Just my opinion but, server‑side rendering never really went away, but the web is finally remembering why it was the default. First paint and SEO are still better when markup comes from the server, which is why frameworks as different as Rails + Turbo, HTMX, Phoenix LiveView, and React Server Components all make SSR the baseline. Those projects have shown that most dashboards and CRUD apps don’t need a client router, global state, or a 200 kB hydration bundle—they just need partial HTML swaps.
The real driver is complexity cost. Every line of client JS brings build tooling, npm audit noise, and another supply chain risk. Cutting that payload often makes performance and security better at the same time. Of course, Figma‑ or Gmail‑class apps still benefit from heavy client logic, so the emerging pattern is “HTML by default, JS only where it buys you something.” Think islands, not full SPAs.
So yes, the pendulum is swinging back toward the server, but it’s not nostalgia for 2004 PHP. It’s about right‑sizing JavaScript and letting HTML do the boring 90 % of the job it was always good at.
The real driver is complexity cost. Every line of client JS brings build tooling, npm audit noise, and another supply chain risk. Cutting that payload often makes performance and security better at the same time. Of course, Figma‑ or Gmail‑class apps still benefit from heavy client logic, so the emerging pattern is “HTML by default, JS only where it buys you something.” Think islands, not full SPAs.
So yes, the pendulum is swinging back toward the server, but it’s not nostalgia for 2004 PHP. It’s about right‑sizing JavaScript and letting HTML do the boring 90 % of the job it was always good at.