Hacker ApprovedDepartments

bcachefs

Ranked 4 of 9 filesystems by recommenders

People recommend it for mixing drive sizes and types, per-file replication, strong performance, and outperforming Btrfs and ZFS. Common caveat: it was removed from the mainline Linux kernel and many feel it needs more years to mature.

20 people recommended bcachefs in Hacker News comments, 6 had mixed feelings and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.

13 of the 20 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”.

Summary written by Claude from 52 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 51 of those comments still count.

38 people gave an opinion

recommend it
20
mixed feelings
6
warn against or regret it
12

The record

Each figure is one person. RecommendsMixed feelingsCriticizes

Recommended in 8 of 12 months

In 11 different threads.

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 8 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
  • Recommended in 11 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
  • 13 of its 20 recommenders came from one threadNeeds half or less, not met.

The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works

What people say about it

Reasons grouped from a sample of 40 of the 57 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Working well for daily use

    “Haven't had any issues on a simple mirrored array, which I've been running since before it was in (and out) of the kernel.”

    Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

    “I switched my pools to it from ZFS last year and it is working swimmingly.”

    Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Why not AI assisted ZFS rewrite?”

    “actual users seem happy and my life is far better”

    Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”
  • Outperforms Btrfs and other filesystems

    “bcachefs has been doing quite a bit better than other filesystems have /after/ they've dropped the experimental level.”

    Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Bcachefs Could Lose Data”

    “I'm pretty sure Bcachefs is amazing and better than Btrfs.”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

    “which is just way more stable and performant than btrfs”

    Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”
  • Mixes devices and per-file replication

    “mixing different device tiers and having a per-file/directory replication setting is a god send”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

    “You can mix devices of different sizes and types on bcachefs.”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”
  • Active community and support

    “Community's still growing, though. A lot of people have gotten active in making sure bcachefs actually works well for people end to end”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

    “bcachefs on Arch is a bit better supported, we have the distro package maintainer in the bcachefs IRC channel”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Removed from mainline kernel

    “the removal from the mainline kernel has seriously undermined its credibility for use within a company environment”

    Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Bcachefs Could Lose Data”

    “That factor went away with BcacheFS choosing to not get mainlined into Linux Kernel.”

    Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Why not AI assisted ZFS rewrite?”

    “the developer has sabotaged the project into being removed from mainline”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”
  • Reliability and trust concerns

    “I've had both btrfs and bcachefs multidevice filesystems lock up read-only on me.”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Case study: recovery of a corrupted 12 TB multi-device pool”

    “it just can't be trusted at the moment”

    Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

    “a questionable history of reliability”

    Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”
  • Needs more years to mature

    “it simply needs to have a few more years under its belt before I'll be comfortable with it”

    Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “LayerFS: A filesystem for AI coding agents”

    “Isn't bcachefs even younger and less polished than btrfs?”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Case study: recovery of a corrupted 12 TB multi-device pool”
  • Development setbacks and stalled progress

    “bcachefs just hit a setback, which i am hopeful will eventually be resolved”

    Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

    “bcachefs came and… appears to have gone nowhere AFAICT”

    Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “I Love FreeBSD”

Other filesystems people recommend

The four most recommended other filesystems, 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.

bcachefs compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendMixedCriticizeApprovalMonthsHad forBadge
ZFS239344983%1214 yrs23 peopleApproved
Btrfs63317944%129 yrs12 people—
ext4273487%11—Approved
bcachefsThis page2061263%8——
XFS163964%9——
See all 9 filesystems, ranked

Also compared with FUSE and sshfs.

What people said

40 of the 57 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“I think bcachefs social problems come in part from its hidden technical deficits.”

CriticizesComment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Why not AI assisted ZFS rewrite?”

“That factor went away with BcacheFS choosing to not get mainlined into Linux Kernel.”

MixedComment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Why not AI assisted ZFS rewrite?”

“I switched my pools to it from ZFS last year and it is working swimmingly.”

RecommendsComment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Why not AI assisted ZFS rewrite?”

