Trestle Admin Alternative: how does Avo compare to Trestle?

Trestle and Avo are admin frameworks built to be used with Ruby on Rails apps. Find out how they compare and what solution is best for your use case.

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Avo vs Trestle: a comparison

Trestle and Avo are tools that let you build admin panels on top of your Rails application. You can build applications faster using both of them. But, they are not the same when it comes to features and user experiences. Here's a quick comparison to help you decide which one is best for you:


Manage resources through an auto-generated admin panel Generate an admin panel on top of your existing Rails application using the resources you already have
Customize your admin panel using a DSL A domain specific language is used to build your admin experience and customize it to your liking.
Your data is yours You get to manage your own data: you're responsible for it but no third-party has access to it directly or undirectly.
It's actively maintained The library gets constant updates, issues are promplty solved and the user community is mostly active.
Built using the Rails way The library is built Rails best practices like Hotwire and Stimulus
Easily customizable Customization is not an issue. You can get the admin panel to behave and look how you want without needing to dive deep into library-specific code.
It's well documented Every feature of the library is thoroughly explained and expanded in an individual documentation page.
It doesn't have legacy dependencies The library doesn't depend on software that's unmaintained or out of fashion.
Access common features without the need for plugins Basic and expectable features from an admin panel can be used without the need for external third-party plugins that might be stale or abandoned.
It has an active community Library's users have a way to communicate directly with its creators and push the library forward through feature requests and bug fixes.
Secure from the get-go The library receives periodical security audits and constantly improves upon them.

Avo in action

See for yourself how Avo can help you build Rails applications faster and better.

In this video, we build a booking app in 1 hour using nothing but Rails and Avo.

Our customers love Avo

Avo has allowed the RubyGems.org team to build internal tools incredibly quickly, which is especially important due to our limited resources

André Arko

RubyGems.org Team Lead

Avo is so f***ing awesome. I am a java developer with 25 years of experience. I looked for a rapid application framework to build an internal ERP system for my small company. Its sooooo good. As a java developer without much ruby and rails know-how (only 1 or 2 tutorials), I could build up most of what I needed in ONE weekend. I wish I had that for java!!!.

Masiar Ighani

CEO Skillbyte

Integration was a breeze and even things like custom fields were really simple to add. Definitely loving the experience compared to ActiveAdmin.

Aaron Rama

Co-Founder & CTO, PropUp

I found AVO and decided to give it a try with my team. Some days later I was in love with it, but still testing it to be sure every small detail of our business will be covered. Weeks later we cannot stop developing in AVO.

Marcelo Soto

Head of Backend at Lemu

The main selling point of Avo for me was the speed of being able to build a simple CRUD interface. I like the customizability of the system, which is something I would take heavy advantage of

Nathan Kriege

Ruby on Rails developer

We are migrating from ActiveAdmin to Avo and both in terms of Developer experience and User experience, it is a game changer!

Adrien Poly

CTO, Plume

Avo is the first well documented admin gem that is able to deal with all types of objects provided by active record, including polymorphic models and direct upload for cloud storage providers. Thank you for this wonderful product.

Paul Werther

CTO, greehahts GmbH

Trestle Alternative: is Avo a good option for me?

Yes, we are biased. After all, we build Avo everyday for a community of passionate users and customers.

We believe Avo is the best admin framework for Rails applications. However, here's an honest answer:

Trestle Admin and Avo are admin frameworks built on top of Ruby on Rails that have the same goal: help you build admin experiences faster and better.

Both options do it by replacing the repetitive and time-consuming tasks with a better alternative: an admin panel based on your application resources that's able to generate itself from a DSL

But, both tools have strengths and weaknesses and we believe that Avo is a better option to build an admin panel using Rails.

So let's start by analyzing Trestle and what are it's pros and cons:

Trestle: pros and cons

The index view for the Rails Flix Trestle demo application. It shows a list of TV Shows for an admin panel generated by the library

Trestle is one of the solutions to create admin panels and internal tooling for the Rails ecosystem.

Created 8 years ago, it allows you to build admin experiences using a DSL that's configurable on a per-resource basis.

Its features are suited to help build your application's admin by installing the library and creating a couple of Trestle resources (that correspond to resources in your application) from the command line or adding them by hand.

From there, Trestle generates the views for you to CRUD your resources and you can customize them using the resource file using a DSL like you would with Active Admin or Avo itself.

