Building an independent Vue.js frontend with its own UI and architecture, completely separate from Frappe Desk UI components.
Frappe Desk remains available for companies, professional users, and advanced ERP requirements.
This frontend is intended as a standard, customized interface for basic users who need the basic functionality without the full Desk experience.
The backend, data, permissions, and existing Frappe/ERPNext functionality remain unchanged.
The new frontend already provides a smoother UI, cleaner navigation, and better mobile views.
The goal is to offer this as a plug-and-use frontend plugin that works with the existing Frappe/ERPNext setup.
Planning to launch the plugin soon.
My question: Do you think this is a good product direction, and would there be demand for a separate modern frontend like this for basic ERPNext users?
There definitely is a need for such product/front-end.
But the challenge is supporting all kinds of third party apps. Or what you can do it build a fresh UI for ERPNext and its out of the box features only.
And ERPNext being a very versatile feature rich product this will be a challenge in itself.
One suggestion: Build a separate rendering engine (something similar to Desk) that will fetch the meta data and build the UI based on certain rules like what to show and what to hide based on the display form factor.
That’s a great project!
Is this project ready to use for production?
If not, what are the main features yet to implemented?
Does it support v15? or just built for v16 forward?
We’re currently testing it in production and would like to make it a common plugin that others can easily integrate.
It’s a basic wrapper for users who prefer a simpler interface, while keeping the existing ERPNext Desk and advanced features untouched.
Currently, it’s built for v16 and works through APIs, so we expect basic functionality to remain compatible with future versions. We’ve also integrated it with HRMS, with our Noviz AI plugin added on top.
We’re still refining it and Thank you for comments
Thanks for the suggestion! Yes, supporting third-party apps and the wide range of ERPNext features is definitely a challenge.
Our current approach is to keep it as a lightweight frontend for ERPNext’s core features rather than replacing Desk. Since it is API-based, we also see potential to extend the same approach to React and mobile applications.
The idea of a separate rendering engine based on metadata and display rules is interesting, and something we can explore as the project evolves.
Our current approach is a little different. We’re not trying to replace the entire ERPNext frontend. We’ve built a basic-user frontend for selected ERPNext + HRMS features, while the standard Desk remains available on the same bench for everything else.
Because the frontend is API-based, we can add or extend specific pages and features as needed, including features from other apps, without affecting the existing Desk. This lets us gradually expand the frontend based on actual requirements rather than trying to support everything from day one.
I also would pitch for this. If you manage to build such a rendering engine it will definitely be a great product.
I agree with you here. The new interface should never replace Desk. It should be available as a separate UI/UX solution that one can opt for.
But this statement also implies that you will have to put in a lot of work to implement necessary features and keep updating it with every new version release. Hope you are using or planning to use Frappe Studio.
Deciding what to implement (provide) in the UI and what not to implement can become a debatable point. I would suggest that you provide a setting for each module that is supported, where user can select features that he/she wants to use.
Sure, that is all a good suggestion. As we move further, we will definitely grow with it.
I think it also depends on who is using the features. If they are mainly using the basic features, sometimes I feel we may not even need to give too many options.
Also, in the market, making the settings and UI less complicated is much more attractive. Everyone is busy and nobody really wants to go through many settings, especially if something is not mandatory.
Nowadays, I think we all need things that are very simple, ready to use, and straightforward, without having to dig too much into them.
I appreciate any effort in the Frappe ecosystem, and this looks really nicely designed.
The challenge with these projects is always in defining the scope. Many people will say that they only need 20% of the features, but it’s a different 20% for everyone. By the time you incorporate everything your users critically need, you’ve rebuilt 80% of the desk.
I think the direction Frappe is going is different. More and more, I think of Desk as an Admin interface. At my org, for example, over a hundred people use our frappe site every day, but only five or so use the desk. Everybody else uses a custom interface we built using frappe UI.
The best and the worst thing about desk is that it’s generic. Every doctype has the same interface, and that interface is defined around data structures. For people working on the back end, I think the desk interface is actually really well designed. But, data structures aren’t workflow structures. They don’t capture how most people actually interact with information. We have an interface for leave applications, for example, that pulls from 15-20 different doctypes at once. It presents the information in a way that is 100% specific to leave applications. There’s no way a generic interface could accomplish that.
So, for me, another “general” interface is never going to be useful. Frappe is astonishingly good at interfacing with LLMs, and in 2026 it has never been easier to build workflow-specific interfaces. That, I think, is the future.
Just my opinion, of course! It’s very cool that you built something that serves a need you have.
