I’m excited to share gofred, a framework I’ve been working on that lets you build responsive web applications using only Go - no JavaScript required! Your Go code compiles directly to WebAssembly and runs natively in the browser.
What makes gofred special?
Pure Go Development: Write your entire web app in Go - frontend, backend, everything. No need to learn JavaScript, TypeScript, or React.
WebAssembly Performance: Near-native performance in the browser with Go’s excellent concurrency model.
Modern UI Components: Rich widget library with responsive design built-in:
- Layout widgets (Container, Column, Row, Grid)
- Interactive components (Buttons, Links, Forms)
- Content widgets (Text, Icons, Images)
- Navigation (Drawers, Headers, Footers)
Responsive by Default: Built-in breakpoint system (XS, SM, MD, LG, XL, XXL) for mobile-first design.
Developer Experience: Hot reload, comprehensive documentation, and great tooling.
Live Demo
Check out the live website in the Links section below.
The entire website is built with gofred itself - it’s a perfect example of what you can create!
Quick Example
Here’s how simple it is to create a responsive web app:
package main
import (
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/application"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/breakpoint"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/foundation/button"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/foundation/column"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/foundation/container"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/foundation/text"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/options"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/options/spacing"
"github.com/gofred-io/gofred/widget"
)
func main() {
application.Run(
container.New(
column.New(
[]widget.BaseWidget{
text.New(
"Hello, gofred!",
text.FontSize(32),
text.FontWeight("600"),
),
button.New(
text.New("Click me!"),
button.OnClick(func(this widget.BaseWidget, e widget.Event) {
// Handle click event
}),
),
},
column.Gap(16),
column.CrossAxisAlignment(options.AxisAlignmentTypeCenter),
),
container.Padding(breakpoint.All(spacing.All(32))),
),
)
}
Architecture
gofred uses a widget-based architecture where everything is a composable component:
- Foundation widgets: Basic building blocks
- Layout system: Flexbox-inspired responsive layouts
- State management: Reactive state with automatic UI updates
- Event handling: Click, hover, form events, etc.
- Styling: CSS-in-Go with responsive breakpoints
Perfect for:
- Go developers who want to build web apps
- Teams looking to reduce JavaScript complexity
- Projects that need high performance
- Developers who prefer strongly-typed languages
- Anyone who wants to leverage Go’s ecosystem for web development
Getting Started
# Create a new project
mkdir my-gofred-app
cd my-gofred-app
# Initialize with go mod
go mod init my-gofred-app
go get github.com/gofred-io/gofred
# Start building!
Why did I build this?
As a Go developer, I was frustrated with the complexity of modern web development. You need to learn JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Vue, or Angular just to build a simple web app. I wanted something that would let me use Go’s simplicity and power for web development.
gofred is my answer to that problem - it brings Go’s elegance to web development while maintaining the performance and developer experience we love.
What’s next?
- Improving the CLI tool to create better developer experience
- More UI components and widgets
- Better tooling and IDE support
- Performance optimizations
- Community examples and templates
- Integration with popular Go libraries
Questions?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Have you tried building web apps with Go before? What features would you like to see in gofred? Any feedback or suggestions?
Links:
Thanks for checking it out!