bertui

v1.1.0

Published

2 days ago

Lightning-fast React dev server powered by Bun and Elysia

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peaseernest

react bun dev-server vite-alternative elysia build-tool bundler fast hmr file-based-routing

BertUI ⚡🏝️

The fastest React framework for developers who refuse to wait. Zero configuration, instant feedback, production-ready builds, and now... PERFECT SEO.

Zero configuration. 494ms dev server. 265ms builds. Server Islands for instant SEO.
Powered by Bun and Elysia.

🎉 What's New in v1.1.0: Server Islands Era

The feature that changes everything. BertUI is no longer just "fast Vite" (though we were never just that). With Server Islands, you get:

🏝️ Instant SEO - Add one line, get static HTML at build time
⚡ Still Lightning Fast - 265ms builds haven't changed
🎯 Per-Page Control - Choose what gets pre-rendered
🚀 Zero Complexity - No SSR setup, no server infrastructure
💯 Perfect for Everything - Marketing pages AND interactive apps

The Magic Line

// Add this to any page
export const render = "server";

// That's it. You now have instant SEO. 🤯

Read the complete Server Islands guide →

⚡ Proven Performance (Not Promises. Facts.)

BertUI vs Vite (tested Dec 2025 on Intel i3-2348M, 7.6GB RAM):

| Metric | BertUI | Vite | Winner | |--------|--------|------|--------| | Warm Cache Install | 5.0s | 35.3s | BertUI (7x faster) ⚡ | | Dev Server Startup | 494ms | 713ms | BertUI (1.4x faster) ⚡ | | Production Build | 265ms | 4.70s | BertUI (18x faster) ⚡ | | Bundle Size | 100KB | 220KB | BertUI (2.2x smaller) ⚡ | | SSG Capability | ✅ YES | ❌ NONE | BertUI (exclusive) 🏝️ |

"Your speeds are lies!" — Critics (probably)
Our response: Complete reproducible benchmarks with logs, methodology, and test scripts. Run them yourself. We'll wait. ⏱️

See full performance report →

🏝️ Server Islands: The Revolution

What Are They?

Server Islands are BertUI's unique feature that gives you instant SEO and perfect performance without sacrificing React's developer experience. Think of them as "optional static site generation with one line of code."

Why They Matter

<!-- ❌ OTHER FRAMEWORKS: Empty HTML until JS loads -->
<div id="root"></div>
<script src="app.js"></script>

<!-- ✅ BERTUI WITH SERVER ISLANDS: Full content immediately -->
<div id="root">
  <header>
    <h1>My Awesome Site</h1>
    <nav>...</nav>
  </header>
  <main>
    <article>Full content here!</article>
  </main>
</div>
<script src="app.js"></script>

Benefits:

🚀 Instant First Paint - Users see content immediately (0ms TTFB)
🔍 Perfect SEO - Search engines index full content
⚡ Still Interactive - React hydrates for full app functionality
📦 Zero Config - Works automatically for all routes
🎯 Mixed Architecture - Use Server Islands for landing pages, client-only for dashboards

How to Use

// src/pages/about.jsx
export const render = "server"; // 🏝️ That's it!

export const meta = {
  title: "About Us",
  description: "Learn about our company"
};

export default function About() {
  return (
    <div>
      <h1>About Us</h1>
      <p>Pre-rendered as static HTML at build time!</p>
      <a href="/contact">Contact</a>
    </div>
  );
}

Perfect for:

Landing pages
Blog posts
Documentation
Marketing pages
Any content-heavy page that needs SEO

Not for:

Dashboards (need state)
Forms (need interactivity)
Apps with user state

Complete Server Islands guide →

🚀 Quick Start

Create New App (Recommended)

bunx create-bertui my-app
cd my-app
bun run dev

That's it. No webpack config. No babel setup. No bullshit.

First install note: Initial setup downloads Bun platform binaries (~154MB, one-time cost). Subsequent project creation takes ~5 seconds.

