, streamlined, and human-friendly while guaranteeing that your website performs beautifully for visitors and search engines alike.
Why Choose Next.JS as Your JavaScript Rendering Tool?
- Supports various rendering techniques, including SSR and static generation.
- Offers advanced web development features, such as automatic code splitting.
- Seamless integration with Vercel for simplified global site development.
Related: what javascript framework is best for you? See the pros and cons of popular JS frameworks in this comparison blog.
3. Gatsby
If you’ve heard whispers about blazing-fast static websites built with React, chances are those conversations revolved around Gatsby.
Gatsby leans heavily into Static Site Generation (SSG) as its primary approach, turning your React components into a set of static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. Once generated, these static files can be distributed across a CDN for lightning-quick delivery anywhere in the world.
Gatsby excels at converting React pages into static assets during the build process. While this might seem to limit frequently updated content, Gatsby’s incremental builds and advanced caching efficiently rebuild only the changed portions, avoiding a full site regeneration for minor updates. Consequently. Gatsby’s static-first approach can yield blazing-fast performance and decent SEO value for more straightforward or content-driven sites with minimal fuss.
Why Choose Gatsby as Your JavaScript Rendering Tool?
- Speedy performance from the SSG features.
- Great for static and dynamic content.
4. Qwik
Qwik is one of the newest JavaScript frameworks engineered to deliver instant-loading web apps by marrying server-side rendering with a “resumable” hydration model. This means that Qwik empowers you to squeeze every millisecond of page performance, ensuring that search engines can see your site’s fully rendered HTML without forcing you to serve up large JavaScript bundles upfront.
Qwik’s core trick is splitting code into tiny chunks that only load when users need them. This approach essentially sits between your server and front end: when a crawler pings your page, Qwik delivers a static snapshot of the entire HTML, making it a breeze for search engines to crawl. For human visitors, Qwik only serves what’s necessary to get the page interactive, postponing the rest of the JavaScript until it’s truly needed.
Although Qwik’s resumable-hydration approach is engineered to optimize performance and boost SEO, it’s not a silver bullet for every scenario. Qwik’s code-splitting capabilities reduce upfront JavaScript downloads and improper configuration—such as adding large libraries without splitting. These can bloat your bundles or complicate hydration logic, hurting page load times and negating its core advantages.
Why Choose Qwik as Your JavaScript Rendering Tool?
- Instant page loading performance by minimizing the amount of JS that needs to be downloaded and executed upfront.
- Advanced code-splitting approach preventing the initial page load from being bogged down by unnecessary JavaScript.
5. Remix
Remix is an impressive JavaScript framework that slips server-side rendered (SSR) pages right into your existing setup. Every time someone (or a search engine crawler) visits, Remix grabs the data it needs and builds a fully pre-rendered HTML page on the server. That way, crawlers immediately see everything, helping your site get properly indexed.
Built on React’s strengths, Remix’s built-in SSR model offers a simple route to better SEO and smoother user experiences. Even better, its clear conventions cut down on the usual back-and-forth between front-end and server code, so you can focus on the features that really matter.
That said, Remix can put an extra load on your servers, which might bump up your hosting costs. Migrating an existing project to Remix might also require careful planning and refactoring of your existing website.
Why Choose Remix as Your JavaScript Rendering Tool?
- Offers built-in SSR SEO benefits.
- Seamless integration for websites with SSR configuration.
Prerender.io Comes Out As The Best JS React Rendering Tool
Each of the JS rendering tools we covered above has its appeal. Next.JS nails flexibility with both SSR and SSG, Gatsby excels at static builds, Qwik innovates with “resumable” hydration, and Remix merges SSR with a seamless developer workflow. That said, Prerender.io stands out as the best all-around choice, particularly for enterprise-level sites looking to supercharge SEO without overhauling their entire codebase or infrastructure.
With its advanced dynamic pre-rendering solution, Prerender.io provides search engine crawlers with instant, fully rendered HTML snapshots. This guarantees optimal JS content discoverability and indexation without problems. Users’ requests will be directed through your server’s normal route. Plus, Prerender.io slots right into your JS-based framework. No need for you to change any of your techstack.
See the rendering benefits for your JavaScript website by adopting Prerender.io today!
These JavaScript SEO tool comparisons may interest you:
- Botify vs. Lumar for Technical SEO and Optimization: Feature and Pricing Comparison
- 10 Best Screaming Frog Alternatives (Free and Paid)
- Comparison of Prerender, SSR, Static Rendering, and Hydration
FAQs on The Best JavaScript Rendering Tools
Answering some common questions about the JavaScript rendering process and solutions.
1. What Are the Main Benefits of Pre-rendering for Javascript-Heavy Websites?
Pre-rendering, such as using Prerender.io, can significantly improve your SEO and web performance. Since your site can now deliver fully rendered HTML pages to search engines, Google can quickly and easily index your content and make your content instantly visible to users (improving your LCP Core Web Vital scores). This blog tells you more about the benefits of JavaScript pre-rendering.
2. How Do SSR, SSG, and Pre-rendering Differ in Solving JS Rendering Issues for Enterprise Websites?
Here are the pros and cons of adopting SSR, SSG, and pre-rendering to solve JS rendering challenges for enterprise websites:
- SSR is best for real-time data and personalization but requires high investment to build the infrastructure and system.
- SSG is best for static content, resulting in deployment bottlenecks for enterprise teams dealing with frequent updates and massive content libraries.
- Pre-rendering, like with Prerender.io, is best for JS-heavy sites and SPAs. Its simple installation process requires no changes to your tech stack, and its affordability makes it accessible to everyone.
See the price and technical complexity of adopting Prerender.io vs. building an in-house SSR.
3. Does Prerender.io Offer a Free Plan?
Yes, Prerender.io offers a free plan with 1,000 monthly renders, ideal for testing our pre-rendering SEO software. See Prerender’s pricing page for details.
