Builder.io Blog
builder.io · Company blog · on HN since 2019
Builder.io, a visual development and headless CMS company, writes about JavaScript, Qwik, React, AI tooling, and Figma-to-code workflows.
What HN saysHN links it mostly for the product itself. Commenters call the visual editor slick, question its bold CMS claim, and note the core is closed source.
66HN people shared it
19linked it in comments
65stories submitted
758story points
3 months agolast shared
2019people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Show HN: Drag and drop page building for any site11 people · 125 points · first shared 2019 · 35 comments on HN
- 2Deep cloning objects in JavaScript4 people · 204 points · first shared 2023 · 170 comments on HN
- 3Visual Copilot: A Better Figma-to-Code Workflow3 people · 5 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 4My best Claude Code tips2 people · 9 points · first shared 2025 · 2 comments on HN
- 5Qwik and Qwik City have reached beta2 people · 9 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 6Why React Server Components Are Breaking Builds to Win Tomorrow2 people · 8 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 7The Unintended Consequences of Open Sourcing Software2 people · 6 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 8Training your own AI model is not as hard as you (probably) think2 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 9Signals are the future of web frameworks2 people · 3 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10Valibot, a < 1kb Zod Alternative2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 11Safer URL reading and writing in modern JavaScript2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 12GPT Crawler – Turn Any Site into a Custom GPT with Just a URL2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 13Understanding Monomorphism to Improve Your JavaScript Performance2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 14Builder.io: Design to Code2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · 1 comments on HN
- 15Good refactoring vs. bad refactoring1 people · 226 points · first shared 2024 · 150 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
btown · 2023-09-05
This is really slick! A really fluid and intuitive interface.
We use https://react-page.github.io/ (also MIT licensed) extensively at my startup; it attacks the same problem, and it's been incredibly effective (and hackable!).
Generally speaking, owning your own CMS data, in your own database, with a well-documented JSON data format, and adding the ability to take any React component you've written (that itself may interact with your own data) and make it not only reusable as part of a content editing system but also WYSIWIG, opens up a huge number of opportunities - including adding your own logic to transform content before display.
https://builder.io is another alternative that's very effective at the adapting-custom-components-to-WYSIWIG side of things, but does keep the data in its own cloud storage.
I'm really excited to see innovation in this space, and I'll be following Puck closely!
reneberlin · 2024-04-30
"The only headless CMS with true Visual Editing." is a very, very bold statement.
https://www.builder.io/
maest · 2022-09-01
Clicking on the builder.io link redirects me to:
https://uc.appengine.google.com/_ah/conflogin?state=%7E...
which says:
An application is requesting permission to access your Google Account.
Please select an account that you would like to use.
EDIT: you can see it if you go to http://builder.io (https works fine)
schkolne · 2022-05-13
Here are some other exciting products in the space:
https://www.plasmic.app/
https://www.builder.io/
https://clutch.io/
https://builderx.io/
https://dynaboard.com/
Each one has a slightly different take on the problem, and some of these are turning out to be quite useful for teams. I'm very curious to see how things will shape up. I find Aspect to be particularly beautiful, a nice clean UI great work!
verdverm · 2021-01-07
https://www.builder.io/ can drop into existing websites, static and framework. Pretty cool stuff, though unfortunately the interesting part is closed source. You can request the page once from their API and then save it for serving (rather than using their default method / setup).
https://grapesjs.com is an open source option, but will require some investment to get it working for your situation.
There is also Wordpress, Squarespace, and Webflow. Webflow has a CMS section. Netlify has some options here too, CMS system with a web UI.
I personally use Hugo (https://gohugo.io) and Webflow. Planning to use something with grapes+hugo to replace webflow.
ArtWomb · 2020-12-22
Am trying out Builder.io currently, but you are generally correct in that creating extensions to the underlying sandbox can conversely result in a lot more effort than simply rolling your own ;)
https://www.builder.io/
ca136 · 2020-02-03
Builder.io | San Francisco, CA or Remote | Software Engineer, Tech Support, Head of User Operations
Builder.io (https://www.builder.io) is a visual editor and CMS that connects to any platform or tech stack allowing anyone to create and edit content visually.
We're a small team of experienced developers backed by leading Silicon Valley VCs.
