Why I Moved from Standalone Express APIs to Next.js Route Handlers

I used to separate frontend and backend in different repositories by default. That approach still works well for large teams, but for many product scopes it creates overhead in deployment, versioning, and environment management.

Moving to Next.js route handlers simplified the development loop. I could build API endpoints near the UI that consumes them, which made debugging and iteration faster.

The biggest win was consistency: shared TypeScript types, fewer duplicated validation rules, and a cleaner onboarding experience for new contributors.

I still choose standalone services for systems that need independent scaling or strict service boundaries, but for most portfolio and product MVP work, a unified Next.js stack gives better delivery speed.