Hotwire Turbo
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 24 JavaScript libraries by recommenders
Gives SPA-style page updates from server-rendered HTML with little JavaScript. Critics find it more opinionated than HTMX and note it lacks signals.
Gives SPA-style page updates from server-rendered HTML with little JavaScript. Critics find it more opinionated than HTMX and note it lacks signals.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
SPA feel without heavy JavaScript
“This leads to writing expressive dead simple code, that is so simple to understand yet behaves like a modern SPA”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Smooth UI animations on server-rendered HTML: Turbo, Stimulus, View transitions” “Hotwire/Turbo is genuinely good - it gives you SPA-like interactivity without the JavaScript framework tax.”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Returning to Rails in 2026” “I quite enjoy not using JS heavy frontends in Rails by leaning on Turbo”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in one week” - Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Please just try HTMX”
Server-rendered HTML over the wire
“For simple forms personally I find the server-by-default solution of https://turbo.hotwired.dev/ to be far better”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Denial of service and source code exposure in React Server Components” “more tools available today like hotwire/turbo, liveview, etc. to make it easier”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript” “HTMX, Hotwire/Turbo, LiveView are just so much saner to me.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “How to Build Reactive Declarative UI in Vanilla JavaScript” - Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “No-build, no-NPM, SSR-first JavaScript framework if you hate React, love HTML”
Simple and easy to use
“This leads to writing expressive dead simple code, that is so simple to understand yet behaves like a modern SPA”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Smooth UI animations on server-rendered HTML: Turbo, Stimulus, View transitions” “It sounds too good to be true but I've been using it for years and it often really is that easy.”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript” “more tools available today like hotwire/turbo, liveview, etc. to make it easier”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “HTML over WebSockets: real-time SPAs with barely any JavaScript” - Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Layer”
Monorepo builds with caching
“I've been using turbo repo a lot so I don't have to context switch the architecture in my head”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “The creator of Claude Code's Claude setup” “It's also wise to use monorepo orchestration with build caching like Turborepo.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Astro Joining Cloudflare”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Less flexible than HTMX
“turbo especially is a lot more opinionated than htmx”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “Please just try HTMX” “I switched from Turbo to HTMX because the latter is much more flexible”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Please just try HTMX” “we replaced most of our Hotwired/Turbo with HTMX”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “Htmx 4.0”
Other JavaScript libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other JavaScript libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jQuery | 111 | 48 | 70% | 12 | 16 yrs8 owners | Approved |
| Picknplace.js | 58 | 26 | 69% | 1 | — | — |
| Alpine.js | 50 | 16 | 76% | 11 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| Effect (TypeScript library) | 38 | 16 | 70% | 10 | 2 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Hotwire TurboThis page | 22 | 6 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
27 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“we replaced most of our Hotwired/Turbo with HTMX”
“more tools available today like hotwire/turbo, liveview, etc. to make it easier”
“It sounds too good to be true but I've been using it for years and it often really is that easy.”
“You miss the point of tools like htmx/datastar/turbo/unpoly/alpine”
“Turbo is a bit better but doesn't have signals.”
“Turbo does HTML-over-the-wire via SSR-first”
“React destroyed perf and used more resources than turbo”
“Hotwire/Turbo is genuinely good - it gives you SPA-like interactivity without the JavaScript framework tax.”
“This leads to writing expressive dead simple code, that is so simple to understand yet behaves like a modern SPA”
“without the need for Turbo’s web sockets”
“I quite enjoy not using JS heavy frontends in Rails by leaning on Turbo”
“These tools make your life easier if you drink some kool aid.”
“Man this is the part I hate with turborepo”
“It's also wise to use monorepo orchestration with build caching like Turborepo.”
“HTMX, Hotwire/Turbo, LiveView are just so much saner to me.”
“I've been using turbo repo a lot so I don't have to context switch the architecture in my head”
“instead of Stimulus and Turbo”
“the same code is now 80,000 lines and was coded by a team of developers in 14 months”
“I switched from Turbo to HTMX because the latter is much more flexible”
“without the headache and large bundled JS files”
“turbo especially is a lot more opinionated than htmx”
“The newer versions (ie. Turbo) really fixed up the shortcomings of the older versions”
“For simple forms personally I find the server-by-default solution of https://turbo.hotwired.dev/ to be far better”
“I ended up using turbo for frontend”
“features that make Turborepo optional for monorepos”
“he makes breaking technical decisions to tooling with little to no community involvement”
“man it really does feel faster”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.