Build a web app in pure Python in minutes. Deploy with a single command. Completely customizable UI. Scale from a small prototype to a full production web app.
Hi PH! I’m Nikhil, founder of Reflex (https://reflex.dev)
We're building Reflex, an open source framework to build full stack web apps in Pure Python.
Why? Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Web dev is one of the most popular applications of programming. So why can’t we make full-stack web apps using just Python?
We found that even skilled engineers who wanted to make a web app but didn’t know traditional frontend tools like Javascript / React found it too overwhelming and time consuming. And even after they made their app, deploying it was a nightmare. We wanted to provide them with a framework where they can leverage their existing Python skills to create and deploy apps, without compromising on flexibility or customization.
Recent no code and low code alternatives have issues. No code solutions that save time in the development process lack the flexibility and robustness of traditional web development. Low code frameworks are often confusing and only solve part of the problem forcing you to use multiple tools to get the job done.
We want to bridge this gap by creating a framework that is easy and intuitive to get started with, while remaining flexible and powerful to support any app.
What's our backstory? Before working on Reflex, I worked on AI projects at DriveAI and then at Apple. On these teams, we used Python for everything from data analysis to machine learning to backend services. But when it came to building user interfaces or apps so that others could use our work, there wasn't a good option to stay in Python. Suddenly, we had to switch to JavaScript and learn a whole new ecosystem.
Making a UI should be simple, but even though we had great engineers on our team, the overhead of learning a new language and tools was a huge barrier. Often making a UI was harder than the actual work we were doing!
Goals of Reflex:
1. 🐍 Pure Python: Use one language for your web app.
2. 💡 Easy to get started: Build your ideas easily without needing web development experience.
3. ⚡ Full flexibility: Web apps should match the customizability and performance of traditional web frameworks.
4. 🔋 Batteries included: Handle the full-stack from the frontend, to the backend, to deployment. Deploy with a single command reflex deploy and zero configuration.
5. 🥞 Empower Your Team: Instead of having separate dedicated engineers for frontend, backend, and infra, every engineer can now understand and work across the whole stack.
It's time to leave outdated web app development methods in the past and allow pure python developers to work across the full stack, bridging the gap between front-end and back-end development to create fully customizable and scalable web applications. That's why we're building Reflex.
What issues have you had with python web development? I would love to hear your ideas, experiences, and feedback on any and all of the above.
interesting that Python still has alot of likeability from the ecosystem. Twitter might lie to you otherwise. Congratulations on your successful launch on PH! 🎉🎉
Phyton is one of my favorite programming languages and this is going to make the life of so much people so much easier! Thank you for creating this tool and hope to see what it contains. Your work is appreciated 😆👌
A big shoutout to Reflex team for bringing such a fantastic product to light on Product Hunt. The intuitive interface and seamless experience are sure to impress. Best of luck!
Congratulations on the launch! 🚀 Looking forward to seeing how this innovative web application transforms the development landscape.
Congratulations Reflex team on being Generally Available! Have loved using it and looking forward to exciting new things
Congratulations on making it to Product Hunt with Reflex! It's evident that a considerable amount of thought and effort went into creating something both functional and enjoyable.
Congratulations on the launch!! The ability to deploy with a single command and zero configuration sounds incredibly convenient!
I came across Reflex a few weeks ago for a project and was really looking for a toolkit that allowed me to build both the frontend and backend in Python so that I could stand up quick applications that could be easily integrated with tools and LLMs. Having to juggle Flask for backend with HTML, JavaScript and CSS was just too much.
Reflex makes it dead simple. 100% pure Python without giving up anything. The local runtime server does all the heavy lifting for you, including managing dependencies and watching for code changes and automatically restarting. Iterations are a breeze.
Reflex deployments are a true game changer. It makes it downright trivial to share your app with anyone.
The Discord community is also awesome, engaging directly with the founders for almost immediate support.
The only challenge that I found is that the abstraction layer requires heavy typing so you can’t just be sloppy and let Python figure it out for you. Deployed apps need a bit more observability too (logging, metrics, etc).
Highly, highly recommend.
Congrats on the launch! 🎉 I was in need of a new tool to build web apps. Love that it’s open source to build web apps in pure python.
haven't tried it but heard good things about it. I wish you all the best guys. 👍
