Solara VS reflex

I really like this idea of using Python to create both the frontend and backend. Another lib doing this is https://solara.dev/ . Something I particularly like about Solara is that you can interactively build your app in a Jupyter Notebook, since behind the scenes it's using ipywidgets.

Has anyone compared Solara and Reflex and can comment on pros/cons? Are there other options in this space? Maybe https://shiny.posit.co/py/ ?

We (the authors of the Solara web app framework) got inspired by the OpenAI keynote Wanderlust app they demoed.

Reflex is an open-source full-stack web framework written in and for Python that lets you build both frontend UI and backend logic in pure Python, i.e., you don’t need to manually write JavaScript or separately manage a React/Vue frontend and a separate backend.

🔗 https://reflex.dev/

Great work!

> In practice, that means more logic fits in context, and sessions stretch longer before hitting limits. The AI maintains a broader view of your codebase throughout.

This is one of those 'intuitions' that I've also had. However, I haven't found any convincing evidence for or against it so far.

In a similar vein, this is why `reflex`[0] intrigues me. IMO their value prop is "LLM's love Python, so let's write entire apps in python". But again, I haven't seen any hard numbers.

Anyone seen any hard numbers to back this?

[0] https://github.com/reflex-dev/reflex

> They converted it from React to HTMX, cutting their codebase by almost 70% while significantly improving its capabilities.

Happy user of https://reflex.dev framrwork here.

I was tired of writing backend APIs with the only purpose that they get consumed by the same's app frontend (typically React). Leading to boilerplate code both backend side (provide APIs) and frontend side (consume APIs: fetch, cache, propagate, etc.).

Now I am running 3 different apps in productions for which I no longer write APIs. I only define states and state updates in Python. The frontend code is written in Python, too, and auto-transpiled into a React app. The latter keeping its states and views automagically in sync with the backend. I am only 6 months into Reflex so far, but so far it's been mostly a joy. Of course you've got to learn a few but important details such as state dependencies and proper state caching, but the upsides of Reflex are a big win for my team and me. We write less code and ship faster.

Streamlit is one such tool that offers a simple, Pythonic approach. However, it suffers from two main weaknesses: the script needs to be re-run after every user interaction, and customizing the look and feel of a Streamlit app is dificult. Shiny for Python is a great alternative for building dashboards and small data-backed apps. Shiny only re-renders code as necessary - not the entire script, and offers more flexibility in styling your app. NiceGUI offers a similar approach, but with less intuitive code and no tutorials or live examples, is more of a challenge to get started with. Reflex is a great option if you want more flexibility in building your app's UI, but you'll need to learn a bit of traditional web development.

Reflex: Build your AI app's frontend and backend in Python. Check out the Reflex website’s implementation examples for AI image generation and chatbots.

⭐️ Reflex on GitHub.

https://reflex.dev/ is all made in Reflex and has raised a seed round!