The best compilers, according to hackers
26 compilers were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 8 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended compilers with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Lazarus IDE for building GUIs
Recommended for a fast compiler, small binaries, easy cross-compilation and the Lazarus IDE for building GUIs. Most common caveat: documentation is weak.
Fast startup times
Compiles Java and JVM code into standalone binaries with fast startup and low memory use. Main caveat: long build times and library or reflection compatibility problems.
Binary size comparable to Go
People recommend .NET Native AOT for compiling C# into small, self-contained native executables that do not need the .NET runtime installed, with binaries comparable to Go. The common caveat is that reflection and some language features are restricted.
All 26 compilers, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GCC | 138 | 123 | 53% | 12 | 15 yrs9 owners | — |
| 2 | Clang | 74 | 50 | 60% | 12 | — | — |
| 3 | Free Pascal compiler | 38 | 7 | 84% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 4 | GraalVM Native Image | 31 | 9 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 5 | .NET Native AOT | 26 | 13 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Tied 6 | Cython | 22 | 7 | 76% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 6 | GHC (Glasgow Haskell Compiler) | 22 | 15 | 59% | 7 | — | — |
| 8 | TinyGo | 20 | 6 | 77% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 9 | Emscripten | 18 | 14 | 56% | 11 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Jolt Clojure compiler | 18 | 4 | 82% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 11 | OxCaml | 17 | 3 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 12 | Blaise Pascal compiler | 11 | 3 | 79% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | Borland Turbo BASIC | 11 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| 14 | Intel ISPC | 10 | 4 | 71% | 6 | — | Approved |
| 15 | rustc | 9 | 9 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | gccrs | 8 | 3 | 73% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | Hoot Scheme to WebAssembly compiler | 8 | 2 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | Minikotlin | 8 | 5 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 19 | Xc compiler | 7 | 0 | 100% | 5 | 6 mo4 owners | — |
| Tied 19 | mypyc | 7 | 4 | 64% | 5 | — | — |
| 21 | Ferrocene | 6 | 3 | 67% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 22 | C# compiler | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 22 | Go compiler | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 22 | LDC (LLVM D Compiler) | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 22 | javac | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 22 | avr-gcc | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same compiler in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to compilers that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.