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Hey HN, I'm Adrian, an indie developer and creator of Avo. For more than ten years, I built countless admin panels and back-offices for all types of apps. Afte

Hey HN, I'm Adrian, an indie developer and creator of Avo. For more than ten years, I built countless admin panels and back-offices for all types of apps. After a while, you start to notice patterns and extract functionality away to make the job easier. I took those patterns and applied them to Avo. Now, in just an hour, a developer can build production-ready applications that with traditional coding techniques take a few days, if not weeks. Avo is suited to agencies that build a lot of products for their clients and need to move fast and have a beautiful and robust UI, indie developers trying to test out their ideas fast, technical teams in companies of all sizes that need to build internal tools based on Ruby, and start-ups. Avo runs on top of Ruby on Rails, which is a powerhouse of a framework and uses the most modern tech stack (Hotwire, TailwindCSS, esbuild). Avo has three main parts that you can choose from: 1. The CRUD UI 2. The Dashboards UI 3. The custom content The CRUD UI is not something generated that takes maintenance in the long run. Instead, it's a familiar Ruby DSL that's easy to extend with Rails code if you need to break away from it. It features about 30 fields with more advanced ones like (one-liner) file uploads, WYSIWYG, and key-value fields. The Dashboards are a light layer on top of chartkick where one can query the data from the DB or an endpoint and quickly show the data in metrics, charts, or custom partials. The Custom Content part is the secret sauce of Avo. It enables the developer to extend it even further using regular Rails code. You get access to partials, controller, action, params, and anything else you need to bring your own logic into the UI on every level (field, resource, tool). Avo has a free Community version that features the powerful CRUD UI, and a paid Pro version for those who need more power and custom content. We also provide technical support for enterprise-like customers. I know that Rails devs will immediately think of Active Admin, administrate, and other similar projects, and I want to mention that Avo is not them. It's built on a modern stack, and its mission is to become the back-office app and not just an "obscure admin panel that only the core team visits". I don't want to seem harsh, but I challenge non-believers to give Avo an hour of their time to see how it's different. TBH, I believe Avo is the secret weapon in any developer's toolbox. I'm here to answer all of your questions. Thank you

