Hey everyone! I’ve been exploring different frontend options for my Rails projects and wanted to get some opinions from the community. Right now I’m torn between a few approaches. I tried Inertia and really enjoyed working with it, but the fact that it doesn’t feel like a core part of the Rails ecosystem bothers me a bit. Then I switched over to Hotwire to see how that would work out. While it’s more integrated with Rails, I found myself struggling with some aspects of it. The Stimulus Controllers in particular feel awkward to work with and not as smooth as I hoped they would be. What has your experience been like? I’d love to hear what frontend setup you’re currently using with your Rails applications and why you chose that particular approach.
I’ve used Rails with React for three years now - zero regrets. Set up Rails as your API backend and let React handle everything frontend. This split gives you crazy flexibility and keeps your code way cleaner. Yeah, initial setup’s more work than Hotwire or Inertia. But once you nail authentication, state management, and API patterns, it’s smooth sailing. The ecosystem’s rock solid, plus you get all the modern JS tooling benefits. Performance is killer too - you can cache properly and optimize bundles without touching your Rails backend.
what’s your app’s complexity like? i’ve been wanting to try svelte with rails - supposedly easier to learn than react but still gives you modern components. ever consider that? also, are those inertia issues more about bad docs or actual technical problems?
honestly, i’d stick with turbo + stimulus since you’re already using rails. stimulus feels weird at first, but it’s pretty powerful once you get it. the best part? everything stays simple - no build steps or complex state management. for bigger apps, maybe consider vue with a rails api, but hotwire handles 90% of what most apps need.