But Trestle comes with some downsides too, so lets explore the pros and the cons:

Quickly build an admin panel: Trestle allows you to build admin panels and internal tooling using Rails and a DSL to customize your experience.
Own and be responsible for your data: Trestle hooks into your Rails application and doesn't require your data to be hosted by a third-party like some options do.
Friendly interface: Trestle's user interface is definitely a step up from more established solutions like Active Admin or Rails Admin. It's clean and friendly and it serves its purpose adequately.
Lack of features: Trestle comes with features that are common to most admin panels, especially those that are needed when starting out. But, as your application and admin needs grow, you will miss some features that are present in Avo and not in Trestle. Some of the most common could be: advanced search and filtering, fields, charting and data visualization, advanced associations, record ordering, ease of customization, etc.
Documentation is not great: Trestle's documentation is not its strong suit. The documentation comes mostly from the GitHub's Wiki and, as of today, it has 25 pages published while Avo has 96 and counting.
Ease of customization: While Trestle provides some customization options (views, fields, actions and helpers) Avo provides more personalization options and "escape hatches" that allow you to build your admin panel as you wish. However, Trestle does offer a better customization experience than other, more established, options like Active Admin.

Avo: a step up from Trestle Admin

View of an index of posts from the Avo admin panel.

Avo was built from day one considering the issues that the other Rails admin frameworks had.

We've built our own path at the same time that we've improved upon what preceded us.

Currently, Avo is used by solo developers as well as small and large companies. That allows us to learn about what makes a good admin experience and we're constantly iterating upon the concept and the feedback that our users give us.

So, let's take a look at what makes Avo a good Trestle alternative:

A wealth of fields: Avo includes more than thirty fields out of the box so you can start working on your project without worrying about writing your own fields for basic features. It comes with fields for: text, password, money, number, boolean, progress, datetime, select, taglist, key value pairs, file uploads, WYSIWYG editors, and more.
A pleasant and usable UI: Avo's UI is one of the most important reasons why developers switch from other Rails admin panel frameworks. It's very clean and allows non-technical users to be productive with Avo from day one.
Excellent documentation: documentation is a first-class citizen for Avo. There are currently 96 documentation pages in Avo's documentation. Documentation is thorough and a priority for every new feature added to the library.
Constantly improved: Avo's release cycle is a very tight one, that means the we're constantly adding new features, bugfixes and improvements to our product. Currently, Trestle doesn't seem like a solution with a release cycle that resembles ours.
No third-party plugin dependencies: As any library, Avo depends on specialized third-party code to make things happen. However, Avo doesn't depend on third-party plugins like Trestle does in order to provide basic features. Trestle requires you to install third-party plugins for features as basic as ActiveStorage file uploads. Avo comes with those out of the box.
It has a freemium model: even though you can think of paying for an admin framework as a downside, it's actually an advantage for every user and potential user. Having paying customers ensures that a product will improve over time and will be more estable and less bug-prone. Even if you're not planning to pay for an admin framework like Avo, you can benefit from the free features, which constitute around 70% its features, while also benefiting from the fact that everything gets better as time goes by and paying customers expect an improved experience as a whole.

Avo vs Trestle: which one will make me more productive?

We believe that, in the long run, you will be more productive with Avo than with Trestle.

Even though at first you might feel that your productivity is similar using either one, with time it will become clear that Avo is a superior alternative and that it gives you the tools you need to save time and money.

Avo provides more features out of the box and it allows you to customize your experience seamlessly as soon as the need becomes apparent.

It's not only about the fact that Avo is more customizable by design but also by the fact that it's well documented. Avo provides multiple "escape hatches" that allow you to customize your experience by ejecting from things like views, fields, partials, components, and much more.

Avo is also an actively maintained project and is constantly improving. Plus, it has a vibrant community and a healthy amount of paying customers that bring the development forward.

The elephant in the room: why is Avo a paid product?

You're probably wondering why would anyone pay for an admin framework like Avo if there are other alternatives like Administrate, Rails Admin or Motor Admin right?

Well, first of all: Avo is a paid product but it has a generous Community tier that has like 70% of the features that the paid alternatives have.

You can absolutely start building your product with it and switch to our paid plans whenever you feel they can improve your development flow.

Also, Avo being a paid product is actually what allows us to improve it and make it better for paying users and free users alike.

