# AssemblyScript

6 Hacker News commenters recommended AssemblyScript and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for writing TypeScript-style code that compiles to WebAssembly, especially for fresh projects. Main caveat: it lacks features for games and seems to have slowed down.

## Why people recommend it

- Users are happy with it (3 comments): "I've been very happy with it - surprisingly so." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49262371)) "I'm doing everything in AssemblyScript." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49997685)) "Assembly Script does exactly that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46725349))

## What people warn about

- Lacks features needed for games (2 comments): "lacks too much features for game-code coming directly from TS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46824036)) "I don't think that AssemblyScript would work as is for games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46828761))
- Progress has stalled recently (3 comments): "AssemblyScript seems to be seriously languishing these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47769562)) "doesn't seem to making progress on supporting WASM GC" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46725801)) "seems to have stopped making much progress" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46733509))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

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