Picking a web framework

Over the past few months at work we’ve been looking into web framework options for a project that currently uses R Shiny. Our needs have grown beyond what Shiny can provide. We decided to try Rails, SvelteKit, and HTMX/FastAPI to see which one would best suit our needs. The frameworks Info and links on each: Rails Main language: Ruby Docs: Rails Guides Svelte Kit Main language: JavaScript Docs: Svelte Kit Docs HTMX/FastAPI Main language: Python Docs: HTMX Docs, FastAPI Docs Build minimal apps I built a minimal version of our existing Shiny app using each framework. For each app I created only the landing page, and two other pages - in total these three pages encompassed a lot of the complexity of the app, and allowed me to get a feel for how it would be to use each framework IRL. Because of reasons I’m not going to share these minimal apps. ...

March 27, 2025 · 7 min · Scott Chamberlain