Client-Side Rendering vs. Server-Side Rendering: What’s the Difference?

Website development is a dynamic industry in constant flux. While SEO and user experience are vital nowadays, a web owner must know how to enhance both for their website.

A front-end developer decides how to render the website so it offers a dynamic, user-rich experience and outstanding performance. This method includes client-side rendering (CSR) and server-side rendering (SSR).

Each website has its requirements. Therefore, when rendering a website according to a business goal, one must understand the difference between server and client-side rendering.

One can always visit Vodien's services as an Internet Solution Provider in Singapore, which offers hosting solutions that support both client- and server-side rendering. Let's discuss the two concepts in depth.

What is Client-Side Rendering?

Client-Side Rendering (CSR) is a web development technique where most of the webpage's content is generated and rendered within the user's browser rather than on the server. This is because the server responds with a bare-bones HTML document that contains the JS files rather than all the content from the HTML itself.

It is a newer approach to rendering that gained popularity after JavaScript libraries began integrating with libraries such as React.js or Angular.

With an initial slow upload time, the website's pages load faster as they are free from loading different HTML documents per route. Client-side rendering does everything independently. Websites that use CSR have the primary function of making the user more dynamic and rich.

How does Client-Side Rendering work?

Here's a step-by-step process for client-side rendering:

1. Input a URL the user wants to visit in the address bar.
2. The URL's data server receives a data request.
3. The server responds with static files (CSS and HTML) to the user's browser.
4. The browser downloads the HTML content, which the JS follows. A loading symbol shows up, and the HTML files connect with JS. The user has been unable to see the website until now.
5. Once the Java script is downloaded, the content gets generated dynamically in the user's browser.
6. After this, the web content is visible, and the user can explore the website.

What is Server-Side Rendering?

Server-side rendering is the more commonly used technique for rendering websites. During SSR, the whole HTML document is downloaded in the user's browser. When a user's browser sends a request to the website's server that they want to visit, the web server fetches the whole HTML document, which loads as the web page in the user's browser. When a page on the website is changed, the whole process is repeated.

The primary function of an SSR website is to provide a fully loaded web page. This helps with the SEO of the website and the ones that prioritize initial load speed.

How does Server-Side Rendering work?

Here's a step-by-step process of server-side rendering where the server generates the whole HTML document and sends it to the user:

1. The user goes to the address bar and enters the desired URL.
2. The server responds with a ready-to-be-rendered page for the user's browser.
3. The browser renders the pages and concludes after downloading the JS. The page is visible after this step is executed.
4. The browser makes the page intractable by executing React.

Difference Between Server-Side Rendering and Client-Side Rendering:

The difference between server-side rendering and client-side rendering lies in their algorithms. CSR first shows an empty page and then loads into a full-fledged web page. At the same time, SSR gives out a fully rendered HTML web page.

Now, let us look deeper into their differences:

Performance Considerations

Load Times

Server-side rendering comes with a fully rendered HTML page, which gives it an advantage over client-side rendering. Initially, SSR only takes a few milliseconds to load the first page compared to CSR, which takes a bit more.

However, since the SSR renders the page all over again when a page changes, it takes more time to load. In contrast, CSR can rapidly shift from page to page because it only renders the web page at the beginning.

User Experience

CSR offers a dynamic and rich user experience, which makes the web pages immersive, where the content goes through frequent updates. In contrast, SSR offers a consistent user experience while offering content that does not change frequently.

SEO impact

Indexability

CSR allows the browser to render the web page. This decreases the SEO indexability, as the website takes a while to load initially. However, SSR initially loads with consistent flow content, which increases the SSR's indexability.

Content Visibility

SSR can effectively index its content as it is pre-rendered, compared to CSR, thus offering improved search visibility and ranking.

Scalability and Maintenance

Server Load

CSR loads less on servers as the web browser renders the content. However, SSR uses the website resources whenever a user visits a different page because of re-rendering.

This enables client-side rendering to reduce the load on the server and optimize the content for users.

Regarding scalability, SSRs provide optimized caching strategies and reduced client-side processing. This enables it to handle high traffic and content demands on a website.

