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Comparisons ​

gsx sits between Go template engines and JSX-like markup systems: templates stay close to HTML, data stays typed Go, and output compiles to ordinary Go.

gsx and templ ​

Both gsx and templ compile components to Go values with Render(ctx, w) error. A gsx.Node has the identical method set to templ.Component, so it is accepted anywhere a templ.Component is expected — gsx interoperates with the templ/HTMX ecosystem without importing templ.

The difference is a deliberate tradeoff. templ keeps a simple, explicit compiler model with syntax close to Go. gsx spends more in the toolchain — it analyzes real Go types with go/packages and go/types — to make the authoring experience more HTML-like and to push more checks to compile time.

That extra analysis buys ergonomics that are hard to retrofit onto a simpler model:

  • HTML-style component calls — <Card title="…"/> reads like markup, and capitalization alone decides component-vs-element.
  • Named props checked by Go — attributes map to struct fields, so a wrong prop name or type is a compile error with a real source location, not a runtime surprise.
  • Context-aware escaping across text, attribute, URL, CSS, and JavaScript positions, decided at codegen.
  • Class and attribute merging as structured values rather than string concatenation.
  • Explicit JavaScript-valued attributes and automatic JSON interpolation for data islands and attributes like hx-vals.

Many of these are long-standing requests on templ itself — HTML-style authoring, inline components, passing Go data to JavaScript, JSON helpers, class ergonomics — which are difficult to add incrementally to a model optimised for simplicity. gsx starts from a design where they compose. For the full reasoning, see Why I built gsx.

Use gsx when you want JSX-like authoring and richer compile-time ergonomics inside Go. Use templ when you prefer its simpler compiler model and established ecosystem.

gsx and html/template ​

html/template is stable, standard-library, and contextually auto-escaping. gsx preserves contextual escaping while adding typed components, generated props, compiler-checked composition, and a formatter/LSP path.

Use html/template when you need runtime-loaded templates or the standard package alone. Use gsx when templates are part of the compiled application.

gsx and JSX ​

JSX makes markup part of JavaScript. gsx borrows the readable tag structure, but expressions are Go, components compile to Go, and there is no virtual DOM.

Use client-side JSX for interactive browser applications. Use gsx for server-rendered Go components, optionally with JavaScript islands.

Interop ​

See Interop for examples that compose gsx with templ, html/template, and client-side islands.