React Server Components: When They Help and When They Don't

Server Components excel at data-heavy views, SEO-critical content, and reducing client bundle size. They are not a replacement for every interactive widget.

Keep client boundaries small: forms, maps, charts, and drag-and-drop should stay client-side. Everything else — marketing copy, catalogs, docs — is a strong RSC candidate.

Watch your data fetching patterns. Co-locate loaders with components, cache intentionally, and avoid waterfall requests that slow TTFB.

Teams migrating from CRA or Vite SPAs should redesign state flow rather than porting page-by-page blindly. The mental model shifts from 'fetch on mount' to 'render on server'.

Document component boundaries for designers and PMs so expectations around interactivity stay clear during sprint planning.