{"slug": "alpine-js", "name": "Alpine.js", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "Lightweight JavaScript framework for adding reactive behavior directly in HTML markup.", "recommenders": 7, "commenters": 16, "warners": 0, "score": 8.797, "rising": 1.69, "first": "2025-11-03", "latest": "2026-10-14", "why": "HN commenters like Alpine.js as a companion to HTMX in server-rendered web apps, especially for small and simple projects where it goes further than heavier frameworks.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 9, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Pairs with HTMX", "Simple projects"], "caveat": "Complex UIs", "short_quote": "Alpine + Alpine Ajax was SMALLER than HTMX 4 even though (in my opinion) it offers a lot more features", "icon": true, "domain": "alpinejs.dev", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://alpinejs.dev/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Alpine.js"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Alpine.js as a companion to HTMX in server-rendered web apps,", "cites": [{"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 744431124, "item_id": 46526945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526945", "by": "ecshafer", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience", "excerpt": "I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX. I got my feet wet doing hotwire/turbo in rails, and htmx is really just such a wonderful expansion of thise ideas. Making reactive app experiences on the web with a tiny js bundle and just writing html feels how web programming should be. I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience ive had in so lo", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Htmx: High Power Tools for HTML"}, {"id": 787860578, "item_id": 49241286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49241286", "by": "vladkorobkov", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Being a big fan of the server-side rendering, HTMX, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js", "excerpt": "Being a big fan of the server-side rendering, HTMX, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js, I am working on a fast dependency-free, typed Mustache renderer for Python 3.12+. https://github.com/servletcloud/fstache", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 801350946, "item_id": 50084434, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50084434", "by": "flossly", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "when I use it it's with Alpine.js.", "excerpt": "Just a few years ago, before the LLM-assisted-coding-era, I already did not like frameworks as much as I used to. I liked Rails. But that was more because through Rails I learned the MVC pattern, learned the layer-middelware pattern from Rack (and the ActiveRecord ORM -- but I now no longer like ORMs but that's a different story). Those 2 pattern I still use today in some way or form, and I find them in many modern (", "context": "", "use_case": "sparse frontend JavaScript", "switched_from": "", "story": "Do Frameworks Matter Anymore?"}, {"id": 740368805, "item_id": 46273050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273050", "by": "pk3", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity", "excerpt": "https://charityrecord.com I'm working on a charitable donation tracker for taxpayers. My wife and I used Intuit's ItsDeductible for years until it shut down in October. With a little encouragement, I built Charity Record. The stack is Django 5.2 (I know, I know, I'm looking at 6 now), Postgres, and HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity. I'm using Polar for subscriptions. It's running on the $12/mo DigitalOcean droplet. ", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}]}, {"text": " especially for small and simple projects where it goes further than heavier frameworks.", "cites": [{"id": 733503633, "item_id": 45843977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45843977", "by": "timinou", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks.", "excerpt": "I don't buy it either. I've been building my own backend framework for the past 2.5 years, and even though it's a DSL over Python and there's no documentation online and barely one in my computer, Claude Code understands it with enough usage examples in my codebase. In front-end as well\u2014I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks. For big products I use Elm, which i", "context": "", "use_case": "simple front-end projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dead Framework Theory"}, {"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is that it falls short for large, highly interactive UIs,", "cites": [{"id": 786129394, "item_id": 49133087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133087", "by": "Aeolos", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "But even with alpinejs in the mix", "excerpt": "Our UI is highly interactive: think 3d visualizations with toggle-able overlays, various display settings, searchable lists, drawing tools etc. We made a lot of progress with htmx, but eventually hit a complexity wall where we were spending more time fighting the tool than solving the business need. Note, I'm not blaming htmx here, the documentation is clear about its strengths and limitations, and the hypermedia app", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}]}, {"text": " and some commenters find they don't need it at all.", "cites": [{"id": 785009921, "item_id": 49063120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49063120", "by": "yawaramin", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a concern because I use htmx for loading and updating resources and I want those operations to work as well as possible even without JavaScript. I\u2019ve never felt the need for Alpine.js, I have very little I need to do with custom JS, and it\u2019s trivial to maintain