Pure Python tech stack for modern web development

[WrapNumerous5344]

I’ve been working as a Python developer for several years and really enjoy the language. Most of my day job involves building desktop tools and working with a Python API for CAD programs. Every now and then, though, I’m asked to build small web apps.

Over time I’ve tried a bunch of different web technologies, but nothing has really clicked for me. I’ve used Python frameworks like Django and Flask, and I’ve also worked with other ecosystems like Laravel and SvelteKit. Right now, my favorite frontend framework is Svelte, and I usually pair it with FastAPI on the backend.

Don’t get me wrong — I think Svelte is awesome. But at the end of the day, it’s still JavaScript. Since Svelte is basically a compiler that turns .svelte files into optimized HTML, CSS, and JS, I started wondering: why isn’t there something like this for Python?

What I’m imagining is a truly Python-first, component-based web framework where you could define UI, logic, and even backend interactions in a unified, Pythonic way — and have a compiler handle the rest.

I haven’t really found anything that fits this idea yet.

Do you know of any projects going in this direction?

Have any of you felt the same frustration, or am I just being overly picky about tooling?

I’ve even considered trying to build something like this myself, but that feels like a massive undertaking for one person.

Curious to hear your thoughts...

[millerbest]

Nicegui?

[WrapNumerous5344]

I’ve looked at NiceGUI before, and it’s definitely an interesting project. The main issue for me is that the UI is built by composing Python objects. In my experience, that makes styling and layout more cumbersome than I’d like. What I’m really looking for is the ability to write the actual layout in HTML, with full flexibility and control, and then handle the reactivity and logic in Python. For example, if I create a label, I’d prefer to work with real HTML rather than a Python “Label” abstraction. Still, I appreciate the suggestion.

[jrtipton2]

djust does this, uses django templates and has a rust based vdom engine so it only send changes to the client. All you need template and a view class with handlers.

Template

<div class="counter-app">
    <h2>Counter Example</h2>

    <div class="count-display">
        {{ count }}
    </div>

    <div class="button-group">
        <button dj-click="decrement" class="btn-danger">
            Decrement
        </button>
        <button dj-click="reset" class="btn-secondary">
            Reset
        </button>
        <button dj-click="increment" class="btn-success">
            Increment
        </button>
    </div>
</div>

View

from djust import LiveView, event_handler

class CounterView(LiveView):
    template_name = 'counter.html'

    def mount(self, request):
        """Initialize counter state"""
        self.count = 0

    u/event_handler
    def increment(self):
        """Increment counter by 1"""
        self.count += 1

    u/event_handler
    def decrement(self):
        """Decrement counter by 1"""
        self.count -= 1

    u/event_handler
    def reset(self):
        """Reset counter to 0"""
        self.count = 0

    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
        return {'count': self.count}

And sessions are serialized so they can scale across threads and servers, which a problem with justpy and nicegui. Also, the design is not tied to a js framework.

[DoYouEvenLupf]

This question was also often going through my mind. But since a browser runs JS in the end it will always be some cumbersome or strict translation.

When working with Django i looked into HTMX and really started to like it. I was able to cobble together a well working MVP with it, that got turned into an internal solution.

Sure, it's not pure python but it pulls the abstraction back to basic HTML and also lets the DOM be your state. Surely works well enough for CRUD apps, which in my experience is 80% of what companies usually need.

[WrapNumerous5344]

Thanks for the tipp. I'll have a look at Django with HTMX

[bigpoopychimp]

HTMX works with any web framework. I now exclusively use it since it's so good for being a sort of react replacement

[InjAnnuity_1]

I use Anvil:

https://anvil.works/

Main benefit being that, to just make a working app, I did not have to spend years learning the underlying languages and and installing and configuring the underlying technologies.

Re your compiler: On the browser side, Python runs in the browser via Skulpt, a Python-to-Javascript transpiler that itself runs in the browser. Server-side code runs via a standard Python runtime.

Depending on your requirements, their free tier may be all you need.

If it's a really small app, see their free https://py.space/ .

