Goodbye, NextJS. Hello, TanStack.

Overview

TanStack Start is a relatively new but rapidly rising framework that has been gaining serious traction in the web development community. Everywhere we looked, developers were praising its performance, developer experience, and speed of iteration.

At AntiRaid and Purrquinox, we wanted to find out whether the hype was actually justified — or just another overblown trend.

So instead of testing it on a small demo project, we made a bold decision:

We migrated our production website, Badgerfang, from Next.js to TanStack Start.

Repository:
https://github.com/Anti-Raid/badgerfang-next

As someone who genuinely likes Next.js and has built multiple projects with it, I went into this migration skeptical. Next.js is mature, powerful, and widely adopted — switching away from it isn’t a decision we took lightly.

But we wanted real data, real experience, and real results.

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Migration Experience

One of our biggest concerns was the complexity of migrating frameworks. In many cases, switching stacks leads to rewrites, architectural headaches, breaking changes, and weeks of cleanup.

Surprisingly, the migration was much smoother than expected.

What stood out:

• TanStack Start’s mental model feels clean and logical
• The documentation is clear and well-structured
• Routing and data loading feel predictable instead of magical
• We felt less friction and fewer hidden behaviors

Instead of fighting the framework, we felt like we were working with it.

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Build Performance Improvements

One of the most measurable and immediate wins was build time.

Before (Next.js)

~2.5 minutes per build

After (TanStack Start)

~1 minute per build

That’s roughly a 75% reduction in build time.

Why this matters:

• Faster CI/CD pipelines
• Faster developer feedback loops
• Reduced downtime during deployments
• Quicker iteration cycles
• Higher overall engineering velocity

This change alone significantly improved our workflow.

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Runtime Performance & Page Load Speed

Beyond builds, runtime performance improved noticeably.

Pages now feel:

• Snappier
• More responsive
• Less bloated
• More immediate on interaction

Previously, some pages had noticeable loading delays while Next.js handled hydration and client-side logic. With TanStack Start, page transitions feel near-instant, often loading with what feels like a single click.

The perceived performance boost has a real impact on user experience and engagement.

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Developer Experience (DX)

Another major improvement came from developer experience.

What improved:

• Core concepts feel clearer and better explained
• The framework feels less opaque and more explicit
• Debugging is simpler and more transparent
• Less reliance on hidden framework magic
• Cleaner, more understandable project structure

This translates into:

• Faster onboarding
• Fewer mistakes
• More confidence in production changes
• A smoother long-term maintenance experience

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Challenges & Limitations

No migration is perfect, and TanStack Start is no exception.

We encountered minor issues with WASM integration, which required some troubleshooting and workarounds.

The good news:

• Issues were manageable
• Nothing was production-blocking
• Overall stability remained strong

For a newer framework, the reliability and performance were impressive.