that by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I use HTMX with Go"}, {"id": 732911810, "item_id": 45806988, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45806988", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On an internal tool I noticed I didn\u2019t need Alpine.js anymore", "excerpt": "I think the ideas behind HTMX are cool, and Carson\u2019s advocacy around Hypermedia is great. I came from SPA-land and was tired of the fundamental architectural issue of having to keep the front-end and back-end state in sync. I\u2019ve compared Datastar and HTMX and decided on Datastar. There\u2019s overlap between the two libraries in that they both support the request/response model, but with Datastar my learning investment ta", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "</> Htmx \u2013 The Fetch()ening"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Pairs with HTMX", "summary": "Commonly paired with HTMX in server-rendered stacks.", "quotes": [{"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 744431124, "item_id": 46526945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526945", "by": "ecshafer", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience", "excerpt": "I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX. I got my feet wet doing hotwire/turbo in rails, and htmx is really just such a wonderful expansion of thise ideas. Making reactive app experiences on the web with a tiny js bundle and just writing html feels how web programming should be. I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience ive had in so lo", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Htmx: High Power Tools for HTML"}, {"id": 740368805, "item_id": 46273050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273050", "by": "pk3", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity", "excerpt": "https://charityrecord.com I'm working on a charitable donation tracker for taxpayers. My wife and I used Intuit's ItsDeductible for years until it shut down in October. With a little encouragement, I built Charity Record. The stack is Django 5.2 (I know, I know, I'm looking at 6 now), Postgres, and HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity. I'm using Polar for subscriptions. It's running on the $12/mo DigitalOcean droplet. ", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}]}, {"label": "Simple projects", "summary": "Commenters find it effective for small and simple projects.", "quotes": [{"id": 733503633, "item_id": 45843977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45843977", "by": "timinou", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks.", "excerpt": "I don't buy it either. I've been building my own backend framework for the past 2.5 years, and even though it's a DSL over Python and there's no documentation online and barely one in my computer, Claude Code understands it with enough usage examples in my codebase. In front-end as well\u2014I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks. For big products I use Elm, which i", "context": "", "use_case": "simple front-end projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dead Framework Theory"}, {"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}]}, {"label": "Client-side reactivity", "summary": "Used to add reactive, responsive behavior on the client.", "quotes": [{"id": 772401552, "item_id": 48275097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275097", "by": "darkteflon", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m not an FE engineer but have found myself working very closely with the whole stack recently, which includes an SPA. We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions. It seems \u2026 okay? I feel like I can reason about it. But I worry I\u2019m missing something that\u2019s going to come back and bite us later because we haven\u2019t adopted a framework. Roast my stack?", "context": "not a frontend engineer", "use_case": "frontend reactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Does Anybody Actually Like React?"}, {"id": 754381857, "item_id": 47148866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148866", "by": "b0bbi", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Client-side reactivity for a responsive terminal-like experience (Alpine.js)", "excerpt": "Hi HN, A while ago I had a mildly depressing realization. Back in 2010, I had around $60k. Like a \"responsible\" person, I used it as a down payment on an apartment. Recently, out of curiosity, I calculated what would have happened if I had instead put that money into NVIDIA stock. I should probably add some context. For over 10 years I've worked as a developer on trading platforms and financial infrastructure. I made", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side reactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": null}]}, {"label": "Small footprint", "summary": "One commenter found Alpine plus Alpine Ajax smaller than HTMX 4 while offering more features.", "quotes": [{"id": 785154225, "item_id": 49072139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072139", "by": "james2doyle", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Alpine + Alpine Ajax was SMALLER than HTMX 4 even though (in my opinion) it offers a lot more features", "excerpt": "I actually tried to use HTMX on a site recently. I used the 4.0 beta. The site needed an interactive filterable product-listing-page-type experience to list out all their vendors. Form filters on the left and the list of results \"cards\" on the right. The problem I had was that the entire experience became really slow when I had it all working together as one \"response\". Sending back all that HTML for an entire form w", "context": "web developer", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Removing React.js from the codebase and adapting Htmx for UI interactivity"}]}, {"label": "Developer experience", "summary": "One