The best language runtimes, according to hackers
11 language runtimes were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
Top pick
The most recommended language runtime with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Lightweight isolated processes with own memory
Erlang's virtual machine, recommended for running huge numbers of lightweight processes that isolate crashes and support fault-tolerant, distributed systems. Critics say it is slow compared with compiled languages.
All 11 language runtimes, 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 | .NET | 293 | 148 | 66% | 12 | 10 yrs28 owners | — |
| 2 | BEAM (Erlang VM) | 80 | 25 | 76% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Java Virtual Machine | 42 | 23 | 65% | 12 | — | — |
| 4 | JVM | 39 | 22 | 64% | 11 | — | — |
| 5 | GraalVM | 33 | 18 | 65% | 12 | — | — |
| 6 | libgodc | 13 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| 7 | .NET runtime | 11 | 9 | 55% | 7 | — | — |
| 8 | Mono runtime | 10 | 15 | 40% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | .NET CLR | 9 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Uxn virtual machine | 9 | 1 | 90% | 5 | — | — |
| 11 | HotSpot JVM | 7 | 2 | 78% | 5 | — | — |
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 language runtime in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to language runtimes that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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