Problem Statement
What tools and techniques should you use to monitor and improve Next.js application performance?
Explanation
Use Vercel Analytics or Vercel Speed Insights for real user monitoring showing actual Core Web Vitals scores from your users including LCP, FID, CLS, and TTFB, providing insights into real-world performance across different devices and networks.
Implement Lighthouse CI in your deployment pipeline to catch performance regressions before production, use React DevTools Profiler to identify slow components and unnecessary re-renders, and leverage Next.js built-in performance metrics with reportWebVitals in _app.js to send metrics to analytics services.
Monitor bundle sizes with @next/bundle-analyzer to identify bloat, use Chrome DevTools Performance tab to profile JavaScript execution and identify bottlenecks, and set up error tracking with Sentry or similar services to catch runtime errors affecting user experience.
Track key metrics like Time to First Byte, First Contentful Paint, Largest Contentful Paint, and Total Blocking Time, set performance budgets for bundle sizes and page load times, and implement continuous monitoring with alerts when metrics degrade beyond thresholds.