---
title: "Rendering engines and JSS"
slug: "rendering-engines-and-jss"
abstract: "Describes the engines behind the server-side rendering of JSS apps"
---
# Rendering engines and JSS

A rendering engine performs server-side rendering (SSR) of JSS applications by enabling the execution of the same JavaScript application you run in development within the Content Management environment running a Sitecore instance.

The [Sitecore Headless Services](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/sitecore-headless-services.html "Sitecore Headless Services") module enables apps to use one of the following [rendering engines](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/rendering-engines.html "Rendering engines"):

- The [Sitecore Node.js rendering engine](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/node-js-rendering-engine.html "Node.js rendering engine") is a Node.js instance running on your Sitecore Content Management (CM) server and server-side renders JSS applications running in integrated mode. You must install Node.js on the CM server, but you can [configure and debug the Node.js instance](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/configuring-and-debugging-the-node-js-rendering-engine.html "Configuring and debugging the Node.js rendering engine").
- The [Sitecore HTTP rendering engine](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/http-rendering-engine.html "HTTP rendering engine") is a remote Node.js instance, or rendering host, that communicates through HTTP requests with the Sitecore CM server. To use it, you must [set up the HTTP rendering engine client- and server-side](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/walkthrough--configuring-the-http-rendering-engine-for-your-jss-app.html "Walkthrough: Configuring the HTTP rendering engine for your JSS app"). If you created your app based on the JSS sample for Next.js, your application is already configured to use this engine.

If you want to configure multiple JSS applications, you can [configure a rendering engine for each app](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/hd/23/sitecore-headless-development/app-configuration-api.html "App Configuration API") using the `serverSideRenderingEngine` attribute in the app configuration.

> [!tip]
> If you are using SXA, you can configure a rendering engine in the settings of your SXA collection of Headless Sites with the help of the Server side rendering engine field.