HTML First is a style of writing web software that favours using the native capabilities and languages of the browser and reducing layers of abstraction (languages and toolchains) on top of them. You can read more about it here.

In H1 Rails, you don’t need to know anything about Turbo Frames, Turbo Streams, Stimulus Controllers, Targets, Actions, Propshaft, or the asset pipeline. You’ll need to learn a little bit of Ruby, but we largely treat Rails as an html container.

Turbo is disabled by default. Instead the app is boosted by htmx. This means you can just use normal rails link_to and form_for tags, and the app will handle smooth page transitions.

You can of course turn on Turbo, Stimulus if you would prefer to keep them.

You might use H1 Rails if…

• You want a quick, simple boilerplate for building web apps.

• You’re interested in the html-over-the-wire approach for its conceptual simplicity, but want a quicker way to dive in than learning Turbo and Stimulus.

• You already know Rails, and have heard about the promise of HTMX and the Hypertext approach.

• You’ve seen some of the examples of what can be built with it

H1 Rails was built by Really Good Software. We’re a remote software agency that loves HTML. We work with Startups, Small/Medium Enterprises, Spin Outs, and E-Commerce Businesses. We’re the people behind the following websites and libraries.