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what is the difference between i18next and next-intl ?

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Scaly-naped Pigeon posted this in #help-forum
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Scaly-naped PigeonOP
I am building a big website for travels and I find that next-intl supporting csr and ssr but i18next only works with csr but why people recommends using i18next instead of next-intl ?
Answered by Basset Fauve de Bretagne
Yeah. You asked a very interesting question.
As you mentioned, both i18next and next-intl are popular internationalization (i18n) libraries for Next.js. However, there are some reasons why people might recommend using i18next instead of next-intl, even though next-intl support both CSR and SSR.
First of all, it is because of more features and customization. i18next is a more mature and feature-rich library, with a larger community and more extensive documentation.
Second, better support for complex scenarios. i18next is designed to handle more complex i18n scenarios.
Then, more flexible plugin architecture. i18next has a more flexible plugin architecture, allowing you to extend its functionality with custom plugins. This can be useful if you need to integrate i18next with other libraires or services.
Finally, it is related to ecosystem support.
Since i18next was released 10 years before next-intl and has been used by developers, thus it is natural that i18next currently has more functions and provide support than next-intl and still has a higher market share. However, the times are constantly evolving and new technologies are also developing accordingly.
If next-intl continues to secure the market with its continuous development potential, eventually all developers will use next-intl, which is superior in terms of performance and usability. Of course, if A does not update or updates slowly enough to completely drop B.....
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Basset Fauve de Bretagne
Yeah. You asked a very interesting question.
As you mentioned, both i18next and next-intl are popular internationalization (i18n) libraries for Next.js. However, there are some reasons why people might recommend using i18next instead of next-intl, even though next-intl support both CSR and SSR.
First of all, it is because of more features and customization. i18next is a more mature and feature-rich library, with a larger community and more extensive documentation.
Second, better support for complex scenarios. i18next is designed to handle more complex i18n scenarios.
Then, more flexible plugin architecture. i18next has a more flexible plugin architecture, allowing you to extend its functionality with custom plugins. This can be useful if you need to integrate i18next with other libraires or services.
Finally, it is related to ecosystem support.
Since i18next was released 10 years before next-intl and has been used by developers, thus it is natural that i18next currently has more functions and provide support than next-intl and still has a higher market share. However, the times are constantly evolving and new technologies are also developing accordingly.
If next-intl continues to secure the market with its continuous development potential, eventually all developers will use next-intl, which is superior in terms of performance and usability. Of course, if A does not update or updates slowly enough to completely drop B.....
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Scaly-naped PigeonOP
Thank you for this answer , I wish i could use i18next inside ssr components because I setuped next-intl and it has alot of configurations , also I hate the fact that we cannot use cookies instead of /en pathes. 😦
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Basset Fauve de Bretagne
What project are you developing? I'd love to learn more.
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Scaly-naped PigeonOP
I am developing something similar to booking.com
booking supporting more than 20 languages so its very challenging
also not sure how they did the translation from the server using their databases trying to learn this trick
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Basset Fauve de Bretagne
Very interested.
Is it a practice project or was it ordered?
I have some time as it is the end of the year, so I'd like to have an opportunity to develop together.
Are you freelancer or employee?
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Scaly-naped PigeonOP
its an ordered project but I am an employee in a company
they wanted to build this project to work with it since its a travel company
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Basset Fauve de Bretagne
Ah, I see.
Is there anything I can do to help?
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Scaly-naped PigeonOP
all good , I am trying to experiment to build something like this to learn more about how big websites since I have 6 months to finish it ^^