T3 Stack

The T3 stack (created around create-t3-app) is a specific opinionated bundle on top of Next.js. It's not a different framework — it's a set of defaults.

Components

• Next.js (App Router or Pages — both supported)
• tRPC for typesafe RPC between client and server (or moving to oRPC more recently)
• Drizzle or Prisma for the DB layer
• Tailwind CSS for styling
• NextAuth.js / Auth.js historically; many T3-style apps now use Clerk or Better Auth
• Zod for validation throughout
• Optional: TanStack Query (tRPC integrates), shadcn/ui, Vercel for deploy

What it's good at

• End-to-end type safety — call a tRPC procedure from the client and the response type just appears.
• Strong defaults — the hardest part of greenfield Next.js projects (auth, DB, validation glue) is decided for you.
• Active community — create-t3-app is one of the most-starred starters; lots of cookbooks and tutorials.

What you give up

• The tRPC abstraction can fight Server Components on the App Router; many teams migrate to Server Actions + Zod schemas for mutations and keep tRPC for read APIs only, or move to oRPC which is OpenAPI-compatible.
• Coupling client and server types tightly works great solo, less great when a separate team owns the API or when the API is consumed by mobile.

When to pick T3 over plain Next.js

• You're solo or a small team and want every default decided.
• Your app is mostly your own client + your own server (no third-party API consumers).
• You want to hire the median React/Next.js dev and have them ramp fast.

When to skip T3

• You're already comfortable making the auth/ORM/validation choices yourself.
• You need an API your mobile team or partners will consume — you'll want OpenAPI / oRPC / GraphQL.
• You want to use the App Router heavily — Server Actions overlap with what tRPC mutations did.