Redirecting
There are a few ways you can handle redirects in Next.js. This page will go through each available option, use cases, and how to manage large numbers of redirects.
API | Purpose | Where | Status Code |
---|---|---|---|
useRouter | Perform a client-side navigation | Components | N/A |
redirects in next.config.js | Redirect an incoming request based on a path | next.config.js file | 307 (Temporary) or 308 (Permanent) |
NextResponse.redirect | Redirect an incoming request based on a condition | Middleware | Any |
useRouter()
hook
If you need to redirect inside a component, you can use the push
method from the useRouter
hook. For example:
import { useRouter } from 'next/router'
export default function Page() {
const router = useRouter()
return (
<button type="button" onClick={() => router.push('/dashboard')}>
Dashboard
</button>
)
}
Good to know:
- If you don't need to programmatically navigate a user, you should use a
<Link>
component.
See the useRouter
API reference for more information.
redirects
in next.config.js
The redirects
option in the next.config.js
file allows you to redirect an incoming request path to a different destination path. This is useful when you change the URL structure of pages or have a list of redirects that are known ahead of time.
redirects
supports path, header, cookie, and query matching, giving you the flexibility to redirect users based on an incoming request.
To use redirects
, add the option to your next.config.js
file:
module.exports = {
async redirects() {
return [
// Basic redirect
{
source: '/about',
destination: '/',
permanent: true,
},
// Wildcard path matching
{
source: '/blog/:slug',
destination: '/news/:slug',
permanent: true,
},
]
},
}
See the redirects
API reference for more information.
Good to know:
redirects
can return a 307 (Temporary Redirect) or 308 (Permanent Redirect) status code with thepermanent
option.redirects
may have a limit on platforms. For example, on Vercel, there's a limit of 1,024 redirects. To manage a large number of redirects (1000+), consider creating a custom solution using Middleware. See managing redirects at scale for more.redirects
runs before Middleware.
NextResponse.redirect
in Middleware
Middleware allows you to run code before a request is completed. Then, based on the incoming request, redirect to a different URL using NextResponse.redirect
. This is useful if you want to redirect users based on a condition (e.g. authentication, session management, etc) or have a large number of redirects.
For example, to redirect the user to a /login
page if they are not authenticated:
import { NextResponse, NextRequest } from 'next/server'
import { authenticate } from 'auth-provider'
export function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
const isAuthenticated = authenticate(request)
// If the user is authenticated, continue as normal
if (isAuthenticated) {
return NextResponse.next()
}
// Redirect to login page if not authenticated
return NextResponse.redirect(new URL('/login', request.url))
}
export const config = {
matcher: '/dashboard/:path*',
}
Good to know:
- Middleware runs after
redirects
innext.config.js
and before rendering.
See the Middleware documentation for more information.
Managing redirects at scale (advanced)
To manage a large number of redirects (1000+), you may consider creating a custom solution using Middleware. This allows you to handle redirects programmatically without having to redeploy your application.
To do this, you'll need to consider:
- Creating and storing a redirect map.
- Optimizing data lookup performance.
Next.js Example: See our Middleware with Bloom filter example for an implementation of the recommendations below.
1. Creating and storing a redirect map
A redirect map is a list of redirects that you can store in a database (usually a key-value store) or JSON file.
Consider the following data structure:
{
"/old": {
"destination": "/new",
"permanent": true
},
"/blog/post-old": {
"destination": "/blog/post-new",
"permanent": true
}
}
In Middleware, you can read from a database such as Vercel's Edge Config or Redis, and redirect the user based on the incoming request:
import { NextResponse, NextRequest } from 'next/server'
import { get } from '@vercel/edge-config'
type RedirectEntry = {
destination: string
permanent: boolean
}
export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
const pathname = request.nextUrl.pathname
const redirectData = await get(pathname)
if (redirectData && typeof redirectData === 'string') {
const redirectEntry: RedirectEntry = JSON.parse(redirectData)
const statusCode = redirectEntry.permanent ? 308 : 307
return NextResponse.redirect(redirectEntry.destination, statusCode)
}
// No redirect found, continue without redirecting
return NextResponse.next()
}
2. Optimizing data lookup performance
Reading a large dataset for every incoming request can be slow and expensive. There are two ways you can optimize data lookup performance:
- Use a database that is optimized for fast reads, such as Vercel Edge Config or Redis.
- Use a data lookup strategy such as a Bloom filter to efficiently check if a redirect exists before reading the larger redirects file or database.
Considering the previous example, you can import a generated bloom filter file into Middleware, then, check if the incoming request pathname exists in the bloom filter.
If it does, forward the request to a API Routes which will check the actual file and redirect the user to the appropriate URL. This avoids importing a large redirects file into Middleware, which can slow down every incoming request.
import { NextResponse, NextRequest } from 'next/server'
import { ScalableBloomFilter } from 'bloom-filters'
import GeneratedBloomFilter from './redirects/bloom-filter.json'
type RedirectEntry = {
destination: string
permanent: boolean
}
// Initialize bloom filter from a generated JSON file
const bloomFilter = ScalableBloomFilter.fromJSON(GeneratedBloomFilter as any)
export async function middleware(request: NextRequest) {
// Get the path for the incoming request
const pathname = request.nextUrl.pathname
// Check if the path is in the bloom filter
if (bloomFilter.has(pathname)) {
// Forward the pathname to the Route Handler
const api = new URL(
`/api/redirects?pathname=${encodeURIComponent(request.nextUrl.pathname)}`,
request.nextUrl.origin
)
try {
// Fetch redirect data from the Route Handler
const redirectData = await fetch(api)
if (redirectData.ok) {
const redirectEntry: RedirectEntry | undefined =
await redirectData.json()
if (redirectEntry) {
// Determine the status code
const statusCode = redirectEntry.permanent ? 308 : 307
// Redirect to the destination
return NextResponse.redirect(redirectEntry.destination, statusCode)
}
}
} catch (error) {
console.error(error)
}
}
// No redirect found, continue the request without redirecting
return NextResponse.next()
}
Then, in the API Route:
import type { NextApiRequest, NextApiResponse } from 'next'
import redirects from '@/app/redirects/redirects.json'
type RedirectEntry = {
destination: string
permanent: boolean
}
export default function handler(req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) {
const pathname = req.query.pathname
if (!pathname) {
return res.status(400).json({ message: 'Bad Request' })
}
// Get the redirect entry from the redirects.json file
const redirect = (redirects as Record<string, RedirectEntry>)[pathname]
// Account for bloom filter false positives
if (!redirect) {
return res.status(400).json({ message: 'No redirect' })
}
// Return the redirect entry
return res.json(redirect)
}
Good to know:
- To generate a bloom filter, you can use a library like
bloom-filters
.- You should validate requests made to your Route Handler to prevent malicious requests.
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