Solo rails devs celebrate hotwire native: build 'real' mobile apps without swift hell—as long as users never go offline

Hotwire Native, formerly Turbo Native, has matured as a viable option for building mobile apps, particularly for solo developers or small teams with existing Rails SaaS applications. This approach eliminates the need to learn Swift or Kotlin, or maintain a separate API, by leveraging a hybrid model that delegates navigation to the native OS and content to the web. With the introduction of Strada, a simple and efficient way for HTML to communicate with native code, developers can create high-quality apps with native navigation transitions and interfaces. Companies like HEY, a premium email service, have successfully utilized this stack, demonstrating its scalability and potential. However, Hotwire Native is not suitable for apps requiring offline functionality or complex native animations, such as game development or high-fidelity creative tools. As of 2026, this technology has become a competitive advantage for solo developers, allowing for instant updates and maintained codebases, making it an attractive option for 90% of SaaS applications, including marketplaces, social networks, and project management tools.