🔄 Migrate Existing Projects

Got a Vite, CRA, or other React project? Migrate to BertUI in seconds with our migration tool:

cd your-existing-project
bunx migrate-bertui

What it does:

✅ Backs up all files to .bertmigrate/
🧹 Initializes fresh BertUI project
📝 Creates detailed migration guide
🎯 Detects your framework and provides tailored instructions

Migration Process

# 1. Navigate to your project
cd my-vite-app

# 2. Run migration (backs up everything automatically)
bunx migrate-bertui

# 3. Follow the generated MIGRATION_GUIDE.md
cat MIGRATION_GUIDE.md

# 4. Copy your components
cp -r .bertmigrate/src/components src/
cp -r .bertmigrate/src/styles src/

# 5. Convert routes to file-based structure
# Instead of: <Route path="/about" element={<About />} />
# Just create: src/pages/about.jsx

# 6. Update imports
# From: import { Link } from 'react-router-dom'
# To:   import { Link } from 'bertui/router'

# 7. Test it
bun run dev

Before Migration (Vite)

your-vite-app/
├── src/
│   ├── App.jsx
│   ├── main.jsx
│   └── components/
├── vite.config.js
└── package.json

After Migration (BertUI)

your-vite-app/
├── .bertmigrate/          # 📦 Your backup (safe!)
├── src/
│   ├── pages/             # ⚡ File-based routing!
│   │   ├── index.jsx      # / route
│   │   └── about.jsx      # /about route
│   ├── components/        # Your components
│   └── images/            # Images (auto-served)
├── MIGRATION_GUIDE.md     # Your guide
└── package.json

Rollback If Needed

# Something wrong? Just restore from backup
rm -rf src/ public/ package.json
cp -r .bertmigrate/* .

Migration tool documentation →

🎯 Why BertUI?

The Problems We Solve

1. "Cool Vite" Problem (SOLVED ✅)

Before v1.1: Critics said we were just "fast Vite" with poor SEO
After v1.1: Server Islands give us perfect SEO + unmatched speed
Vite can't do this: Vite has NO SSG capability at all

2. Speed Without Compromise

Next.js: Great SSR, but complex setup and slow builds
Vite: Fast dev, but client-only (poor SEO)
BertUI: Fast dev + fast builds + perfect SEO + zero config

3. The Configuration Hell

Other frameworks: webpack.config.js, vite.config.js, tsconfig.json, babel.config.js...
BertUI: Zero config files. Just code.

What Makes Us Unique

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│  Vite         Fast Dev ✅  Poor SEO ❌  No SSG ❌      │
│  Next.js      Good SEO ✅  Slow Build ❌  Complex ❌   │
│  BertUI       Fast Dev ✅  Good SEO ✅  Fast Build ✅  │
│               Zero Config ✅  Server Islands ✅         │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

BertUI is the only framework with:

Sub-300ms production builds
Optional per-page SSG (Server Islands)
Zero configuration required
File-based routing out of the box
Bun-native speed

📁 File-Based Routing

BertUI has complete file-based routing with zero configuration:

src/pages/index.jsx                 → /
src/pages/about.jsx                 → /about
src/pages/blog/index.jsx            → /blog
src/pages/user/[id].jsx             → /user/:id
src/pages/shop/[cat]/[prod].jsx     → /shop/:cat/:prod

Dynamic Routes Example

// src/pages/user/[id].jsx
export default function UserProfile({ params }) {
  return <div>User ID: {params.id}</div>;
}

Navigation

import { Link, useRouter } from 'bertui/router';

// Link component
<Link to="/about">About</Link>

// Programmatic navigation
const { navigate } = useRouter();
navigate('/dashboard');

🖼️ Image Handling

CRITICAL: BertUI only processes images from two directories:

✅ src/images/  → Served at /images/* (component images)
✅ public/      → Served at /* (global assets like favicon)

❌ Anywhere else → Will cause compilation errors!

