diff --git a/docs/source/embedding.md b/docs/source/embedding.md
index c2fbf0c677..b3b369f02e 100644
--- a/docs/source/embedding.md
+++ b/docs/source/embedding.md
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ Jupyter interactive widgets can be serialized and embedded into
  - sphinx documentation
  - html-converted notebooks on nbviewer
 
-## RequireJS
+Here, we discuss embedding widgets using the custom widget manager in the `@jupyter-widgets/html-manager` npm package. Two embedders are provided:
 
-This page talks about embedding widgets using the custom widget manager in the `@jupyter-widgets/html-manager` npm package. This can be done in two basic ways:
+1. A basic embedder that only embeds standard controls, but can be used on any web page
+2. An embedder that uses RequireJS, and can embed standard and custom widgets.
 
-1. 
 
 ## Embedding Widgets in HTML Web Pages
 
@@ -28,27 +28,29 @@ The context menu provides three actions
 ### Embeddable HTML Snippet
 
 The last option, `Embed widgets`, provides a dialog containing an HTML page
-which embeds Jupyter interactive widgets.
+which embeds Jupyter interactive widgets. In order to support custom widgets, this exposes the RequireJS embedder.
 
-This HTML snippet is composed of multiple sections containing `<script>` tags:
+This HTML snippet is composed of multiple `<script>` tags embedded into an HTML context:
 
- - The first section loads a custom widget manager from the `unpkg` CDN. In order to accommodate custom widgets, RequireJS is first loaded on the page, and then a small bit of Javascript requires the appropriate Jupyter widgets module and renders the widgets on the page.
+ - The first script tag loads RequireJS from a CDN. If you already have RequireJS on the page, you can delete this script tag.
 
- - The second section is a script tag with mime type
+ - The second script tag loads the RequireJS widget embedder. This defines appropriate modules and then sets up a function to render all of the widget views included on the page. If you are only embedding standard widgets and do not want to use RequireJS, you can replace these first two script tags with a script tag loading the standard embedder.
+
+ - The next script tag is a script tag with mime type
    `application/vnd.jupyter.widget-state+json` that contains the state of all
-   the widget models currently in use. The JSON schema for the content of that
+   the widget models currently in use. The JSON schema for the content of this
    script tag is found in the `@jupyter-widgets/schema` npm package.
 
-- The next section has a number of script tags, each with mime type
+- Then there are a number of script tags, each with mime type
   `application/vnd.jupyter.widget-view+json`, corresponding to the views which
   you want to display in the web page. These script tags must be in the body of
   the page, and are replaced with the rendered widgets. The JSON schema for the
   content of these script tags is found in the `@jupyter-widgets/schema` npm
-  package. The *Embed Widgets* action currently creates one of these script tags
-  for each view displayed in the notebook.
+  package.
 
-  If you want to lay out these script tags in a custom fashion or only keep some
-  of them, you can delete or include these view script tags as you wish.
+  The *Embed Widgets* action currently creates one of these script tags for each
+  view displayed in the notebook. If you'd like to lay out the views, or include
+  only some of them, you can delete or include these script tags as you wish.
 
 ### Widget State JSON
 
@@ -111,15 +113,12 @@ print(embed_snippet(
     ))
 ```
 
-In `embed_snippet` and `embed_minimal_html` examples above, the `requirejs=True`
-argument was given.
-
+In `embed_snippet` and `embed_minimal_html` examples above, the `requirejs=True` gives the RequireJS embedder. To get the standard embedder, omit this option or give `requirejs=False`.
 
 ## Embedding Widgets in the Sphinx HTML Documentation
 
-As of ipywidgets 6.0, Jupyter interactive widgets can be rendered and
-interacted with in sphinx html documentation. Two means of achieving this are
-provided:
+As of ipywidgets 6.0, Jupyter interactive widgets can be rendered in Sphinx html
+documentation. Two means of achieving this are provided:
 
 ### Using the Jupyter Sphinx Extension
 
diff --git a/docs/source/migration_guides.md b/docs/source/migration_guides.md
index 8a31940934..2b5295c477 100644
--- a/docs/source/migration_guides.md
+++ b/docs/source/migration_guides.md
@@ -129,27 +129,21 @@ If you are just embedding the standard widgets that come with ipywidgets, then y
 <script src="https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@*/dist/embed.js"></script>
 ```
 
-If you want to use a specific version of the embedder, you replace the `@*` with a semver range, such as `@^0.7.0`
+If you want to use a specific version of the embedder, you replace the `@*` with a semver range, such as `@^0.9.0`
 
-#### Embedding with require.js and third-party widgets
+#### Embedding custom widgets with RequireJS
 
