The Myth of “Scalable Architecture” with Next.js Clones: What You Need to Know

Having spent more than ten years in the tech industry, I’ve recognized how crucial tutorials are for initiating new programming languages or starting projects. These resources have been instrumental in accelerating my learning journey, especially when navigating various technologies or developing proof-of-concept projects. However, it is crucial to recognize that relying solely on these methods can present significant challenges when striving for a scalable architecture.

Over the past few years, “How to Create an XYZ Clone with Next.js, NextAuth, and Other Tools” tutorials have gained significant popularity among coding YouTubers and beginner developers. These videos are incredibly engaging and often come with the satisfaction of building something concrete – a Netflix, Trello, or Discord clone – within a couple of hours. While these tutorials have their place, there is a critical aspect that many developers may be missing. These clone projects are great for practice and MVP (Minimum Viable Product) building, but they fall far short when discussing genuinely scalable solutions for enterprise-level applications.

In this blog post, I want to address what makes a project scalable versus non-scalable and why more than just assembling a few libraries may be required for real-world production environments. Let’s delve into the details of software architecture and scalability and what you should consider beyond MVP solutions.

The Reality of Full-Scale Architectures

Next.js is a highly adaptable and robust framework. It merges React’s frontend development features with integrated server-side rendering, enabling developers to build quick, SEO-optimized websites. Combine this with tools like Next Auth for authentication and a few other libraries, and you have a functional clone of a popular app.

However, what happens when your application grows? What happens when thousands or even millions of users need access simultaneously? This is where these simplistic “clone” architectures fall apart, and it’s precisely where the clone-based tutorials stop being realistic. Companies like Trello, Discord, or Miro put immense resources into their architectures, carefully considering aspects like horizontal scalability, security, fault tolerance, and performance optimization – often overlooked in these tutorials.

MVP vs. Enterprise: Where the Difference Lies

It’s easy to confuse a prototype for a scalable application when you’re new to software development. The key differences between an MVP and an enterprise-grade application boil down to a few core factors:

• Scalability: Can your architecture handle 1,000 users as well as 1,000,000 users?
• Modularity: Is the codebase manageable as more features are added and different teams work on the same project?
• Resilience and Fault Tolerance: Will your app continue functioning smoothly in case of an unexpected event (like a server outage)?
• Security: Does the app adhere to best practices and comply with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA?

Clone tutorials usually prioritize delivering a fast, visually similar experience without considering the long-term consequences of architectural choices. Such projects may work well in an MVP setting or for small apps, but taking that approach to an enterprise level would end in chaos—unexpected crashes, performance bottlenecks, and vulnerable security loopholes.

Where Do These Clone-Based Solutions Fail in Scalability?

To understand the limitations, let’s look at the typical setup for a “Trello clone” using Next.js:

• Frontend Framework: Next.js handles both frontend views and basic server-side rendering.
• Authentication: Next Auth is used to provide login functionalities quickly.
• Database: You may use Firebase, MongoDB, or a simple REST API setup.

On the surface, this combination may look clean and straightforward, but the issues start to arise when you dig deeper:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

const cardSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  title: String,
  description: String,
  status: String,
  updatedAt: {
    type: Date,
    default: Date.now,
    index: true, // Proper indexing for better query performance
  },
});

const Card = mongoose.model('Card', cardSchema);

2. Serverless vs Stateful Backend

Next.js encourages a serverless approach, which works wonders for small- or medium-scale apps but may need help scaling when stateful processing arises. Real-time collaboration, for example, requires WebSockets or similar technologies that maintain open connections with thousands of users simultaneously – a feat serverless architectures tend to struggle with.

Relying solely on serverless functions wouldn’t work for Miro, a real-time collaborative whiteboard application. Instead, Miro likely uses a mix of WebSocket servers, managed services for state handling, and microservices that cater to different modules like board history and state versioning.

3. Authentication and Security

Next Auth is perfect for rapid prototyping, but scaling it has many challenges. Enterprise-grade authentication requires more stringent security measures like rate limiting, suspicious activity monitoring, role-based access control, and OAuth 2.0 with PKCE. Implementing a clone of Discord with just Next Auth would expose the app to severe vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit in minutes.

Consider using robust identity providers like Auth0, Amazon Cognito, or Azure AD in combination with security features like role-based access control and API rate limiting.

Example of implementing role-based access control:

function checkAdmin(req, res, next) {
  if (req.user.role !== 'admin') {
    return res.status(403).json({ message: 'Forbidden' });
  }
  next();
}

app.post('/admin', checkAdmin, (req, res) => {
  res.send('Welcome, admin!');
});

Building Scalable Architectures: Best Practices

If you’re building beyond an MVP or a hackathon project, it’s worth understanding some essential principles and technologies that contribute to scalability:

1. Microservices: Break down your monolith into independent services, such as authentication, payment processing, etc. This will make your application more resilient to changes and improve development velocity. Tools like Docker and Kubernetes can help manage these services efficiently.
2. Queue Management: Use queues like RabbitMQ or AWS SQS to process long-running tasks asynchronously, ensuring your system can handle requests that don’t require instant user feedback.
3. Caching: Use technologies like Redis or Memcached to reduce database queries for frequently accessed data. For instance, storing authentication tokens and user sessions in Redis helps offload the database.
4. Database Partitioning: Consider database partitioning or sharding to distribute data across different servers to avoid single points of failure and bottlenecks.
5. Horizontal Scaling: Design your services to be replicated across multiple servers. For stateless web servers, tools like Load Balancers distribute incoming traffic across these replicas, ensuring availability even during spikes in user activity.

Conclusion

Tutorials on how to make a clone provide excellent value for hands-on learning. They are both fun and educational, giving you practical experience with tools and libraries like Next.js and Next Auth. However, it’s essential to recognize that these projects should be viewed as something other than blueprints for building enterprise-grade software.

Real scalability requires careful planning, modular design, and robust systems that can handle unexpected loads, keep user data secure, and remain functional through faults. To build a production-ready system that scales, you’ll need to look beyond these tutorials and learn about software architecture, scalability practices, and different paradigms that make an application enterprise-grade.

If you’re serious about building the next Trello, Discord, or Miro, take the concepts learned in clone tutorials and study scalable backend systems, security best practices, and fault-tolerant architecture. These are the cornerstones of any successful large-scale application.