commenter called a Spring Boot, HTMX and Alpine setup their smoothest Java web dev experience in a long time.", "quotes": [{"id": 744431124, "item_id": 46526945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526945", "by": "ecshafer", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience", "excerpt": "I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX. I got my feet wet doing hotwire/turbo in rails, and htmx is really just such a wonderful expansion of thise ideas. Making reactive app experiences on the web with a tiny js bundle and just writing html feels how web programming should be. I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience ive had in so lo", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Htmx: High Power Tools for HTML"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Complex UIs", "summary": "Commenters say it struggles with highly interactive apps, where they reach for React or Datastar instead.", "quotes": [{"id": 786129394, "item_id": 49133087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133087", "by": "Aeolos", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "But even with alpinejs in the mix", "excerpt": "Our UI is highly interactive: think 3d visualizations with toggle-able overlays, various display settings, searchable lists, drawing tools etc. We made a lot of progress with htmx, but eventually hit a complexity wall where we were spending more time fighting the tool than solving the business need. Note, I'm not blaming htmx here, the documentation is clear about its strengths and limitations, and the hypermedia app", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}]}, {"label": "Often unnecessary", "summary": "Some commenters found they did not need it, either with little custom JS or after switching to Datastar.", "quotes": [{"id": 785009921, "item_id": 49063120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49063120", "by": "yawaramin", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a concern because I use htmx for loading and updating resources and I want those operations to work as well as possible even without JavaScript. I\u2019ve never felt the need for Alpine.js, I have very little I need to do with custom JS, and it\u2019s trivial to maintain that by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I use HTMX with Go"}, {"id": 732911810, "item_id": 45806988, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45806988", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On an internal tool I noticed I didn\u2019t need Alpine.js anymore", "excerpt": "I think the ideas behind HTMX are cool, and Carson\u2019s advocacy around Hypermedia is great. I came from SPA-land and was tired of the fundamental architectural issue of having to keep the front-end and back-end state in sync. I\u2019ve compared Datastar and HTMX and decided on Datastar. There\u2019s overlap between the two libraries in that they both support the request/response model, but with Datastar my learning investment ta", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "</> Htmx \u2013 The Fetch()ening"}]}, {"label": "Long-term doubts", "summary": "One commenter using it without a full framework worries it may cause problems later.", "quotes": [{"id": 772401552, "item_id": 48275097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275097", "by": "darkteflon", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m not an FE engineer but have found myself working very closely with the whole stack recently, which includes an SPA. We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions. It seems \u2026 okay? I feel like I can reason about it. But I worry I\u2019m missing something that\u2019s going to come back and bite us later because we haven\u2019t adopted a framework. Roast my stack?", "context": "not a frontend engineer", "use_case": "frontend reactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Does Anybody Actually Like React?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "james2doyle", "context": "web developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072139", "date": "2026-07-27"}, {"by": "darkteflon", "context": "not a frontend engineer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275097", "date": "2026-05-25"}, {"by": "bobjordan", "context": "builds customer portal bomquote.com", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315756", "date": "2025-12-18"}], "tags": ["with HTMX", "for server-rendered apps", "for small projects", "for Python web stacks"], "use_cases": ["frontend interactivity", "client-side interactivity", "sparse frontend javascript", "frontend rendering", "hypermedia web development", "client-side interactivity with htmx"], "compared": [{"slug": "htmx", "name": "HTMX", "co": 13, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "datastar", "name": "Datastar", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "react", "name": "React", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tailwind-css", "name": "Tailwind CSS", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "vue", "name": "Vue", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "django", "name": "Django", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49119270", "title": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50081092", "title": "Do Frameworks Matter Anymore?