Ant JavaScript runtime
Ranked 4 of 9 JavaScript runtimes by recommenders
Sandboxed JavaScript runtime that people find promising for serverless and embedding. Critics say performance claims lack benchmarks and the site and releases look broken.
Sandboxed JavaScript runtime that people find promising for serverless and embedding. Critics say performance claims lack benchmarks and the site and releases look broken.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 48%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Sandboxing stands out to people
“The sandboxing and quick startup make this an interesting foundation for a FaaS system.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “The thing that caught my eye immediately was the sandboxing.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “The sandboxing really stands out to me”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” Serverless and FaaS use
“The sandboxing and quick startup make this an interesting foundation for a FaaS system.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “This is cool, imagine this in a serverless environment”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A from-scratch JavaScript runtime in 9 MB” Clean design and API
“Appreciate the typography and simple design of the site and its registry.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “clean ergonomics and API surface”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” Encouragement for new competition
“It's good to see more competition within this space so good luck with that!”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “its really interesting and I wish the project luck”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “Slick project. Very cool.”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lacks benchmarks, performance claims doubted
“Looks really good on the surface. But if you really want to sell it, link to a comprehensive benchmark suit and more comparisons.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “if this is trying to competing with v8/llvm thats compiler stuff u gotta be benching and comparing assembly”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “I wouldn't expect that to be particularly fast or efficient”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” - Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem”
Broken site and app pages
“I bounced when I saw the three broken columns but never even saw the dark mode switch. It's that slow.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “with a broken /jobs page, and yet is developing the project under their personal GitHub account”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “Completely broken on iOS as well. Feels like AI slop.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” - Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem”
Doubts about honesty and seriousness
“Failure to do so certainly makes me think the new project isn't very serious.”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “Saying it's hand built when it's not is false advertising”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “definitely hard to trust the project”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” Name clashes with known project
“could not be bothered to make the tiniest cursory check to see if the name was already in use by a well known project”
Comment from 12 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem” “name it ant if you wanted to taint the first impression”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Ant – A JavaScript runtime and ecosystem”
Other JavaScript runtimes people recommend
The four most recommended other JavaScript runtimes, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 9 JavaScript runtimes, rankedWhat people said
30 of the 36 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“so much easier to understand what Elk is (and why it is) than Ant”
“could not be bothered to make the tiniest cursory check to see if the name was already in use by a well known project”
“nothing goes past me unreviewed and untested”
“This looks like a great replacement for electron”
“clean ergonomics and API surface”
“Looks really good on the surface. But if you really want to sell it, link to a comprehensive benchmark suit and more comparisons.”
“Appreciate the typography and simple design of the site and its registry.”
“To me this project already seems convoluted.”
“I bounced when I saw the three broken columns but never even saw the dark mode switch. It's that slow.”
“Completely broken on iOS as well. Feels like AI slop.”
“Saying it's hand built when it's not is false advertising”
“Failure to do so certainly makes me think the new project isn't very serious.”
“if this is trying to competing with v8/llvm thats compiler stuff u gotta be benching and comparing assembly”
“I wouldn't expect that to be particularly fast or efficient”
“I don’t really see how you appeal to JavaScript developers with “small binaries”.”
“name it ant if you wanted to taint the first impression”
“with a broken /jobs page, and yet is developing the project under their personal GitHub account”
“Slick project. Very cool.”
“definitely hard to trust the project”
“The sandboxing and quick startup make this an interesting foundation for a FaaS system.”
“Would not touch thios with someone else's (code/business).”
“The sandboxing really stands out to me”
“The thing that caught my eye immediately was the sandboxing.”
“somewhat grates given the original heavy lifting from an existing AGPL codebase”
“according to zoo.js benchmarks that is far from the case”
“LATEST RELEASE REQUIRES A STATIC RELEASE HOTFIX!!”
“It's good to see more competition within this space so good luck with that!”
“pretty simple to embed anywhere as well”
“its really interesting and I wish the project luck”
“This is cool, imagine this in a serverless environment”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.