Home

Switching a Single Page Site from Next.js to bitty

September 2025

I just updated my ideas site. It was using Next.js. It's now powered by bitty.

There's a big difference in the size of the source code. Here's the Next version:

The Get Info panel from a Mac showing details for the folder ideas.alanwsmith.com where the size is 383.6 MB

Here's what the bitty version looks like:

Another Get Info panel. This time showing the size at 839 KB

I didn't measure the download size. I'd call it a safe bet that bitty is smaller.

~a

Notes

  • The ideas site was one of the first things I used Next.js for. It's not a good use case. You couldn't tell that from the hype at the time.

  • The total uncompressed size of the production files for the bitty version is:

    • index.html - 37 KB
    • bitty-v0.3.0.js - 8 KB

    Most of the size of the index file is the data for the list of 400+ ideas.

    The source for the Next.js version is here if you care to do a comparison yourself.

  • I added extra functionality to the bitty version. It prevents showing an idea if it has been seen within the past fifty button clicks. The index.html file would be a few bytes smaller without that. Irrelevant for purposes of this comparison.
end of line