Actually, the amount of money you can save from the productivity gains that Avo gives you is just a fraction of what you pay for any of our licenses.

Even if you build on top of existing Rails admin frameworks, Avo saves you a lot of time to let you focus on adding value to your product instead of writing yet another select component or search feature.

But don't take our word on it, give Avo a try by checking our demo application or installing it for your next project and see for yourself how it can positively affect your development flow.

Why choose Avo over Trestle?

Here are some of the reasons why developers pick Avo over options like Trestle.

Everything you need is built-in

Avo has an extensive features that can help you build awesome admin experiences. It comes with more than 30 different field options, incredibly simple searching and filtering, an interactive UI, data visualization features and, in general, almost anything you need to build the admin panel you envision for your projects.

Truly great user experience

We pride ourselves in the user experience Avo gives its users out of the box. The user interface is pleasant and simple, it's mobile friendly, performant and it includes familiar navigation patterns that allows users to be productive from the very first moment even if they haven't used the library before.

One of a kind documentation

Almost every Rails admin framework out there lacks good documentation. Avo has a very thorough documentation for every existing feature and is constantly improving its documentation to make our users life easier.

Customization is a first class citizen

Avo gives you options to customize your admin panel without too much hassle. This can be done via personalizing your admin via DSL, adding your own views and fields or even ejecting the views, partials, fields and components from Avo.

Build your next admin experience with Avo

Become more productive, reduce development costs using Avo and the tools you already know for your next project.

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Avo dashboard showcasing data visualizations through area charts, scatterplot, bar chart, pie charts, custom cards, and others.

Questions and answers

Still having trouble deciding between Avo and Motor Admion? Don't worry, we've prepared this FAQ section to help you make a better decision.

Should I choose Trestle or Avo for my next project?

If you are planning on building a simple application that will probably not grow too much or require that many features you can choose either Avo or Trestle.

Nonetheless, if you have an ambitious project or you think that your needs will grow over time, Avo is definitely what you need.

It's not only about the features Avo has that Trestle doesn't. It's about the fact that you can rest assured that Avo is going to be improved constantly over time and that new features will be added consistently to the framework to make your life better.

Will Avo make me more productive than Trestle?

When starting out, you can probably be equally productive with both options.

Yet, as your application gets more complex, you will probably find yourself having to access features that Trestle doesn't have for the time being.

Also, Trestle gives customization options but Avo goes the extra mile to give you more ways to customize your experience without the need to build stuff from scratch.

Lastly, the fact that Avo is constantly improving at a rate that Trestle isn't is an advantage that comes in handy when you need your admin framework to grow with you.

I'm currently using Trestle and I'm perfectly happy with it

Trestle is a perfectly fine admin panel framework for Rails. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, and you can build your applications using it.

But we think that Avo can meet you where Trestle can't, and that's when your admin panel needs get a little bit more complex.

If you're a happy Trestle user you probably won't be needing Avo soon but you can always try Avo and migrate from Trestle if you want to.

Isn't building with DSL's considered a disadvantage?

DSLs are a part of Rails itself, but DSLs have a bad reputation because sometimes they can make things more complicated than needed.

The main disadvantage that comes with using DSLs is that you have to "learn" a new language or API in order to interact with them and sometimes that knowledge is not easily translated to other DSLs.

However, if the DSL is intuitive, well documented and designed, it can save you a lot of time. Avo's DSL meets this criteria and is actually a time saver.

Having said this, if you plan on using a library for a project you only want to spend two or three days with, learning a new DSL is not reasonable. In those situations, you're probably better off by building the admin panel by yourself.

Why is Avo a subscription?

Avo is an ever-green product that is constantly adding features and improvements with every release. We have a very generous community tier that can help you get very far building an admin panel, especially if you're starting out. Even so, Avo being a paid product means that it's going to be maintained and that new features will be added as needed.

If you're on a tight budget or just starting out with a project, dont't hesitate to try our free Community tier and see how Avo can make you more productive and save you a lot of time when compared to other alternatives or building your own admin panel.

Can I test Avo before I commit it to my codebase?

Of course, besides checking Avo's documentation, you can access the demo application to see if Avo is the right fit for you. Plus, if you have an existing Rails application with a custom made admin panel or you're using another library, you can always progressively integrate Avo into your app.

Also, you can easily test Avo with a proof of concept application in a couple of minutes. It's as easy as installing the library, adding the resources you want to manage