> Hologram is a full-stack isomorphic Elixir web framework that runs on top of Phoenix. It lets developers create dynamic, interactive web applications entirely in Elixir. Through intelligent code analysis and transformation, Hologram converts the necessary parts of your Elixir code into JavaScript, delivering modern frontend functionality without requiring any JavaScript frameworks or direct JavaScript coding.
I’m excited to announce Hologram v0.5.0, a major evolution of the full-stack Elixir web framework! This release brings massive performance improvements - we’re talking execution times improved from milliseconds to microseconds in core client-side operations, making it fast enough for real-time interactions like mouse move events.
Key highlights:
- Complete bitstring rewrite with ~50x rendering speed improvements!
Check out the SVG Drawing Demo that showcases smooth, responsive drawing using the new pointer move events - it really demonstrates the performance leap!
https://hologram.page/demos/svg-drawing
With over 950 commits since v0.4.0, this release delivers significant architectural enhancements while maintaining the unique developer experience that makes Hologram special.
Special thanks to my current GitHub sponsors: @D4no0, @Lucassifoni, and @sodapopcan!
Support Hologram’s development: If you’d like to help accelerate Hologram’s growth and make releases like this possible, consider becoming a GitHub sponsor. Every contribution helps dedicate more time to new features and community support!
https://github.com/sponsors/bartblast
Stay in the loop: Don’t miss future updates! Subscribe to the Hologram Newsletter for monthly development milestones, ecosystem news, and community insights delivered straight to your inbox.
https://hologram.page/newsletter
I must say the proposal for Hologram is extremely interesting. The website is made using Hologram, and it speaks loudly to how good it is: every page navigation is (practically) instantaneous. Compared to other approaches such as LiveView, it's pretty good.
The initial page load isn't impressive, though: Google's PageSpeed Insights indicates a 100+kb runtime with lots of unused JavaScript initially, resulting in a LCP of 1.5s (results will vary, of course). I wonder how much of the JavaScript is simply code that stores the website pages, haven't had the time to look at this in detail yet.
For a docs website, that's excessive and bloated; it'd be much better to just deliver no JS and provide HTML with prefetching rules and cache headers (which would also provide instant navigation and offline support).
I'm happy they made the docs website with it, though, to dogfeed and showcase it.
The offline support story here looks interesting. My Elixir/Phoenix app, which relies heavily on LiveView, has some new "offline" and "low bandwidth" set of requirements.
Can Hologram sit alongside the existing routes of a Phoenix app?
Well. This is nifty. I currently work on a full stack web application, and having the same language everywhere is really nice. This is that, but for Elixir. I’m definitely giving this a tire-kick when I have some spare time.
I haven't seen Hologram before. What an ambitious and exciting project!
I see that you've been focusing on the performance aspect but I see a big benefit with the offline first use-case.
It would be nice to have built-in support for syncing any changes when the client comes back online as it would remove the biggest issue with LiveView based websites (that they stop functioning if you lose connection).
For example, a simple todo list where you can check off items offline and when you go online they're sent to the server?
I’ve poked around a little the site. There’s a lot of “this is awesome” advertising.
I still don’t know where this fits with Phoenix/liveview/bandit. Does it replace them? Why and to what end? Am I to use it as a companion? For which parts?
In other words, which problems do I need to have to appreciate how cool this is?
A user reported that the installation instructions were outdated after v0.5.0 removed redundant endpoint integration (which was simplified). If you’re getting errors during setup, just remove the use Hologram.Endpoint and hologram_socket/0 lines from your endpoint module and you should be good to go.
https://github.com/bartblast/hologram/issues/223
Hologram v0.5.0
(hologram.page)83 points by bartblast 26 July 2025 | 50 comments
Comments
> Hologram is a full-stack isomorphic Elixir web framework that runs on top of Phoenix. It lets developers create dynamic, interactive web applications entirely in Elixir. Through intelligent code analysis and transformation, Hologram converts the necessary parts of your Elixir code into JavaScript, delivering modern frontend functionality without requiring any JavaScript frameworks or direct JavaScript coding.
Key highlights:
- Complete bitstring rewrite with ~50x rendering speed improvements!
- Comprehensive session and cookie management
- Live reload functionality for enhanced DX
- Incremental compilation (2x-10x faster builds)
- New pointer and mouse move events
- HTTP-based transport layer
- CRDT support for future distributed features
Full release notes: https://hologram.page/blog/hologram-v0-5-0-released
Check out the SVG Drawing Demo that showcases smooth, responsive drawing using the new pointer move events - it really demonstrates the performance leap! https://hologram.page/demos/svg-drawing
With over 950 commits since v0.4.0, this release delivers significant architectural enhancements while maintaining the unique developer experience that makes Hologram special.
Special thanks to my current GitHub sponsors: @D4no0, @Lucassifoni, and @sodapopcan!
Support Hologram’s development: If you’d like to help accelerate Hologram’s growth and make releases like this possible, consider becoming a GitHub sponsor. Every contribution helps dedicate more time to new features and community support! https://github.com/sponsors/bartblast
Stay in the loop: Don’t miss future updates! Subscribe to the Hologram Newsletter for monthly development milestones, ecosystem news, and community insights delivered straight to your inbox. https://hologram.page/newsletter
The initial page load isn't impressive, though: Google's PageSpeed Insights indicates a 100+kb runtime with lots of unused JavaScript initially, resulting in a LCP of 1.5s (results will vary, of course). I wonder how much of the JavaScript is simply code that stores the website pages, haven't had the time to look at this in detail yet.
For a docs website, that's excessive and bloated; it'd be much better to just deliver no JS and provide HTML with prefetching rules and cache headers (which would also provide instant navigation and offline support).
I'm happy they made the docs website with it, though, to dogfeed and showcase it.
Can Hologram sit alongside the existing routes of a Phoenix app?
I see that you've been focusing on the performance aspect but I see a big benefit with the offline first use-case.
It would be nice to have built-in support for syncing any changes when the client comes back online as it would remove the biggest issue with LiveView based websites (that they stop functioning if you lose connection).
For example, a simple todo list where you can check off items offline and when you go online they're sent to the server?
I still don’t know where this fits with Phoenix/liveview/bandit. Does it replace them? Why and to what end? Am I to use it as a companion? For which parts?
In other words, which problems do I need to have to appreciate how cool this is?