# asdf version manager

17 Hacker News commenters recommended asdf version manager and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free command-line tool that pins language versions per project across many languages. Caveat: a little weird to start.

## Why people recommend it

- Pins versions per project (2 comments): "rbenv/asdf pin files make it hard to accidentally run the wrong Ruby version" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47351044)) "I highly recommend using a .tool-versions file (if you use asdf or mise)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488027))
- Replaces brew and jenv for versions (2 comments): "I switched from brew to https://asdf-vm.com/ for this very reason." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48501097)) "Ever since I found `asdf`, I threw away jenv" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46076581))
- Works across many languages (2 comments): "Cross-language tools such as mise or asdf also seem to work ok." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46459629)) "`asdf` or `mise` seem superior to `devcontainer`s" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47293466))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [mise](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mise.md): 137 recommend
- [rustup](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rustup.md): 14 recommend
- [SDKMAN](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sdkman.md): 12 recommend
- [nvm](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvm.md): 7 recommend
- [pyenv](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pyenv.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

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