latsnoopy 4y ago
Hi! Is it possible to have multi language support? (translations of records, think globalize)
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  The UI is fully translatable and you can hook into the localization system and have multilingual content too. https://docs.avohq.io/2.0/recipes/multilingual-content.html https://docs.avohq.io/2.0/recipes/multilingual-content.html
picardo 4y ago
Why did you call it Avo? I'm curious because I know of at least 4 SaaS companies called Avo.
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  The original name was project Avocado, but I didn't find any good domain names and social media handles. I agree the naming could have been better.
  - 0des 4y ago
    I like it. Its better than naming it something with "rails" embedded like "trailsblazer".
  - projektfu 4y ago
    Add an accent and you get grandparent (avó)
    - adrianthedev 4y ago
      I have a hard time with english (mostly US) speaking people that pronounce it "aivo". It's actually like "avocado" "avo".
      - picardo 4y ago
        The creator of GIF file format spent years trying to get people to pronounce it JIF. You know, just saying... It didn't work. Besides, EEEY-vo is more fun to say than UH-vo.
        adrianthedev 4y ago
        Haha. Your statement is 100% correct!
- totetsu 4y ago
  I was hopping it was Aussie slang... Like Build a rails app in one avo..
andrewmutz 4y ago
How does your offering compare to Jumpstart Rails (https://jumpstartrails.com/ https://jumpstartrails.com/)? Are they competitors? If so, what are the pros/cons of Avo?
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  They are orthogonal tools. They blend together nicely. I use both on our infrastructure. Jumpstart is an amazing starter kit (starter kit doesn't do it justice) that gives you accounts, billing, notifications, etc. and Avo takes it over and gives you the ability to build your admin panel/back-office fast AF. It's like you replace rails_admin from Jumpstart. I've spoken with Chris Oliver and started work on adding Avo to Jumpstart and to have it as an alternative to rails_admin.
highwaylights 4y ago
“I don't want to seem harsh, but I challenge non-believers to give Avo an hour of their time to see how it's different. TBH, I believe Avo is the secret weapon in any developer's toolbox.” Earnestly, I wish you well. These are rather bold claims.
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  I was on the fence if I should add those in, but I'm kind of glad I did. I feel a little bit like Taylor Otwell in the old days when he was telling people about Laravel, or Evan You back in the day when you'd search for "JS framework" and you'd only get React and Angular. They were on the verge of something new and useful, but nobody believed. I think developers, in general, are pretty inflexible when it comes to new things (only my oppinion), that's why I wanted to add those. It's obvious that Avo is not the silver bullet for any app and has caveats in some scenarios. All tools do (Rails, Laravel, NextJS, django, spring, you fill in the rest), but for most apps it really does give you superpowers. You build apps 10x faster and the maintenance work is second to none. And in the end, you get a beautiful app ready to present to your customers or team. Thank you for the encouragement! I need it :)
  - tomhallett 4y ago
    When I was skimming your homepage I was thinking “I really wish this was built on Hotwire” and then I saw that it was. That architecture choice makes me think your bold claims might actually pan out, :). The fact that the ways to customize/escape are “vanilla rails” and avo is deployed within my app as an engine, make this very very interesting. As compared to: * something like retool which is deployed (ie hosted) as an additional layer which calls an api my app exposes. Great for huge organizations, but overkill for a small team (similar to SPA vs Hotwire tradeoff) * activeadmin where escaping the standard path is extremely hard. Not to mention it’s built on gems which are no longer in favor (inherited resources, etc) * administrate which I really enjoyed, but felt like the support/roadmap was more of a side project vs an “open core/commercial offering”
    - adrianthedev 4y ago
adrianthedev 4y ago
If you want to keep up with updates you can reach us on Twitter[0], Discord[1], or GitHub[2] [0] https://twitter.com/avo_hq https://twitter.com/avo_hq [1] https://avo.cool/chat https://avo.cool/chat [2] https://github.com/avo-hq/avo https://github.com/avo-hq/avo [3] https://twitter.com/adrianthedev https://twitter.com/adrianthedev
schappim 4y ago
Could you please compare and contrast Avo with Jumpstart Rails (Pro)?
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  Yes, sure. They are tools that work together nicely. I use both on our infrastructure websites (https://avohq.io https://avohq.io). Jumpstart is an amazing starter app that gives you accounts, billing, notifications, and others, and with Avo you can take over and build your admin panel/back-office fast! I've spoken with Chris Oliver and started work on adding Avo to Jumpstart and to have it as an alternative to rails_admin.
  - excid3 4y ago
    Yeah, Avo is a great alternative to the free admin we ship with (Administrate). And Jumpstart Pro customers get 20% off their first year of Avo. Thanks for sharing that discount Adrian!
    - adrianthedev 4y ago
      Yeah, my bad there. Jumpstart ships with Administrate, not rails admin. I'm humbled to have built something that could ship with Jumpstart. Thank you for the kind words!
    - weaksauce 4y ago
      Is there a reason jumpstart runs on madmin and jumpstart pro runs on administrate?
      - excid3 4y ago
        Just need to finish adding some more features to madmin.
diehunde 4y ago
Have you migrated any medium or big-size ActiveAdmin projects to Avo? If so, how much work would you say it takes? UI looks great by the way.
- adrianthedev 4y ago
  I haven't done large project migrations but I spoke with customers that have and they said it's not that difficult. Most sat down and "did it over a weekend". Some did migrations from their own custom admin panels "over a weekend". It's kind of crazy how easy it is to get started.

latsnoopy 4y ago

Hi! Is it possible to have multi language support? (translations of records, think globalize)

adrianthedev 4y ago
The UI is fully translatable and you can hook into the localization system and have multilingual content too. https://docs.avohq.io/2.0/recipes/multilingual-content.html https://docs.avohq.io/2.0/recipes/multilingual-content.html

picardo 4y ago

Why did you call it Avo? I'm curious because I know of at least 4 SaaS companies called Avo.

adrianthedev 4y ago
The original name was project Avocado, but I didn't find any good domain names and social media handles. I agree the naming could have been better.
- 0des 4y ago
  I like it. Its better than naming it something with "rails" embedded like "trailsblazer".
- projektfu 4y ago
  Add an accent and you get grandparent (avó)
  - adrianthedev 4y ago
    I have a hard time with english (mostly US) speaking people that pronounce it "aivo". It's actually like "avocado" "avo".
    - picardo 4y ago
      The creator of GIF file format spent years trying to get people to pronounce it JIF. You know, just saying... It didn't work. Besides, EEEY-vo is more fun to say than UH-vo.
      - adrianthedev 4y ago
        Haha. Your statement is 100% correct!
totetsu 4y ago
I was hopping it was Aussie slang... Like Build a rails app in one avo..