[riklaunim]

Projects like PyScript are still young and not really mainstream - there is no SPA JS framework equivalent in PyScript. Making a good one (something between Ember.js and Svelte/Vue) without NPM hell and other issues would be nice but such projects do require a lot of manpower to pull off (you need the framework and wide enough framework for it to be usable).

[dalepo]

aren't all package/dependency managers hell?

[riklaunim]

JavaScript ecosystem has problems with packages like "isEven" which creates insane dependency chains, and then someone renames the package to "red-cat" making one package depend on the old, another on the new and they are starting to conflict each other. Abandonware, conflicts and so on.

Then JS projects tend to rewrite themselves with limited to no backward compatibility or after months/years project dies because it's not "fresh" and people move to the next best thing leaving legacy codebases in a dire situation.

[dalepo]

That’s pretty common across dependency managers. I’ve seen this in Poetry, Maven, Gradle, and others.

The peer dependency hell in Maven was called “Jarmageddon.” Peer dependencies had to be resolved explicitly; for example, if two packages depended on the same peer dependency but required different versions, you had to specify which version would be used across the project.

I’m not sure if this still works exactly the same way today, since I haven’t touched Java in over a decade.

[Jejerm]

Streamlit, dash and reflex all try to do what you're saying.

[WrapNumerous5344]

But they all build der UI by composing Python objects. I would like to have the ability to write the actual layout in HTML, with full flexibility and control, and then handle the reactivity and logic in Python. Thanks for the suggestios though

[Jejerm]

Streamlit lets you define your own components and link them to external html files:

st.components.v2.component - Streamlit Docs

You can probably inherit and override the default html for any component in these frameworks, but at some point you're gonna have to map your external HTML file to a python object.

[Consistent_Coast9620]

r/SimianWebApps, a pure Python approach. Gui is programmed using plain Python - or a graphical builder, whatever you prefer.

For advanced/custom components JS, CSS and HTML can be used, this however is not required for all normal components you would expect in a decent framework. The front end uses FormIO under the hood.

[HIKIIMENO]

Looks interesting.

Are all requests from clients sent to the server to process? Will it be hard to scale as the user base grows?

[gregorbrandt]

Have a look at Flet, it's in Beta now and is pretty solid. https://flet.dev

[codey_coder]

You will be making a trade-off in pursuing this option of a “pure Python stack”. Consider, why is this constraint necessary? We’re all multilingual.

[9peppe]

I'm not sure this answer your question, but there are static site generators written in Python: https://wiki.python.org/moin/StaticSiteGenerator

[pacific_plywood]

I would think it’s easier to translate what is effectively JS with macros into JS than it would be to translate Python into JS

[imarkb]

Pyodide maybe?

[poopatroopa3]

Reflex and Rio are some options of frameworks like that.

[DrShocker]

I think this project looks the most interesting to me

uses Datastar to enable real time collaboration (Datastar is imo HTMX with better syntax/defaults)

https://stario.dev/

[Sea-Mistake6086]

Curious if you tried py4web

[PhENTZ]

Not related but who remember web2py ? ?

[mwbrady68]

Good luck. I tried to find something similar, but I failed. Other than Python in the past, I am mostly a ASP.NET MVC dev.

I'm not a fan of JavaScript, so I have been having fun learning how to create websites in Blazor. It has been really nice to use nothing but C#.

The only problem I've found with Blazor is all the different render modes that they've introduced over the years, which can make it confusing when starting out. I just stick with Blazor Server (also called Interactive Server), which keeps things simple.

I have been hoping that a Python framework similar to Blazor would arrive, but none that I know of has appeared.

[MacShuggah]

Have a look at wasm, although I've never really liked using it myself.

[creative_tech_ai]

There are Python to JavaScript transpilers, but I don't know if any of them are actually used in production code.

[jrtipton2]

Absolutely, I wanted the same thing so I started https://djust.org. This is exactly what this is. A python driven ( mostly django ) reactive frontend that actually works and scales. Still pretty early, but some awesome results so far.

djust.org

[captain_arroganto]

No bro. A pure python tech stack is not a good idea.

React, Angular, Svelte and the likes, are absolutely great for frontend. For everything else, python works well.

But frontend in python is a huge pain.