-In order to embed third-party widgets, you can use the require.js-based embedding. First, make sure that require.js is loaded on the page, for example:
+In order to embed third-party widgets, you can use the RequireJS-based embedding. First, make sure that RequireJS is loaded on the page, for example:
 
 ```html
 <!-- Load require.js. Delete this if your page already loads require.js -->
 <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.3.4/require.min.js" integrity="sha256-Ae2Vz/4ePdIu6ZyI/5ZGsYnb+m0JlOmKPjt6XZ9JJkA=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
 ```
 
-Then require the embedder and run the `renderWidgets` function:
+Then define the embedding libraries and run the rendering function by including the following scripts
 ```html
-<script>
-    window.require(['https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@*/dist/embed-requirejs'], function(embed) {
-        if (document.readyState === "complete") {
-            embed.renderWidgets();
-        } else {
-            window.addEventListener('load', function() {embed.renderWidgets();});
-        }
-    });
-</script>
+<script src="https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@*/dist/embed-amd.js"></script>
 ```
-If you want to use a specific version of the embedder, you replace the `@*` with a semver range, such as `@^0.7.0`
+If you want to use a specific version of the embedder, you replace the `@*` with a semver range, such as `@^0.9.0`
+
+If you need to embed custom widgets without using RequireJS, you'll need to compile your own embedding javascript that includes the third-party libraries.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ipywidgets/embed.py b/ipywidgets/embed.py
index 4da7996fe3..8de17f7691 100644
--- a/ipywidgets/embed.py
+++ b/ipywidgets/embed.py
@@ -28,17 +28,7 @@
 load_requirejs_template = u"""
 <!-- Load require.js. Delete this if your page already loads require.js -->
 <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.3.4/require.min.js" integrity="sha256-Ae2Vz/4ePdIu6ZyI/5ZGsYnb+m0JlOmKPjt6XZ9JJkA=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
-
-<script>
-    window.require(["{embed_url}"], function(embed) {{
-        if (document.readyState === "complete") {{
-            embed.renderWidgets();
-        }} else {{
-            window.addEventListener('load', function() {{embed.renderWidgets();}});
-        }}
-    }});
-</script>
-
+<script src="{embed_url}"></script>
 """
 
 requirejs_snippet_template = u"""
@@ -67,7 +57,7 @@
 </script>"""
 
 DEFAULT_EMBED_SCRIPT_URL = u'https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@%s/dist/embed.js'%__html_manager_version__
-DEFAULT_EMBED_REQUIREJS_URL = u'https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@%s/dist/embed-requirejs'%__html_manager_version__
+DEFAULT_EMBED_REQUIREJS_URL = u'https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@%s/dist/embed-amd'%__html_manager_version__
 
 def _find_widget_refs_by_state(widget, state):
     """Find references to other widgets in a widget's state"""
diff --git a/packages/html-manager/package.json b/packages/html-manager/package.json
index e0b707dcb4..42d5b59a86 100644
--- a/packages/html-manager/package.json
+++ b/packages/html-manager/package.json
@@ -17,8 +17,9 @@
   "scripts": {
     "clean": "rimraf lib && rimraf dist",
     "build:src": "tsc --project src",
+    "build:embed-amd": "node scripts/concat-amd-build.js && rimraf dist/amd",
     "build:test": "tsc --project test/src && webpack --config test/webpack.conf.js",
-    "build": "npm run build:src && webpack",
+    "build": "npm run build:src && webpack && npm run build:embed-amd",
     "test": "npm run test:unit",
     "test:unit": "npm run test:unit:firefox && npm run test:unit:chrome",
     "test:unit:default": "npm run build:test && karma start test/karma.conf.js --log-level debug --browsers=Firefox",
diff --git a/packages/html-manager/scripts/concat-amd-build.js b/packages/html-manager/scripts/concat-amd-build.js
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..d7d1ced716
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/html-manager/scripts/concat-amd-build.js
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+// Copyright (c) Jupyter Development Team.
+// Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
+
+var fs = require('fs');
+
+// Make a script file that defines all of the relevant AMD modules
+var files = ['base.js', 'controls.js', 'index.js', 'libembed-amd.js'];
+var output = files.map((f)=>{
+    return fs.readFileSync('./dist/amd/'+f).toString();
+  }).join(';\n\n');
+fs.writeFileSync('./dist/libembed-amd.js', output)
+
+// Make a script that has all of the above AMD modules and runs a function which
+// renders all of the widgets on page load automatically.
+files = ['base.js', 'controls.js', 'index.js', 'libembed-amd.js', 'embed-amd-render.js'];
+var output = files.map((f)=>{
+    return fs.readFileSync('./dist/amd/'+f).toString();
+  }).join(';\n\n');
+fs.writeFileSync('./dist/embed-amd.js', output)
diff --git a/packages/html-manager/src/embed-amd.ts b/packages/html-manager/src/embed-amd-render.ts
similarity index 100%
rename from packages/html-manager/src/embed-amd.ts
rename to packages/html-manager/src/embed-amd-render.ts
diff --git a/packages/html-manager/src/libembed-amd.ts b/packages/html-manager/src/libembed-amd.ts
index e0b9ab30bc..a0ab201d85 100644
--- a/packages/html-manager/src/libembed-amd.ts
+++ b/packages/html-manager/src/libembed-amd.ts
@@ -3,13 +3,6 @@
 
 import * as libembed from './libembed';
 