andrewmutz 4y ago

How does your offering compare to Jumpstart Rails (https://jumpstartrails.com/ https://jumpstartrails.com/)? Are they competitors? If so, what are the pros/cons of Avo?

adrianthedev 4y ago
They are orthogonal tools. They blend together nicely. I use both on our infrastructure. Jumpstart is an amazing starter kit (starter kit doesn't do it justice) that gives you accounts, billing, notifications, etc. and Avo takes it over and gives you the ability to build your admin panel/back-office fast AF. It's like you replace rails_admin from Jumpstart. I've spoken with Chris Oliver and started work on adding Avo to Jumpstart and to have it as an alternative to rails_admin.

highwaylights 4y ago

“I don't want to seem harsh, but I challenge non-believers to give Avo an hour of their time to see how it's different. TBH, I believe Avo is the secret weapon in any developer's toolbox.” Earnestly, I wish you well. These are rather bold claims.

adrianthedev 4y ago
I was on the fence if I should add those in, but I'm kind of glad I did. I feel a little bit like Taylor Otwell in the old days when he was telling people about Laravel, or Evan You back in the day when you'd search for "JS framework" and you'd only get React and Angular. They were on the verge of something new and useful, but nobody believed. I think developers, in general, are pretty inflexible when it comes to new things (only my oppinion), that's why I wanted to add those. It's obvious that Avo is not the silver bullet for any app and has caveats in some scenarios. All tools do (Rails, Laravel, NextJS, django, spring, you fill in the rest), but for most apps it really does give you superpowers. You build apps 10x faster and the maintenance work is second to none. And in the end, you get a beautiful app ready to present to your customers or team. Thank you for the encouragement! I need it :)
- tomhallett 4y ago
  When I was skimming your homepage I was thinking “I really wish this was built on Hotwire” and then I saw that it was. That architecture choice makes me think your bold claims might actually pan out, :). The fact that the ways to customize/escape are “vanilla rails” and avo is deployed within my app as an engine, make this very very interesting. As compared to: * something like retool which is deployed (ie hosted) as an additional layer which calls an api my app exposes. Great for huge organizations, but overkill for a small team (similar to SPA vs Hotwire tradeoff) * activeadmin where escaping the standard path is extremely hard. Not to mention it’s built on gems which are no longer in favor (inherited resources, etc) * administrate which I really enjoyed, but felt like the support/roadmap was more of a side project vs an “open core/commercial offering”
  - adrianthedev 4y ago

adrianthedev 4y ago

If you want to keep up with updates you can reach us on Twitter[0], Discord[1], or GitHub[2] [0] https://twitter.com/avo_hq https://twitter.com/avo_hq [1] https://avo.cool/chat https://avo.cool/chat [2] https://github.com/avo-hq/avo https://github.com/avo-hq/avo [3] https://twitter.com/adrianthedev https://twitter.com/adrianthedev

schappim 4y ago

Could you please compare and contrast Avo with Jumpstart Rails (Pro)?

adrianthedev 4y ago
Yes, sure. They are tools that work together nicely. I use both on our infrastructure websites (https://avohq.io https://avohq.io). Jumpstart is an amazing starter app that gives you accounts, billing, notifications, and others, and with Avo you can take over and build your admin panel/back-office fast! I've spoken with Chris Oliver and started work on adding Avo to Jumpstart and to have it as an alternative to rails_admin.
- excid3 4y ago
  Yeah, Avo is a great alternative to the free admin we ship with (Administrate). And Jumpstart Pro customers get 20% off their first year of Avo. Thanks for sharing that discount Adrian!
  - adrianthedev 4y ago
    Yeah, my bad there. Jumpstart ships with Administrate, not rails admin. I'm humbled to have built something that could ship with Jumpstart. Thank you for the kind words!
  - weaksauce 4y ago
    Is there a reason jumpstart runs on madmin and jumpstart pro runs on administrate?
    - excid3 4y ago
      Just need to finish adding some more features to madmin.

diehunde 4y ago

Have you migrated any medium or big-size ActiveAdmin projects to Avo? If so, how much work would you say it takes? UI looks great by the way.

adrianthedev 4y ago
I haven't done large project migrations but I spoke with customers that have and they said it's not that difficult. Most sat down and "did it over a weekend". Some did migrations from their own custom admin panels "over a weekend". It's kind of crazy how easy it is to get started.