Example:

// ✅ CORRECT
import Logo from '../images/logo.png';  // From src/images/
import Favicon from '/favicon.svg';     // From public/

// ❌ WRONG (will break)
import Banner from '../../assets/banner.png';  // Outside allowed dirs

📊 Real-World Performance

Tested on Intel i3-2348M (your results will be better on modern hardware):

| Metric | BertUI | Next.js | Vite | |--------|--------|---------|------| | Dev Server Start | 494ms | 2.1s | 713ms | | Production Build | 265ms | 8.4s | 4.7s | | SSG Per Route | ~80ms | ~200ms | N/A | | Bundle Size | 100KB | 280KB | 220KB | | SSG Support | ✅ YES | ✅ YES | ❌ NO |

Time saved per year:

5 projects/week: ~2.5 hours/year on project creation
10 dev server restarts/day: ~9 minutes/year
3 builds/day: ~32 minutes/year

Total: ~2.7 hours of pure waiting time eliminated.
But the real win? Flow state. When tools respond instantly, you stay focused and ship faster.

🎨 Features

Core Features

⚡ 38ms Compilation - Compiles 20 React files in 38ms
📁 Zero Config Routing - File-based routing with dynamic routes
🏝️ Server Islands - Optional SSG with one line
🔥 Hot Module Replacement - Instant updates (30ms HMR)
📦 Zero Config - Works out of the box
🚀 Production Ready - Optimized builds, semantic versioning
🎯 React-Focused - Optimized for React ecosystem

Developer Experience

🔍 Perfect SEO - Server Islands generate static HTML
💅 CSS Optimization - Single minified CSS file with LightningCSS
🐛 Error Overlay - Full-screen error messages with stack traces
📊 Build Analytics - Detailed build reports
🎨 Modern CSS - Support for nesting, variables, and modern features

Dependency Count

| Framework | Dependencies | Install Size | |-----------|-------------|--------------| | BertUI | 4 | ~14MB | | Vite + React | 15+ | ~50MB | | Next.js | 50+ | ~200MB | | Gatsby | 100+ | ~500MB |

Still the fastest, still the lightest. 🔥

🛠️ Commands

bertui dev         # Start dev server (494ms startup)
bertui build       # Build for production (265ms builds)

Or via package.json:

bun run dev        # Development
bun run build      # Production build
bun run preview    # Preview production build

🏆 When to Use BertUI

✅ Perfect For:

Speed-First Projects - You want the fastest possible dev experience
Content Sites - Landing pages, blogs, docs (with Server Islands)
Hybrid Apps - Mix static pages (Server Islands) with interactive apps
Multiple Projects - Create new projects frequently (7x faster scaffolding)
Fast CI/CD - Need quick builds in pipelines (18x faster than Vite)
Bun Users - Already using or willing to try Bun

❌ Not For You If:

Need Full SSR - Real-time server rendering (use Next.js or Remix)
Content-Heavy Blog - Needs MDX and advanced content features (use Astro)
Multi-Framework - Want Vue, Svelte support (use Astro or Vite)
Can't Use Bun - Company policy or legacy systems prevent Bun usage
Need TypeScript - We're JavaScript-first by design (see Philosophy below)

BertUI is laser-focused on: Fast React development with optional perfect SEO.
If that's what you need, you'll love it. If not, use the right tool.

💭 JavaScript-First Philosophy

BertUI is JavaScript-first and will remain that way.

We fully support .jsx files with complete JSX syntax, but we do not plan to add TypeScript (.tsx) support.

Why?

We believe in keeping tools simple and focused
TypeScript adds complexity that goes against "zero config, just code"
JavaScript is powerful, universal, and requires no compilation step
We want to eliminate barriers, not add them

If you need TypeScript, we recommend Next.js or Remix - they're excellent frameworks with first-class TypeScript support.

BertUI's mission: The fastest React development with zero complexity.
TypeScript would compromise that mission.

🌐 Production Deployment

Supported Platforms

✅ Vercel (zero config with included vercel.json)
✅ Netlify (works out of the box)
✅ Cloudflare Pages (instant deploys)
✅ Any static host (Nginx, Apache, S3, etc.)

