HTMX
JavaScript library that adds AJAX and partial page updates through HTML attributes.
Liked for adding interactivity to server-rendered HTML with little JavaScript and no build step,1234 often paired with Go, Django or Spring Boot backends.5678 The most common complaint is that complexity grows quickly once a UI becomes highly interactive,91011 which makes it a poor fit for SPA-like apps.1213
Why people recommend it
Minimal JavaScript · 3
Commenters like building real pages with HTML attributes instead of heavy JS frameworks and build steps.
“I used HTMX on a recent project and really enjoyed it.”
“The appeal is literally a "fuck you" to anyone that makes me have to run a build process for a web page”
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“I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX.”
Backend pairing · 3
Commenters describe it as a good match for Go, Django, Spring Boot, Rails and other server stacks.
“It's a really nice combo, fast, efficient, and easy to maintain.”
“Most of my apps are now simply HTMX + Go + SQLite. I've found it's enough for most projects.”
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“But, I moved to Django/HTMX.”
Simpler than SPAs · 3
Some say it solves many problems otherwise handled with React or Angular, with far less complexity.
“I do stand that htmx can be used to solve a good chunk of problems that otherwise would be done with React, or angular, and so on.”
“I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX.”
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“I moved off react altogether and now use htmx in most of my projects”
Small interactive sites · 3
Commenters recommend it for websites that need some dynamic elements, such as live search.
“websites with some interactive/dynamic elements, HTMX is great for this”
“I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects”
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“to do stuff like "find-as-you-type" and other "magical dynamic page" things I used HTMX”
Works with AI agents · 3
Several commenters say AI agents work well with HTMX and server-side logic.
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“HTMX hx-get is reliably, and beautifully rendering the result of the Agentic Workflow without any react, etc.”
Performance · 2
Commenters report small bundles and fast loads after moving away from React.
“I highly recommend everyone to give htmx or datastar a try”
“It's a really nice combo, fast, efficient, and easy to maintain.”
Caveats and dissent
Complexity growth · 3
Several commenters hit a complexity wall or needed hacks once interactions became non-trivial.
“my experience with HTMX has always ended up being disappointing.”
“We made a lot of progress with htmx, but eventually hit a complexity wall”
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“I like HTMX, I use it on my blog.”
Not for SPAs · 3
Commenters say it is the wrong tool for app-like, highly interactive interfaces.
“We are moving away from HTMX at work, to React.”
“I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects”
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“It was a very nice experience and I recommend https://htmx.org/examples for the kind of cool things you can do.”
Fragment organization · 3
Commenters say deciding how to split and serve HTML fragments is hard to get right.
“My #1 advice is not creating separate server endpoints for every HTMX fragment”
“I love the approach, but I'm having a bad time figuring out where the ideal balance is”
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“It wasn’t that easy to wrangle once it got more complicated.”
Tooling gaps · 2
Commenters miss tooling like Storybook and ask for guidance on production setup and dev tooling.
“I used htmx but had to migrate to svelte for storybook for development, I wish htmx had that sort of tooling”
“I love the combination of Go and HTMX”
Bugs and docs · 1
One commenter reported problems with bugs, docs and page lifecycle, and switched to Hotwire.
“I found it to have quite a few problems with bugs, docs, and web page lifecycle.”
Large responses · 1
One commenter found that sending large HTML responses for a filterable listing became laggy.
“I still like HTMX and will probably use it again.”
Often compared with
3 moved from React to HTMX
2 moved from HTMX to React
1 moved from HTMX to Datastar
1 moved from HTMX to Svelte
1 moved from HTMX to Hotwire
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“htmx is just some javascript written on top of standard vanilla javascript apis”
Threads where it came up
- Please just try HTMX 12 mentions
- How I use HTMX with Go 9 mentions
- Htmx 4.0 6 mentions
- Let's Make the Worst Htmx 5 mentions
- Htmx 4.0, the first JavaScript library to release exclusively on the Game Boy 4 mentions
- Removing React.js from the codebase and adapting Htmx for UI interactivity 3 mentions
Also written as htmx. Data: htmx.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 46
“It even renders a frontend with HTMX/Alpine.”
“I follow hypermedia.systems and htmx/datastar/alpine.js because I'm still trying to get back that powerful _web_ tech advancement”
“create me a golang web application which uses htmx/templ/modernc sqlite about XYZ”
“I am pretty opposed to htmx”
“With htmx you can often do this by making a request to the server to update a subtree”
“for customer projects i find this choice way too risky”
“i use this stack quite a bit too”
“websites with some interactive/dynamic elements, HTMX is great for this”
“We are moving away from HTMX at work, to React.”
“HTMX just makes more sense: you control the flow of content from the client”
“I use HTMX and like it”
“The appeal is literally a "fuck you" to anyone that makes me have to run a build process for a web page”
“Its great for forms but that shopping cart example needs code scattered across multiple functions and templates.”
“Being a big fan of the server-side rendering, HTMX, Tailwind CSS, and Alpine.js”
“to show live data in my app I use an SSE stream of OOB swaps”
“I do stand that htmx can be used to solve a good chunk of problems that otherwise would be done with React, or angular, and so on.”
“I recommend starting small and working up with htmx.”
“HTMX + WA”
“We made a lot of progress with htmx, but eventually hit a complexity wall”
“I highly recommend everyone to give htmx or datastar a try”
“I use HTMX /alpinejs for small projects”
“The criticisms I’m seeing here are all things that are accepted without question in other frameworks but when htmx does it, suddenly it’s too much.”
“It wasn’t that easy to wrangle once it got more complicated.”
“I used htmx but had to migrate to svelte for storybook for development, I wish htmx had that sort of tooling”
“I still like HTMX and will probably use it again.”
“To me, htmx just makes webdev even more smoother.”
“I use htmx for loading and updating resources and I want those operations to work as well as possible even without JavaScript.”
“I love HTMX and use it in a few projects”
“the library worked well enough for what I needed, but I found it to be a bit too limiting compared to accomplishing the same task in Vanilla JS”
“most of my web app use HTMX”
“With HTMX 4.0 it might be a bit nicer.”
“htmx+ tailwindcss is the one combo that is right and I use it”
“It's a really nice combo, fast, efficient, and easy to maintain.”
“I love the combination of Go and HTMX”
“If you’re using htmx, I highly recommend an HTML generation technique in your backend”
“Huge fan of HTMX.”
“my experience with HTMX has always ended up being disappointing.”
“I wrote a framework for my own use that uses Kotlin + HTMX”
“I used HTMX on a recent project and really enjoyed it.”
“With server-side rendering ( I use HTMX )”
“Go + HTMX + PostgreSQL + Redis can go a long mile”
“I just cant say enough how much I love HTMX.”
“I sprinkle htmx when I want interactivity”
“But, I moved to Django/HTMX.”
“I love HTMX. It felt like a rebirth of PJAX.”
“I like HTMX, I use it on my blog.”