“it simply needs to have a few more years under its belt before I'll be comfortable with it”

MixedComment from 21 Oct 2026 in “LayerFS: A filesystem for AI coding agents”

“the current state does not qualify for usage within enterprise environments”

CriticizesComment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“actual users seem happy and my life is far better”

RecommendsComment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“which is just way more stable and performant than btrfs”

RecommendsComment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“it's good enough for me and other users”

RecommendsComment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“bcachefs just hit a setback, which i am hopeful will eventually be resolved”

MixedComment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“bcachefs on Arch is a bit better supported, we have the distro package maintainer in the bcachefs IRC channel”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“Seeing great results from bcachefs”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“Community's still growing, though. A lot of people have gotten active in making sure bcachefs actually works well for people end to end”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“there is nothing else over there with the same set of features”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“I'm pretty sure Bcachefs is amazing and better than Btrfs.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“You can mix devices of different sizes and types on bcachefs.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“mixing different device tiers and having a per-file/directory replication setting is a god send”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“a questionable history of reliability”

CriticizesComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“It's relatively easy to get it working as a kernel module at least.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“the developer has sabotaged the project into being removed from mainline”

CriticizesComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Btrfs/ZFS/bcachefs under workloads classic benchmarks skip”

“I daily drive bcachefs (it's been great!”

RecommendsComment from 15 Sep 2026 in “GEFS on OpenBSD: A Early Preview”

“Given the issues with well-known filesystems like ZFS and BetterFS”

MixedComment from 15 Sep 2026 in “GEFS on OpenBSD: A Early Preview”

“BcacheFS is really cool and yet another step forward in performance and reliability.”

RecommendsComment from 19 Jul 2026 in “LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent”

“bcachefs is slowly working up to what you're describing - describing what you want and letting the filesystem sort it out.”

RecommendsComment from 8 Jul 2026 in “How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS”

“there are genuine issues with those”

CriticizesComment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Replacing Systemd with OpenRC in Debian”

“Without upstreaming it wouldn't get traction it have now.”

MixedComment from 7 Apr 2026 in “A NAS appliance built on bcachefs”

“Upstreaming it in the first place was probably a mistake.”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “A NAS appliance built on bcachefs”

“I've had both btrfs and bcachefs multidevice filesystems lock up read-only on me.”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Case study: recovery of a corrupted 12 TB multi-device pool”

“Isn't bcachefs even younger and less polished than btrfs?”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Case study: recovery of a corrupted 12 TB multi-device pool”

“Does it not also eat data though?”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Case study: recovery of a corrupted 12 TB multi-device pool”

“reconcile, which puts our data and drive management head and shoulders above other filesystems”

RecommendsComment from 18 Mar 2026 in “I Love FreeBSD”

“bcachefs came and… appears to have gone nowhere AFAICT”

CriticizesComment from 16 Mar 2026 in “I Love FreeBSD”

“Got it removed from the kernel just in time”

CriticizesComment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Bcachefs creator insists his custom LLM is female and 'fully conscious'”

“bcachefs has been doing quite a bit better than other filesystems have /after/ they've dropped the experimental level.”

RecommendsComment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Bcachefs Could Lose Data”

“the removal from the mainline kernel has seriously undermined its credibility for use within a company environment”

CriticizesComment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Bcachefs Could Lose Data”

“the reason bcachefs's (and bcache's) btree is so fast is that we use much bigger nodes”

RecommendsComment from 20 Dec 2025 in “What Does a Database for SSDs Look Like?”

“No erasure coding yet though, so I'm in no rush to migrate my home NAS”

MixedComment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

“I do hope that when development slows down and time has passed, you get it upstreamed again.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

“to use the Linux page cache instead of dedicating RAM to ZFS”

RecommendsComment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

“it just can't be trusted at the moment”

CriticizesComment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

“Haven't had any issues on a simple mirrored array, which I've been running since before it was in (and out) of the kernel.”

RecommendsComment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Interview with Kent Overstreet (Bcachefs) [audio]”

Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.