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069318", "title": "AWS Lambda Web Functions", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50008427", "title": "Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49233423", "title": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49067301", "title": "Removing React.js from the codebase and adapting Htmx for UI interactivity", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 3}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801350946, "item_id": 50084434, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50084434", "by": "flossly", "date": "2026-10-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "when I use it it's with Alpine.js.", "excerpt": "Just a few years ago, before the LLM-assisted-coding-era, I already did not like frameworks as much as I used to. I liked Rails. But that was more because through Rails I learned the MVC pattern, learned the layer-middelware pattern from Rack (and the ActiveRecord ORM -- but I now no longer like ORMs but that's a different story). Those 2 pattern I still use today in some way or form, and I find them in many modern (", "context": "", "use_case": "sparse frontend JavaScript", "switched_from": "", "story": "Do Frameworks Matter Anymore?"}, {"id": 801234596, "item_id": 50077162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50077162", "by": "nemothekid", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "It even renders a frontend with HTMX/Alpine.", "excerpt": "Rust + Axum has sort of supported this with a middleware (https://github.com/lazear/axum-aws-lambda). Essentially you write your API as normal, and then when you build for lambda you enable a feature that does the special handler for you. This + Function URL + Cloudfront, and you end up with an API entirely hosted in lambda. I have a backend that does is hosted like this that does pretty complex work (image/video upl", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend rendering", "switched_from": "", "story": "AWS Lambda Web Functions"}, {"id": 800234242, "item_id": 50014640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50014640", "by": "Multicomp", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I follow hypermedia.systems and htmx/datastar/alpine.js because I'm still trying to get back that powerful _web_ tech advancement", "excerpt": "WSDL - now that's a name I've not heard in a very long time! XML Web Services were awesome, but the SOAP and XML (where the hard parts that should have been given some batteries included defaults) I think was too much of a boat anchor to overcome. And then the ruby/rails wave came and made 'rest' JSON the Silicon Valley hearthrob, and WSDLs were out like yesterdays trash. Are they still used in businesses IRL? Yes! I", "context": "", "use_case": "hypermedia web development", "switched_from": "", "story": "Whistle: Speech to Text in 16.9 MB"}, {"id": 787860578, "item_id": 49241286, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49241286", "by": "vladkorobkov", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Being a big fan of the server-side rendering, HTMX, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js", "excerpt": "Being a big fan of the server-side rendering, HTMX, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js, I am working on a fast dependency-free, typed Mustache renderer for Python 3.12+. https://github.com/servletcloud/fstache", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)"}, {"id": 786129394, "item_id": 49133087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133087", "by": "Aeolos", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "But even with alpinejs in the mix", "excerpt": "Our UI is highly interactive: think 3d visualizations with toggle-able overlays, various display settings, searchable lists, drawing tools etc. We made a lot of progress with htmx, but eventually hit a complexity wall where we were spending more time fighting the tool than solving the business need. Note, I'm not blaming htmx here, the documentation is clear about its strengths and limitations, and the hypermedia app", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 785976257, "item_id": 49123516, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49123516", "by": "dmoreno", "date": "2026-07-31", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects", "excerpt": "That's why many times HTMX is used together with alpinejs [1]. For areas that need server side, if you use say react and return a JSON you have to deserialize and do the render. It might be much more efficient to just replace. Having said that I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects, and still trust react for bigger more interactive ones. [1] https://alpinejs.dev/", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity with HTMX", "switched_from": "", "story": "Let's Make the Worst Htmx"}, {"id": 785154225, "item_id": 49072139, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072139", "by": "james2doyle", "date": "2026-07-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Alpine + Alpine Ajax was SMALLER than HTMX 4 even though (in my opinion) it offers a lot more features", "excerpt": "I actually tried to use HTMX on a site recently. I used the 4.0 beta. The site needed an interactive filterable product-listing-page-type experience to list out all their vendors. Form filters on the left and the list of results \"cards\" on the right. The problem I had was that the entire experience became really slow when I had it all working together as one \"response\". Sending back all that HTML for an entire form w", "context": "web developer", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Removing React.js from the codebase and adapting Htmx for UI interactivity"}, {"id": 785009921, "item_id": 49063120, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49063120", "by": "yawaramin", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a concern because I use htmx for loading and updating resources and I want those operations to work as well as possible even without JavaScript. I\u2019ve never felt the need for Alpine.js, I have very little I need to do with custom JS, and it\u2019s trivial to maintain that by hand.