Why Dioxus 0.7 Is a Game‑Changer for Full‑Stack Rust UI Development

Why Dioxus 0.7 matters

Rust developers have long discussed the possibility of publishing a single codebase to Web, desktop, and mobile without sacrificing type safety, speed, or developer experience. Dioxus 0.7 delivers that capability.

Core highlights

Sub‑second hot reloads, including experimental Rust hot‑patching.

Built‑in Axum full‑stack solution.

CLI that can serve, bundle, and publish to Web, macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS using the same component tree and signals state model.

Five‑minute quick start

Install the CLI (pre‑built) and create a new project:

# 1) Install the CLI (prebuilt)
curl -sSL https://dioxus.dev/install.sh | bash
# or with cargo-binstall
cargo binstall dioxus-cli --force

# 2) Create and serve
dx new my-app && cd my-app
dx serve               # dev server with instant RSX hot‑reload
dx serve --hotpatch    # experimental: hot‑patch Rust code too

Develop for desktop or mobile without changing the source:

dx serve --desktop
dx serve --platform android   # or: dx serve --ios (shorthand works in 0.7)

When ready to ship, bundle the application: dx bundle This produces an optimized bundle with compressed WASM, minified code, .avif images, and platform‑specific installers.

Mind model (for React/Solid/Svelte users)

Dioxus uses RSX (Rusty JSX) and signals for ergonomic state management. A classic “high‑five counter” looks like this:

fn app() -> Element {
    let mut count = use_signal(|| 0);
    rsx! {
        h1 { "High‑Five counter: {count}" }
        button { onclick: move |_| count += 1, "Up high!" }
        button { onclick: move |_| count -= 1, "Down low!" }
    }
}

The code reads like React, feels like Solid’s fine‑grained reactivity, and compiles to native Rust without a runtime GC.

Single‑repo full‑stack development (and benefits)

Dioxus encourages a server‑client separation model: one server binary (with SSR and server functions) and one client binary (running on Web, desktop, or mobile). The dx new template creates two crates ( /server and /client) with SSR enabled by default.

Server functions compile to ordinary Axum handlers, letting you reuse the full Axum ecosystem (middleware, extractors, websockets, SSE, streaming, etc.). Example:

// in server crate
#[server]
async fn save_high_five(new_value: i32) -> Result<(), ServerFnError> {
    // write to DB/kv/log here
    Ok(())
}

// in client crate
fn app() -> Element {
    let mut count = use_signal(|| 0);
    rsx! {
        h1 { "High‑Five counter: {count}" }
        button {
            onclick: move |_| {
                count += 1;
                spawn(async move { let _ = save_high_five(count()); });
            },
            "Up high!"
        }
    }
}

Because server functions are Axum endpoints, you can leverage authentication, middleware, websockets, and observability (OpenTelemetry, structured logs) directly.

Styling and assets

Use native HTML/CSS together with a utility framework such as Tailwind. Deploy as a SPA, pre‑render with SSR, or generate a static site, then hydrate on the client. The Dioxus.toml file lets you tweak icons, permissions, and installer metadata.

Performance and size

The Hello‑world Dioxus example is roughly 70 KB, comparable to React’s 65 KB.

WASM streaming compilation makes the first paint feel very fast.

Advanced features like hot‑patching are powered by the continuously evolving subsecond crate (0.7.x).

Recommended tech stack

Dioxus 0.7 full‑stack template ( dx new) with two crates ( /server, /client) and SSR enabled.

Axum routing, configured via dioxus::server::router().

Server functions for business logic (auth, CRUD, uploads) kept lightweight.

Signals for client state; shared read‑heavy state can be promoted to the Stores API.

DX: dx serve --hotpatch for the fastest edit‑refresh loop; fall back to plain dx serve in CI.

Web bundles include WASM compression and code minification; adjust [bundle] in Dioxus.toml as needed.

Desktop builds use Webview.

Place the Axum server behind a reverse proxy (Caddy/Nginx) with gzip/brotli and proper cache headers for static assets.

Integrate OpenTelemetry and structured logs at the Axum layer.

Use Axum extractors and middleware for authentication, rate‑limiting, request IDs; prefer server functions for privileged operations.

Migrate from 0.6 to 0.7 by updating dioxus::prelude, form handling, and server‑function codecs.

Team workflow

One repository, two binaries, shared types.

Feature flags per platform ( --desktop, --platform web/android/ios) to surface platform‑specific issues early.

Scalable MVP demo

Start a template, add a server function to persist the counter (file, SQLite, or any database), then bundle for all targets:

dx new highfive && cd highfive
dx serve --hotpatch
# add a server function that saves the count
dx bundle

From this foundation you can easily add login, settings, and sync functionality entirely in Rust.

Conclusion

Dioxus 0.7 shortens the “edit → code → view” loop to JavaScript‑like speed while staying firmly in Rust, making it suitable for production UI development.

GitHub repository: https://github.com/DioxusLabs/dioxus