Why We Chose Next.js for a Hardware Tool

#The Skepticism

"You're building an EDA tool in the browser?" We heard this a lot in the early days. Circuit design tools have traditionally been native desktop applications — heavy, expensive, and platform-specific. Building one on web technologies seemed like a limitation.

#The Advantages We Found

Zero installation — Users can start designing immediately. No download, no license manager, no version conflicts. Share a link and your collaborator is in the same schematic in seconds.

Cross-platform by default — One codebase runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and even tablets. We didn't have to choose a platform or maintain separate builds.

Rapid iteration — Web deployment means we ship updates daily. Native desktop tools typically update quarterly. When a user reports a bug at 2pm, we can have a fix deployed by 3pm.

#The Challenges

Canvas rendering performance was our biggest hurdle. Schematics with 500+ components needed careful optimization — we ended up using WebGL for rendering and Web Workers for the constraint solver.

#Would We Do It Again?

Absolutely. The web platform's reach and deployment speed outweigh the performance tradeoffs, especially as browsers and hardware keep getting faster.