Should we enable the React Compiler in Next.js ?

[abhishekmardiya]

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring whether to enable the React Compiler in a Next.js project. According to the Next.js docs:

"The React Compiler runs through a Babel plugin. To keep builds fast, Next.js uses a custom SWC optimization that only applies the React Compiler to relevant files—like those with JSX or React Hooks. This avoids compiling everything and keeps the performance cost minimal. You may still see slightly slower builds compared to the default Rust-based compiler, but the impact is small and localized."

From what I understand:

• The React Compiler only runs on files with JSX or React Hooks, adding React-specific optimizations.
• Enabling it might slightly slow down builds for those files, but the overall impact is minimal.

My questions are:

1. Are there any functional or performance benefits when using it?
2. Is it recommended for production projects, or is SWC alone usually sufficient?

Any insights or experiences from the community would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[icyJoseph]

I think here the answer is, "just try it", in the sense that:

• if you have a large app where you've been manually memoizing to make the app usable, it is should be OK to have slower build times, so that a wider user base can enjoy a usable app
• in general, having at least the React Compiler linter on is recommended
• Personally, I'd have it on every time

Are there any functional or performance benefits when using it?

Yes, it has been shown to do memoization devs would not land manually.

You can also just enable their linter, https://react.dev/blog/2025/10/07/react-compiler-1#migrating-from-eslint-plugin-react-compiler-to-eslint-plugin-react-hooks, to get a sense of your app's code quality

Is it recommended for production projects, or is SWC alone usually sufficient?

These are different things. The React Compiler optimizes your React code, w/ the aim of reducing re-rendering overhead. SWC takes your code, and transforms it, so that it is correct, smaller, and takes benefit of know tricks for performance at runtime, but nothing React specific. I do believe there's an effort to have the React Compiler in other languages, plugin ecosystems though.

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I think given your questions, I'd recommend reading a bit more on what SWC is and what the React Compiler actually does.

[abhishekmardiya]

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation.