Streamlit & Gradio: A Beginner's Guide¶

Foundations and Clinical Application projects need a frontend, and you don't need to know JavaScript or CSS to build one. Both Streamlit and Gradio let you wrap a Python function in a working web UI in a few lines. Pick whichever fits the project, or ask your AI coding agent to build the app in either and it'll happily scaffold it.

Sources: docs.streamlit.io, gradio.app/guides/quickstart, comparison from uibakery.io/blog/streamlit-vs-gradio.

Streamlit¶

General-purpose framework for interactive dashboards: you write a plain top-to-bottom Python script, and Streamlit re-runs it on every interaction.

pip install streamlit

# app.py
import streamlit as st

st.title("My First App")
name = st.text_input("Your name")
if name:
    st.write(f"Hello, {name}!")

streamlit run app.py

Core building blocks:

st.write() for near-anything (text, dataframes, charts)
Input widgets like st.slider() / st.text_input() / st.button()
@st.cache_data to avoid re-running expensive functions (like loading a model) on every rerun

Gradio¶

Purpose-built for wrapping a single ML function or model as a demo: you describe inputs and outputs, and Gradio generates the interface.

pip install --upgrade gradio

# app.py
import gradio as gr

def greet(name):
    return f"Hello {name}!"

demo = gr.Interface(fn=greet, inputs="textbox", outputs="textbox")
demo.launch()

python app.py

Opens at http://localhost:7860. Pass demo.launch(share=True) to get a public, shareable URL with no hosting setup, handy for showing a classmate or instructor a working demo without deploying anywhere.

Which one for your project¶

	Streamlit	Gradio
Best for	Dashboards, multi-step or multi-page apps, anything with charts/tables	A single model or function behind a simple input → output UI
Customization	High (layout, theming, many widget types)	Lower, but you write less to get there
Sharing	Deploy to Streamlit Community Cloud (or run locally)	`share=True` gives a temporary public link instantly
Typical fit here	Chatbots, multi-field forms, journal/trend dashboards (e.g. Mood Journal Sentiment Tracker)	Paste-in / upload-and-get-a-result tools (e.g. Medical Term Definer, Radiology Report Flagger)

Rule of thumb: if the project is "one function, one clear input, one clear output," reach for Gradio. If it needs multiple views, persistent state, or richer layout, reach for Streamlit.

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