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How I use HTMX with Go"}, {"id": 772401552, "item_id": 48275097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275097", "by": "darkteflon", "date": "2026-05-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m not an FE engineer but have found myself working very closely with the whole stack recently, which includes an SPA. We use html, JavaScript, Alpine for reactivity and Supabase realtime subscriptions. It seems \u2026 okay? I feel like I can reason about it. But I worry I\u2019m missing something that\u2019s going to come back and bite us later because we haven\u2019t adopted a framework. Roast my stack?", "context": "not a frontend engineer", "use_case": "frontend reactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Does Anybody Actually Like React?"}, {"id": 754381857, "item_id": 47148866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148866", "by": "b0bbi", "date": "2026-02-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Client-side reactivity for a responsive terminal-like experience (Alpine.js)", "excerpt": "Hi HN, A while ago I had a mildly depressing realization. Back in 2010, I had around $60k. Like a \"responsible\" person, I used it as a down payment on an apartment. Recently, out of curiosity, I calculated what would have happened if I had instead put that money into NVIDIA stock. I should probably add some context. For over 10 years I've worked as a developer on trading platforms and financial infrastructure. I made", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side reactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 744431124, "item_id": 46526945, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526945", "by": "ecshafer", "date": "2026-01-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience", "excerpt": "I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX. I got my feet wet doing hotwire/turbo in rails, and htmx is really just such a wonderful expansion of thise ideas. Making reactive app experiences on the web with a tiny js bundle and just writing html feels how web programming should be. I am writing a UI with Spring Boot + Thymleaf + HTMX and Alpine JS, and its the smoothest java based web dev experience ive had in so lo", "context": "", "use_case": "client-side interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Htmx: High Power Tools for HTML"}, {"id": 741052103, "item_id": 46315756, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315756", "by": "bobjordan", "date": "2025-12-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Flask, HTMX, Alpine, and Tailwind", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been a fan of this philosophy since the Intercooler.js days. In fact, our legacy customer portal at bomquote.com still runs on Intercooler. I spent the last year building a new version using the \"modern\" version of that stack: Flask, HTMX, Alpine, and Tailwind. However, I\u2019ve recently made the difficult decision to rewrite the frontend in React (specifically React/TS, TanStack Query, Orval, and Shadcn). In a perf", "context": "builds customer portal bomquote.com", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Please just try HTMX"}, {"id": 740368805, "item_id": 46273050, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46273050", "by": "pk3", "date": "2025-12-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity", "excerpt": "https://charityrecord.com I'm working on a charitable donation tracker for taxpayers. My wife and I used Intuit's ItsDeductible for years until it shut down in October. With a little encouragement, I built Charity Record. The stack is Django 5.2 (I know, I know, I'm looking at 6 now), Postgres, and HTMX + Alpine.js for interactivity. I'm using Polar for subscriptions. It's running on the $12/mo DigitalOcean droplet. ", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)"}, {"id": 738480018, "item_id": 46155001, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46155001", "by": "HiPhish", "date": "2025-12-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "At my day job we use Django with HTMX and Alpine", "excerpt": "That's just for the HTML content though. What if you want to add some non-trivial Javascript or generated CSS? Or maybe you want to integrate a frontend tool like Storybook[0] even if your HTML is rendered server-side? Maybe add some tests for your frontend code? There is much more between raw hand-rolled HTML/CSS/JS and a full-blown SPA. At my day job we use Django with HTMX and Alpine, but we also generate the cust", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "Django 6"}, {"id": 733503633, "item_id": 45843977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45843977", "by": "timinou", "date": "2025-11-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks.", "excerpt": "I don't buy it either. I've been building my own backend framework for the past 2.5 years, and even though it's a DSL over Python and there's no documentation online and barely one in my computer, Claude Code understands it with enough usage examples in my codebase. In front-end as well\u2014I've been able to go much farther for simple projects using alpine than more complex frameworks. For big products I use Elm, which i", "context": "", "use_case": "simple front-end projects", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dead Framework Theory"}, {"id": 732911810, "item_id": 45806988, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45806988", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "On an internal tool I noticed I didn\u2019t need Alpine.js anymore", "excerpt": "I think the ideas behind HTMX are cool, and Carson\u2019s advocacy around Hypermedia is great. I came from SPA-land and was tired of the fundamental architectural issue of having to keep the front-end and back-end state in sync. I\u2019ve compared Datastar and HTMX and decided on Datastar. There\u2019s overlap between the two libraries in that they both support the request/response model, but with Datastar my learning investment ta", "context": "", "use_case": "frontend interactivity", "switched_from": "", "story": "</> Htmx \u2013 The Fetch()ening"}]}