⚠️
The vite-plugin-ssr project has been renamed Vike.
If you are already using vite-plugin-ssr then migrate to Vike.
For new projects, don't use vite-plugin-ssr but use Vike instead.

Server Routing VS Client Routing

vite-plugin-ssr has first-class support for both Server-side Routing and Client-side Routing.

Server Routing

Server(-side) Routing is the "old school way" of doing routing: when the user navigates to a new page, the old page is completely discarded and the HTML of the new page is loaded.

Server Routing usually leads to a simpler app architecture and, consequently, to a higher development speed.

Client Routing

By default vite-plugin-ssr does Server Routing. We can opt into Client Routing by setting the clientRouting option to true.

Client(-side) Routing denotes the practice of implementing page navigation on the client-side: when the user navigates to a new page, instead of completely discarding the current page and requesting the HTML of the new page, the current page is preserved and the new page is rendered by manipulating the DOM of the page.

Client Routing enables:

Faster page navigation.
Client-side state preserved across navigation.
Nested Layouts.
Custom page transition animations.

We further discuss these use cases below.

Which one to choose?

By default, we recommend Server Routing because it leads to a simpler app architecture.

While frameworks such as Next.js and Nuxt make Client Routing seem easy at first, it always comes with inherent complexity that makes developing Next.js/Nuxt apps more complex and slower at scale.

In general, there are two things to consider:

There is a trade off between simplicity and performance.
If we need to preserve client-side state across navigation (e.g. Music Players and Nested Layouts), then we have no choice than to use Client-side Routing.

That said, which one to use really depends on the use case.

Simple Websites

Apps with a simple architecture, such as portfolio or marketing websites, can afford the added complexity of Client Routing. Client-side Routing can be worth it for having smooth page navigations giving such website a polished touch.

MVPs

As a startup that wants to deliver an MVP as quickly as possible, Server Routing is a sensible default choice. A simple app architecture leads to higher development speed which in turn leads to more features for our users.

Recommendation: Server-side Routing.

Highly polished apps

For example Netflix's web app: Netflix pushes for delightful user experiences, and has the budget and man-power to do it. For entertainment apps, the highly polished user experience can be worth the added complexity.

Recommendation: Client-side Routing.

For example, on music players such as Spotify, the currently listened song should not be interrupted when the user navigates to a new page. Server Routing cannot preserve client-side state; we need Client Routing.

Requirement: Client-side Routing.

Nested Layouts

Similarly to the previous section, when using Nested Layouts, the state of the outer page is preserved, which means we cannot implement Nested Layouts using Server Routing.

Requirement: Client-side Routing.

Third-party API

For example, if we use Shopify's or Facebook's GraphQL API, then Client Routing enables page navigation without doing any request to our Node.js server: when the user navigates to a new page, the user's browser directly communicates with the Shopify/Facebook GraphQL API and our Node.js server isn't involved at all.

The Shopify/Facebook GraphQL API may geographically live significantly closer to our user than our Node.js server; we may want to involve our Node.js server rather less than often.