CSR's scalability lies in efficiently handling increased demands and fluctuations in user traffic. This makes CSR more suitable for handling more dynamic and updated content.

Maintenance

SSR consumes more server resources because everything is rendered on the website's server. For high-traffic applications, this means more CPU and memory usage. This utilization of resources is costly.

However, CSR only sends an HTML file and JS, and the browser handles the rendering. This helps CSR services be cost-effective.

When to Choose Client-Side Rendering?

Client-side rendering is used for frequently changing large, dynamic data requiring fast updates. This makes it more suitable for social networks or online messengers.

CSR excels in single-page applications (SPAs) and environments that offer the user interactive content.

Use Cases of Client-Side Rendering

1. Content Stability: CSR is most suitable for websites with frequently changing or dynamic content that offers users an immersive experience.
2. SEO Optimization: CSR has a one-time rendering interface, which, if not implemented correctly, may affect its SEO.
3. Initial Load Times: The website might take a while to load. However, once rendered by the browser, the load time is reduced, and processing becomes faster.
4. Stability Across Devices: Client-side rendering comes with robust JavaScript libraries, which means it is very stable across devices.
5. Caching: The one-time rendering interface makes caching its rendered pages difficult.

When to Choose Server-Side Rendering?

Server-side rendering excels in various web development domains. It is suitable for a consistent user experience with stable or less-changing content. Its key attributes include SEO performance, faster initial load times, and consistent performance.

Use Cases of Server-Side Rendering

1. Content Stability: SSR is most suitable for web content that is relatively stable and provides a consistent user experience.
2. SEO Optimization: The pre-rendered content improves the SEO performance by enhancing visibility on search engines.
3. Initial load Times: faster load times provide user-rich content from the beginning.
4. Stability Across Devices: Great stability and accessibility are maintained across different devices, making SSR a vital rendering service for variable service.
5. Caching: SSR's pre-rendering enables the content to be cached efficiently, improving the user's experience upon further page loading.

Client-Side or Server-Side Rendering: Which One to Choose?

Server-side rendering is more suitable for websites that do not require massive user interaction. It offers impressive website load time, SEO rankings, and accessibility. SSR is known for its consistent user experience and is most suitable for websites that offer static content.

Client-side rendering provides an immersive experience for users. It is most suitable for social or messaging websites. It offers a cost-effective solution and is easier to maintain and develop.

Knowing the difference between server-side rendering and client-side rendering can help a user decide which to use. Choosing one from both is unnecessary, as one can also choose a hybrid approach. This means SSR and CSR can be used for a single website. A user can easily utilize the benefits of both SSR and CSR this way.

For a better understanding, users can take the case of an online marketplace. This is a website where one can use SSR for product descriptions because it does not require much of a dynamic experience. CSR can be utilized for user profiles, as there's no need for them to be ranked in SERPS.

Conclusion

Server-side and client-side rendering are both part of the rendering process that a front-end developer decides for a website. The decision to choose between client-side rendering and server-side rendering is based on factors that distinguish them from one another.

Server-side rendering offers a website that does not have to deal with massive user interaction. This involves content that is not frequently changing; thus, SSRs offer a consistent user experience. The target audience for an SSR looks for descriptive content, such as an educational website or a long-form content website.

Client-side rendering, on the other hand, offers a rich and immersive user experience. This means that CSRs are most suitable for handling websites that require extensive user interaction with frequently changing or dynamic content. The target audience for CSRs mostly looks for engaging content like a messaging website.

Generally, CSR is most suitable for immersive websites and SSR for static websites. One can explore Vodien's services and consult experts available at Vodien to determine the best rendering approach for their needs.

Client-Side and Server-Side Rendering FAQs

Which is faster, client-side or server-side rendering?

When a web page loads for the first time, server-side rendering is faster than client-side rendering. This is because an SSR offers a pre-rendered HTML document for the user's browser to load.

This makes the web page load in just a millisecond when it takes a bit longer for CSR. This is because CSR offers an HTML document with its own JS that is supposed to be rendered by the user's browser, which is why it takes more time initially.

However, when a user changes the web page, SSR has to render the page again, so it takes more time than CSR. In the case of CSR, it is possible because the browser has already rendered the content at the beginning.