Client-side and server-side are terms that web developers use to specify in which application the code runs.

In the client-server model, users’ devices communicate through a network of centrally located servers. Devices such as laptops, smartphones, etc., are considered ‘clients’ in this scenario. So, the ’clients’ are the ones who request the servers to load a specific website or application.

Client-side refers to the information that’s displayed on the users’ devices. This information is exactly what the user sees, like text, images, etc. Client-side rendering takes place on the browser and is done by JavaScript. So, when people request a website, they don’t receive the information directly from HTML content. Instead, they obtain a bare HTML document alongside a JavaScript. The javaScript does the rendering on the browser.

Initially, client-side rendering can be slow, since the browser hast to make several requests to the server to acquire the information. But, thanks to the JavaScript framework, whenever you want to load the same webpage again, the process is exponentially faster.

Client-side rendering with JavaScript makes it harder for Search Engines to crawl and index a site’s content. Consequently, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can suffer. The content must be correctly rendered, indexed, and ranked in the search engine results page for the SEO to be effective. This is not always the case with client-side rendering websites.

In contrast, server-side rendering is when all the HTML is rendered in the server, instead of the users’ devices. This conversion of data takes a few milliseconds. It depends on various factors such as internet speed, the server’s location, how many users are trying to access the site, and whether the website is optimized or not. When using server-side rendering, an SEO company efforts are more effective. The process is much easier without using JavaScript, and crawlers can index the content more accurately.