Blaze Commerce Tech Stack

The Blaze Commerce platform is an open-source, next-generation front-end solution for headless WooCommerce stores using modern web technologies. It is built on Next.js and integrates various tools and services to provide a robust, feature-rich and flexible e-commerce solution.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the tech stack used in Blaze Commerce:

1. Next.js: Blazing-Fast Performance and Scalability for Your Store

Next.js is at the core of Blaze Commerce’s front-end architecture, selected specifically for its ability to provide exceptional performance and scalability. After evaluating various front-end frameworks, including Gatsby, Nuxt.js, and traditional server-rendered approaches, we chose Next.js because it strikes the perfect balance between speed, flexibility, and developer experience.

Key Benefits of Next.js for Blaze Commerce:

1. Server-Side Rendering (SSR):
   • By utilizing server-side rendering, Next.js ensures that pages load quickly, with critical content delivered before JavaScript has fully executed. This leads to faster load times and a more responsive user experience, which is especially crucial during peak sales periods.
2. Static Site Generation (SSG):
   • Static site generation helps cache frequently accessed pages for even faster delivery. For stores with high traffic, this means that customers can navigate pages effortlessly without experiencing delays.
3. Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR):
   • Next.js allows for Incremental Static Regeneration, which enables Blaze Commerce to update specific pages without rebuilding the entire site. This means your product pages can stay fresh without downtime or long build times.
4. SEO Optimizations:
   • Using SSR and SSG with Next.js allows us to significantly improve the SEO capabilities of WooCommerce stores. The ability to control meta tags, provide pre-rendered content, and reduce load times all contribute to better search engine rankings. For more details on our approach to SEO using Next.js, refer to our Headless WooCommerce SEO Strategy (opens in a new tab).

Why We Chose Next.js: We evaluated numerous frameworks and technologies before settling on Next.js. Our choice was driven by its superior balance of performance, scalability, and ease of integration with existing WooCommerce backends. Unlike some other frameworks, Next.js offers flexible, production-ready features without requiring excessive custom setups. For a detailed look into why we decided on Next.js over other options, read our blog post: Why We Chose Next.js for Blaze Commerce (opens in a new tab).

2. React.js:

UI Library: React is used for building interactive UI components in a declarative and efficient way, which is integral for dynamic e-commerce applications.

3. TypeScript:

Programming Language: TypeScript is used throughout the project for its static type-checking features. This helps in managing the complexity of the platform by making the codebase more maintainable and less prone to runtime errors.

4. Tailwind CSS:

Styling: Tailwind CSS is used for styling the application. It’s a utility-first CSS framework that allows for rapid UI development and ensures a consistent design system across the entire platform.

5. Blaze Commerce:

E-commerce Backend: Blaze Commerce leverages WooCommerce in a headless configuration, interfacing with WordPress and WooCommerce core and plugin functionality through a custom API layer, allowing the platform to fetch products, manage carts, process orders, and handle user authentication. This setup decouples the frontend from the backend, allowing for more flexibility and scalability.

6. Typesense: High-Performance Search without Backend Overload

Typesense (opens in a new tab) is a critical component of Blaze Commerce's architecture, particularly when deploying the frontend. We use Typesense to manage product search capabilities effectively while minimizing the load on the backend. This is especially important during the build phase of the site, where utilizing GraphQL queries to pull data from the backend for hundreds of products can often cause the WordPress backend to crash or become unresponsive.

With Typesense, the data-heavy operations are offloaded from the backend, allowing the WordPress backend to remain uninterrupted and fully functional. This ensures that your store can perform searches instantly without overburdening the backend, keeping the administrative functions of your WooCommerce environment running smoothly.

Typesense's real-time, instant search features empower users to find what they need quickly, enhancing the overall user experience while maintaining the stability of your backend infrastructure. This combination of high performance and reliability makes Typesense an essential part of how Blaze Commerce delivers a smooth, scalable eCommerce experience.

7. GraphQL for WordPress & WooCommerce:

Session and Cart Management: Integrating GraphQL for WooCommerce allows for more efficient management of user sessions and cart contents. This setup leverages GraphQL’s ability to fetch complex data structures in a single request, which optimizes interaction with WooCommerce’s backend for operations like updating cart items and checking out.

8. Vercel:

Deployment and Hosting: Designed to be deployed on Vercel, the platform leverages Vercel’s capabilities for edge functions, global content distribution, and seamless integration with Next.js, optimizing performance and scaling.