Whats the scope of the API Routes of NextJS? can it really replace your backend server?

[johnfrades]

Hi Guys, im new to NextJS and im still learning, i noticed that we have the API routes feature which acts like a backend server, where you can do database query, apply some authentication and etc..
I just want to ask, can it really replace a backend server in terms of functionality? Like implementing socket io? redis? cron jobs?
I just wanna know the limitation of just using the API routes compare to spinning up your own backend.

Thank you!