Build Web Apps with Pure Go (No JavaScript Required!) – ██FR█████ █INTELL███████████

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Hasan Gursoy

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: https://gofred.io

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

Documentation & Resources

Framework: https://github.com/gofred-io/gofred
Website Source: https://github.com/gofred-io/gofred-website
Documentation: https://gofred.io/docs

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?

More UI components and widgets
Better tooling and IDE support
A powerful CLI tool that will help developers quickly scaffold new gofred projects with pre-configured templates, project structure, and development tools
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: