The best Python libraries, according to hackers
14 Python libraries were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 4 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended Python libraries with the badge. Each figure is 10 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Cleaner, more logical API than Pandas
A fast dataframe library whose composable expression API, lazy query optimizer and pandas interop make it many people's Pandas replacement; critics find it verbose for exploratory work.
Fast, backed by compiled C code
People recommend it as the standard fast array math library for Python; critics note overhead on small data and a limited interface.
Core of the Python science stack
Recommended as a core numerical and scientific library in Python, often alongside NumPy and pandas, for heavy computation and turning equations into code.
All 14 Python libraries, 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 | Polars | 152 | 50 | 75% | 12 | 1 yr3 owners | Approved |
| 2 | pandas | 93 | 98 | 49% | 11 | 10 yrs7 owners | — |
| 3 | NumPy | 86 | 32 | 73% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 4 | SciPy | 12 | 2 | 86% | 7 | — | Approved |
| 5 | sh Python library | 10 | 2 | 83% | 6 | — | Approved |
| 6 | Tacopy | 8 | 7 | 53% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Ibis dataframe library | 7 | 2 | 78% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Rich Python library | 7 | 3 | 70% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Python dataclasses | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | gemimg | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | Beautiful Soup | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | PyArrow | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | sqlite-utils | 5 | 2 | 71% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 13 | Pendulum Python library | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
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 Python library in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to Python libraries 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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