# AppleScript

19 Hacker News commenters recommended AppleScript and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Built into macOS, AppleScript lets people automate many Mac apps through their scriptable interfaces. Critics say its English-like syntax is confusing and automations break as apps change.

## Why people recommend it

- Automates most Mac app interfaces (4 comments): "almost everything you wanted to do on a Mac GUI already _was_ scriptable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46901318)) "AppleScript arguably offers a far richer interface for driving applications that have a UI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297393)) "It also has all the "wiring" exposed via AppleScript for most applications." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296312))
- Works well with Shortcuts (2 comments): "Shortcuts.app and AppleScript works for this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46591203)) "Shortcuts + AppleScript is gold on macOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47542080))
- Easy to pick up (2 comments): "AppleScript predates Javascript by two years, but by even more than that in terms of usability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454355)) "AppleScript was just a little weird but I could get my head around it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47582395))

## What people warn about

- English-like syntax is confusing (5 comments): "AppleScript "English" was designed to be intuitive and easy to understand (or so claimed various manuals), but boy howdy did I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what "English" it did accept." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49079077)) "It was quite possible to forget at times which English verbs were language keywords and which weren't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50191860)) "Could never remember the "easier natural" way to write even small pieces of code correctly in it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496118))
- Breaks as apps change (3 comments): "many of my automations have broken throughout the years as Apple tweaked their applications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46563982)) "it is not well-supported by modern applications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48033988)) "automation via Automator and Applescript was inconsistent and unsupported in many contexts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47374094))
- Apple has neglected it (3 comments): "Automator and AppleScript would have been gamechangers if Apple had promoted them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49181164)) "it seems like Apple doesn't care much about it anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45860134)) "It's so sad to see what happened to AppleScript/the Open Scripting Architecture." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49022798))
- Feels old and dated (3 comments): "AppleScript is old, weird, and still wired into a lot of Mac apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579578)) "AppleScript predates Javascript by two years, but by even more than that in terms of usability." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454355)) "the same reasons that I bounced off of AppleScript years ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586826))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Lua](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lua.md): 186 recommend
- [awk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/awk.md): 67 recommend
- [AutoHotkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/autohotkey.md): 44 recommend
- [GDScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gdscript.md): 22 recommend
- [Starlark](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starlark.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AppleScript", https://hackerapproved.com/p/applescript/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).