C++ Standard Library
Ranked 2 of 7 standard libraries by recommenders
People recommend it as a usable, ready-made set of containers and algorithms that saves writing them from scratch, with good design in parts. Critics say it is dated, slow to compile, and poorly designed in places.
People recommend it as a usable, ready-made set of containers and algorithms that saves writing them from scratch, with good design in parts. Critics say it is dated, slow to compile, and poorly designed in places.
38 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 23
- approval share
- 39%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Good enough for most general use
“The modern C++ library is actually pretty good, although you need to use very recent versions of the standard for full functionality.”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Cops Can Bypass iPhone's Automatic Reboot to Get into Locked Phones” “It is really at a usable level these days. Not fun, but totally bearable.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Announcing Rust 1.96” “The Standard Library is great for general-purpose computing”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Nodepp – A C++ runtime for scripting at bare-metal speed” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today”
Well designed in parts
“STL is amazing and the people that designed it were very smart.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Type Safe Generic Data Structures in C (2025)” “The STL isn't perfect but it's a good guiding principle.”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “I Write Games in C (yes, C)” “is the best designed part of C++ library”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” - Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Pystd, similar-ish functionality with a fraction of the compile time”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow compile times
“The C++ stdlib is (for the most part) poorly designed, usually poorly implemented, the main reason for slow build times”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” “I find it a bit hard to justify using the STL when a single include costs 250ms compile time per compile unit.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “-fbounds-safety: Enforcing bounds safety for C” “Once you get rid of the STL, compile times get so much better.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today”
Poor design and flaws
“C++ stdlib was barely acceptable in the 1990s but is heavily outdated today and suffers from deeply frustrating design flaws.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” “The C++ stdlib is (for the most part) poorly designed, usually poorly implemented, the main reason for slow build times”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” “The C++ standard library is terrible because it was designed from nothing with no actual real-world testing.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Announcing Rust 1.96” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today”
- Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “The hidden compile-time cost of C++26 reflection”
- Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Pystd, similar-ish functionality with a fraction of the compile time”
Dated, from the 1990s
“the STL is very old now, so while the idea is good, this is one of the oldest”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” “C++ stdlib was barely acceptable in the 1990s but is heavily outdated today and suffers from deeply frustrating design flaws.”
Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “C++: The Documentary Released Today” Slow or weak specific components
“The provided hash tables aren't good enough so "everybody knows" to use replacements”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Writing a C Compiler, in Zig” “large parts of the standard library are unusable (regex is slow and unfixable)”
Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload” “It's a slow generic data structure with an unintuitive API.”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Type Safe Generic Data Structures in C (2025)”
Other standard libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other standard libraries, 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go standard library | 34 | 15 | 69% | 11 | — | Approved |
| C++ Standard LibraryThis page | 15 | 23 | 39% | 8 | — | — |
| Python standard library | 13 | 7 | 65% | 8 | — | — |
| Rust standard library | 12 | 16 | 43% | 9 | — | — |
| Java standard library | 7 | 3 | 70% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 43 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“most of std lib source felt that way too”
“At least is there in the standard library, one doesn't need to invent one from scratch in every single project”
“STL is amazing and the people that designed it were very smart.”
“It's a slow generic data structure with an unintuitive API.”
“The is a sad joke played upon the C++ programmers by the standard committee.”
“The modern C++ library is actually pretty good, although you need to use very recent versions of the standard for full functionality.”
“The C++ standard library is usually comically slow”
“large parts of the standard library are unusable (regex is slow and unfixable)”
“A mostly stable language like C++ is full of junk”
“I had been using a truly awful stdlib on an embedded platform whose implementers saw that freedom as a license to implement all atomics with mutexes”
“the stdlib is extremely well designed”
“the c++ standard library is a poorly designed mess in places”
“move constructors improved the shallow vs deep copy problem on resize”
“but C++ doesn't promise one in its standard library”
“C++ stdlib was barely acceptable in the 1990s but is heavily outdated today and suffers from deeply frustrating design flaws.”
“The issue is in the specification and the requirements placed on certain algorithms and data structures.”
“the STL has a massive negative impact on compile times”
“Most of the rest of us STL is good enough.”
“the basic concept behind STL is misguided”
“some super-annoying gaffes and mis-design aspects”
“the STL is very old now, so while the idea is good, this is one of the oldest”
“Which is worse? std's mess or one you control?”
“Once you get rid of the STL, compile times get so much better.”
“almost always worse than the STL that ships with the tool chain”
“is the best designed part of C++ library”
“The C++ stdlib is (for the most part) poorly designed, usually poorly implemented, the main reason for slow build times”
“It is really at a usable level these days. Not fun, but totally bearable.”
“The C++ standard library is terrible because it was designed from nothing with no actual real-world testing.”
“The provided hash tables aren't good enough so "everybody knows" to use replacements”
“Similar to above but for C++ STL.”
“that's exactly why the C++ choice was a bad idea”
“Language features like templates are not the issue – the Standard Library is.”
“The Standard Library is great for general-purpose computing”
“In practice the C++ stdlib is used as a dumping ground for stuff that ought to live in a package manager”
“I find it a bit hard to justify using the STL when a single include costs 250ms compile time per compile unit.”
“instead of getting 15 pages of unreadable garbage dumped into my lap by the oh-so-wonderful C++ standard library”
“The STL isn't perfect but it's a good guiding principle.”
“the C++ stdlib containers are just not very good”
“they are very awkward to use in the current STL”
“the interfaces feel very non-uniform and cumbersome”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.