Server-Side Rendering Strategies for Video Platforms

In the era of React and Next.js, I chose full server-side rendering with PHP for TopVideoHub. Here's why, and how I implemented it for optimal performance. Why SSR with PHP (Not a JS Framework) For a content-heavy video platform, SSR with PHP has clear advantages: SEO — Search engines see fully rendered HTML immediately. No hydration delay, no JS-dependent content. Performance — Zero JavaScript framework overhead. The page is ready on first paint. Hosting cost — PHP shared hosting costs $3-10/month. Node.js hosting starts at $5-20/month for comparable performance. Simplicity — No build step, no bundler configuration, no client/server code splitting. Template Architecture I use plain PHP templates with a simple layout system: // app/View.php class View { private string $layout = 'main'; private array $data = []; private array $sections = []; public function render(string $template, array $data = []): string { $this->data = $data; extract($data); ob_start(); require __DIR__ . "/../tem