-// Populate the requirejs cache with local versions of @jupyter-widgets/base,
-// @jupyter-widgets/controls, @jupyter-widgets/html-manager. These are externals
-// when compiled with webpack.
-require('./base');
-require('./controls');
-require('./index');
-
 /**
  * Load a package using requirejs and return a promise
  *
diff --git a/packages/html-manager/webpack.config.js b/packages/html-manager/webpack.config.js
index bd983664f5..66fa1edeb2 100644
--- a/packages/html-manager/webpack.config.js
+++ b/packages/html-manager/webpack.config.js
@@ -54,13 +54,12 @@ module.exports = [
     postcss: postcssHandler
 },
 {// script that renders widgets using the amd embedding and can render third-party custom widgets
-    entry: './lib/embed-amd.js',
+    entry: './lib/embed-amd-render.js',
     output: {
-        filename : 'embed-amd.js',
-        path: './dist',
+        filename : 'embed-amd-render.js',
+        path: './dist/amd',
         publicPath: publicPath,
     },
-    devtool: 'source-map',
     module: { loaders: loaders },
     postcss: postcssHandler
 },
@@ -69,25 +68,22 @@ module.exports = [
     output: {
         library: '@jupyter-widgets/html-manager/dist/libembed-amd',
         filename : 'libembed-amd.js',
-        path: './dist',
+        path: './dist/amd',
         publicPath: publicPath,
         libraryTarget: 'amd'
     },
-    devtool: 'source-map',
     module: { loaders: loaders },
-    postcss: postcssHandler,
-    externals: ['./base', './controls', './index']
+    postcss: postcssHandler
 },
 {// @jupyter-widgets/html-manager
     entry: './lib/index.js',
     output: {
         library: '@jupyter-widgets/html-manager',
         filename : 'index.js',
-        path: './dist',
+        path: './dist/amd',
         publicPath: publicPath,
         libraryTarget: 'amd',
     },
-    devtool: 'source-map',
     module: { loaders: loaders },
     postcss: postcssHandler,
     externals: ['@jupyter-widgets/base', '@jupyter-widgets/controls']
@@ -97,11 +93,10 @@ module.exports = [
     output: {
         library: '@jupyter-widgets/base',
         filename : 'base.js',
-        path: './dist',
+        path: './dist/amd',
         publicPath: publicPath,
         libraryTarget: 'amd',
     },
-    devtool: 'source-map',
     module: { loaders: loaders },
     postcss: postcssHandler
 },
@@ -110,11 +105,10 @@ module.exports = [
     output: {
         library: '@jupyter-widgets/controls',
         filename : 'controls.js',
-        path: './dist',
+        path: './dist/amd',
         publicPath: publicPath,
         libraryTarget: 'amd'
     },
-    devtool: 'source-map',
     module: { loaders: loaders },
     postcss: postcssHandler,
     externals: ['@jupyter-widgets/base']
diff --git a/widgetsnbextension/src/embed_widgets.js b/widgetsnbextension/src/embed_widgets.js
index 3f8d491273..300322207f 100644
--- a/widgetsnbextension/src/embed_widgets.js
+++ b/widgetsnbextension/src/embed_widgets.js
@@ -21,15 +21,7 @@ var embed_widgets = function() {
 '',
 '<!-- Load require.js. Delete this if your page already loads require.js -->',
 '<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/require.js/2.3.4/require.min.js" integrity="sha256-Ae2Vz/4ePdIu6ZyI/5ZGsYnb+m0JlOmKPjt6XZ9JJkA=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>',
-'<script>',
-'    window.require(["https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@^'+htmlManagerVersion+'/dist/embed-requirejs"], function(embed) {',
-'        if (document.readyState === "complete") {',
-'            embed.renderWidgets();',
-'        } else {',
-'            window.addEventListener("load", function() {embed.renderWidgets();});',
-'        }',
-'    });',
-'</script>',
+'<script src="https://unpkg.com/@jupyter-widgets/html-manager@*/dist/embed-amd.js" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>',
 '<script type="application/vnd.jupyter.widget-state+json">',
 data,
 '</script>',