Welcome to Build a Fullstack Next.js App, v4!
You do not need to have taken v3 of this course or previous, this is just the fourth iteration of it.
I am very honored in particular to teach this as the man who taught the previous three versions of this course, Scott Moss is a man I admire a lot and a close friend. His version of this is quite a bit different than mine - it uses different pieces for auth, database, etc. for it and focuses a lot more on using AI to author the course. If that resonates with you, go check it out.
Who is this course for?
You.
I tried to make this generally applicable to most students, but there is some assumed knowledge here. If you are here via the Frontend Masters React / Next.js learning path then you are very much in the right place. Otherwise here's what I'm assuming about you.
- You have some skill in web dev and JavaScript. If not, see Frontend Master's beginning learner's path
- You have some skill in React. If not, see Complete Intro to React
- You have some skill in Next.js. If not, see Intermediate React and Next.js Fundamentals
Everything else I'll try to explain as we go - you don't need to be an AI, Node.js, or Linux wiz to be here - we can cover only what we need and focus on building cool Next.js apps.
Why am I teaching this course?
I use Next.js, a lot, both professionally and personally. In fact, all of my course websites including this one are built using a Next.js template which I have been maintaining since January 2022. The previous version was built on Gatsby and I started that one in September 2018. This makes this course starter by far the longest I have ever maintained one piece of software!
Vercel is one of Neon's closest partners, and Next.js is often the first framework we reach for when starting new projects. While we support many frameworks, Next.js has proven particularly productive for our use cases. It's popular, but it's also very productive. As such, I've built tons of apps to similar to this one. It's just an amazing meta framework for being productive quickly. If you like React Server Components, this framework really leans into it and it's great.
I like React, I like Node.js, and I like shipping. Next.js is the nexus of the three.
What about other React Meta Frameworks
Love 'em. Go take a peek at TanStack Start's home page and see that Neon is listed among the sponsors. Astro is awesome. Remix is definitely carving its own niche and merits a glance. The non-React ones are amazing too: SvelteKit, SolidStart, Nuxt, any of them. I'd endorse you building with any one of those. You should go take a look and see what they excel at and what they're not great at. For example, if I was rebuilding my course builder, I'd probably strongly consider Astro and it's more built for this use-case: heavy content websites. If you don't want to or don't need to use React Server Components, TanStack Start is a perfect place to land. You are spoiled for choice.
Who am I?
My name is Brian Holt, and I am a product manager at Databricks working on Neon and Databricks apps. I came into Databricks as part of the Neon acquisition and it's been amazing to try and bring Neon to not just use cases like this, but to agentic use cases like Replit, v0, Anything, Same, Riff, and many others which is where I get to spend most of my time - how can AI-created apps manage and use databases. Prior to Neon, I was a PM, VP, dev rel, or JavaScript engineer at Snowflake, Stripe, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Netflix, Reddit, and a few others.
I currently live in the Sacramento, CA area with my wife, two kids, and our adorable pup Luna. Beyond just really enjoying writing code and sharing that knowledge with others, I enjoy snowboarding, playing Elden Ring Nightreign poorly or any rogue-like games, finding the finest cup of coffee or pint of hazy IPA, struggling to hit a golf ball onto a fairway, panting on a Peloton or getting dropped by the Peloton while outdoors, and just trying to be a good dad to two smart gremlins that are definitely outclassing me already.
Please catch up with me on social media! Be aware that I'm awful at responding to DMs!!
Where to File Issues
I write these courses by hand (only minimal assistance by Claude, the words are all mine) and take care to not make mistakes. However when teaching over ten hours of material, mistakes are inevitable, both here in the grammar and in the course with the material. However I (and the wonderful team at Frontend Masters) are constantly correcting the mistakes so that those of you that come later get the best product possible. If you find a mistake we'd love to fix it. The best way to do this is to open a pull request or file an issue on the GitHub repo. While I'm always happy to chat and give advice on social media, I can't be tech support for everyone. And if you file it on GitHub, those who come later can Google the same answer you got.
How the repo works
There are two repos for this class: the website you're currently on and the example projects. To get set up, clone or download the projects repo:
git clone https://github.com/btholt/fullstack-next-wiki.git
I've written a whole project for you to work with, a wiki editor and viewer, so we'll be working with that for our project throughout the course.
And one last request! Please star this repo. It helps the course be more discoverable and with my fragile ego.