Vercel Deployment (Recommended)

Your project includes a pre-configured vercel.json:

{
  "buildCommand": "bun run build",
  "outputDirectory": "dist",
  "framework": null,
  "rewrites": [
    {
      "source": "/(.*)",
      "destination": "/index.html"
    }
  ]
}

Deployment steps:

Push to GitHub
Import to Vercel
Deploy (auto-detects config)
Done! 🎉

Complete deployment guide →

Live Sites Using BertUI

BertUI Docs - The site you're reading

📚 Documentation & Resources

Documentation: https://bertui-docswebsite.vercel.app/
Getting Started: https://bertui-docswebsite.vercel.app/getstarted
Server Islands Guide: https://bertui-docswebsite.vercel.app/server-islands
Performance Benchmarks: PERFORMANCE.md
GitHub: https://github.com/BunElysiaReact/BERTUI
NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/bertui
Discord: https://discord.gg/kvbXfkJG
Issues: https://github.com/BunElysiaReact/BERTUI/issues

🎓 Learning Path

Quick Start (5 min)
- Run bunx create-bertui my-app
- Explore the generated files
- Start dev server with bun run dev
File-Based Routing (10 min)
- Create src/pages/about.jsx
- Add dynamic route src/pages/blog/[slug].jsx
- Test navigation with Link component
Server Islands (15 min)
- Add export const render = "server"; to a page
- Build and check the generated HTML
- View page source to see pre-rendered content
Production Build (5 min)
- Run bun run build
- Deploy to Vercel or Netlify
- Celebrate your blazing-fast site! 🎉

Total time to mastery: ~35 minutes

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how to get started:

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/BunElysiaReact/BERTUI
cd BERTUI

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Start development
bun run dev

# Make your changes
# Run tests
bun test

# Submit PR

Areas we need help:

Documentation improvements
Bug fixes
Performance optimizations
Example projects
Migration tools

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE for details.

🙏 Credits & Thanks

Built with 🔥 by Pease Ernest
Because developers deserve faster tooling and better SEO.

Special Thanks:

The Bun team for creating an incredible runtime
The Elysia team for the fastest web framework
Our early adopters who gave critical feedback
Everyone who believed in BertUI when it was "just Cool Vite"

v1.1.0 is dedicated to everyone who said we needed better SEO.
You were right. Server Islands is for you. 🏝️

🎯 The Journey: From "Cool Vite" to Revolution

v0.1.0 (Nov 26, 2025) - First release. Fast, but client-only.
v1.0.0 (Dec 17, 2025) - Stable foundation after 35 beta versions.
v1.1.0 (Dec 23, 2025) - Server Islands. Everything changed.

We were called "Cool Vite" and it hurt. We were fast, but missing something crucial: perfect SEO without complexity.

Server Islands solved it. Now we're not "Cool Vite." Vite can't do this at all.

We're BertUI - the framework with Bun speed AND perfect SEO.

❓ FAQ

Q: Is BertUI production-ready?
A: Yes! v1.0.0+ is stable and production-ready. Live sites are using it.

Q: Do I need to use Server Islands?
A: No! They're optional. Use them for SEO-critical pages, skip them for interactive apps.

Q: Can I migrate from Vite/CRA/Next.js?
A: Yes! Use bunx migrate-bertui for automated migration with backups.

Q: Does BertUI require a server?
A: No! Server Islands generate static HTML at build time. Deploy anywhere.

Q: What about TypeScript?
A: BertUI is JavaScript-first. We don't plan .tsx support. Use Next.js if you need TS.

Q: How do Server Islands compare to Next.js SSG?
A: Server Islands are simpler (one line vs complex config) and faster (265ms vs 8s builds).

Q: Can I use Server Islands with dynamic routes?
A: Not yet. Coming in a future release.

Q: What if I need full SSR?
A: Use Next.js or Remix. BertUI focuses on static-first with optional SSG.

🚀 Ready to Build?

bunx create-bertui my-app
cd my-app
bun run dev

Join developers building the fastest React apps with perfect SEO.

Performance claims questioned? Read the receipts.
Want to understand Server Islands? Read the guide.
Need help? Join our Discord.

Made with ⚡ and 🏝️ by the BertUI team