I spent almost a year building AI prototypes in Gradio but couldn't take them to production. The problem wasn't the AI part—it was everything else: database integration, authentication, hosting, frontend work. The barriers felt so overwhelming that I actually gave up coding for several months.
I tried no-code tools like Bubble, but the visual workflow felt tedious and I couldn't leverage AI-assisted coding. I considered buying boilerplate code but didn't want to build on top of something I didn't understand.
FastHTML changed that. Staying in Python for everything meant no context switching. The docs are detailed and explains everything in a step by step manner, walking through database integration, auth, and hosting. Jeremy's walkthrough video was a great help too. Within months, I shipped my first paid client project.
Pair programming with a friend
MonsterUI made the difference even more dramatic:
- Before: Multiple frontend library, multiple files, took days to build UI
- After: One library, one file, shipped polished UI in 6 hours
Example apps:
- Before MonsterUI: Roleplaying Chatbot for Skill Assessment
- After MonsterUI: Inbox Simulation for Skill Assessment
Impact of MonsterUI: Delivered UI in 6.5 Hours - Happy Client :)
For someone who understands basic Python like me and want to ship web apps without learning a whole new tech stack, this combination has been a game-changer.
To know the first part of the story on how I overcame the barrier - Part 1: The Unexpected Power of "Building Something Small"
We've since launched Applicative AI using this exact tech stack, aiming to ship 100 AI products in a year, do check it out :)