We currently have 3 open roles:
- Software Engineer (React + Node.js): https://angel.co/company/builder-io/jobs/711157-full-stack-engineer
- Tech Support: https://angel.co/company/builder-io/jobs/694201-technical-specialist
- Head of User Operations: https://angel.co/company/builder-io/jobs/709276-head-of-user-operation…
kannthu · 2023-08-09
There already exists https://www.builder.io/
rudedogg · 2025-10-20
There’s a difference, see https://www.builder.io/blog/signals-vs-observables
arym2020 · 2025-07-30
Builder.io has a feature that claims to solve this.. they have a cli that generates mappings (70% accuracy)
https://www.builder.io/c/docs/figma-to-code-map-components
hoakiet98 · 2025-06-02
There are a lot of Figma plugins to do that. Anima or Builder.io (not builder.ai) is one I've used before. I'd like to add a simple plugin for us to use if we ever have the capacity.
- https://www.animaapp.com/figma
- https://www.builder.io/c/docs/builder-figma-plugin
unchar1 · 2024-10-11
Classes generally point you towards writing more performant code. Factory functions allow you to achieve the same performance, you just have to be a bit more careful not to cause a depot :)
For example,
1. field declarations [1] make sure that the fields are always initialized in the same order. That way most of your functions end up monomorphic, instead of being polymorphic [2]
2. Method declarations are also (almost) free, since you only pay for them once, during class initialization.
You also get a few other niceties such as private properties. You can emulate private properties with closures in factory functions but V8 has a hard time optimizing, unfortunately.
---
[1]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Clas…
[2]: https://www.builder.io/blog/monomorphic-javascript
FractalHQ · 2024-04-30
And builder doesn’t force you to use the steaming pile of comically bad abstractions that is React!
https://www.builder.io/m/svelte
ggorlen · 2023-12-22
I think there's a typo in the cloneDeep example[1]. cloneDeep is imported but never used, and structuredClone is used instead.
[1]: https://www.builder.io/blog/structured-clone#why-not-code-clone-deep-c…
toddmorey · 2023-10-25
After playing with both, I’m currently more impressed by the output of Visual Copilot by Builder.io. [1]
It builds UI from Figma as the starting point, but the UI can then be iterated with prompting or made interactive, etc.
It’s based on their work with mitosis so it can already create components in a variety of frameworks.
I’d say you still have to know front end dev to do anything useful with it, but it can be a decent accelerator.
[1] https://www.builder.io/blog/figma-to-code-visual-copilot
promiseofbeans · 2023-07-21
You might like Builder.io (https://www.builder.io/m/developers) - they let you embed drag-n-drop powered sections within your regular page markup, and it looks like they support most frameworks like svelte.
tmikaeld · 2021-12-15
As long as it’s still difficult to create a (usable & reliable) site editor, these services will keep being subscription only.
It annoys me when they try to make it look open source but it’s only a glorified api client.. same with builder.io [0]
[0] https://www.builder.io/m/visual-cms
steve8708 · 2019-08-01
Not at all - you can easily balance your usage of Builder and your own code as much as you like. You can put Builder content within your code components, and you can easily use your code components within the Builder content.
Take a look at this for a real example you can play with on how you can have some pages powered by Builder and some fully in your react/typescript code https://codesandbox.io/s/github/BuilderIO/builder/tree/master/examples…
And then see this guide for how to use your own react/typescript components in the builder content https://builder.io/c/docs/custom-react-components
And don't hesitate to reach out if you have any more detailed questions about this - [email protected]
solardev · 2023-11-05
Are you cool with JS frameworks?
If so, you can use a higher level of abstraction that takes care of the CSS for you. If you just want to mock something up, you can use a pre-built UI system / component framework and just put together UIs declaratively, without having to worry about the underlying CSS or HTML at all. Examples include https://mui.com/ and https://chakra-ui.com/ and https://ant.design/
Really easy to put together a quick UI that way. (As a frontend dev, this is how I prefer to put together UIs whenever I can.)
----------------------------
MUI also has a low-code dashboard builder: https://mui.com/toolpad/
And Vercel (creators of Next.js) is betaing an AI generated UI: https://vercel.com/blog/announcing-v0-generative-ui
Or https://www.builder.io/
----------------------------
If you don't want to use a JS framework (and I don't blame you), Tailwind is the modern version of simple declarative UIs, but it's lower-level than the previous option. https://tailwindcss.com/
Bootstrap is still around too: https://getbootstrap.com/
Lesser known options:
https://semantic-ui.com/
https://get.foundation/
https://opensource.adobe.com/spectrum-css/ or https://opensource.adobe.com/spectrum-web-components/