# Chapel programming language

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Chapel programming language and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source parallel language used in high-performance computing research; critics say it copies OpenMP and targets mainly HPC users.

## Why people recommend it

- Used in HPC research and production (2 comments): "used in production already by key laboratories in HPC research" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064475)) "plenty of people are using it in HPC, and is open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48063665))
- Small, fast niche alongside Julia (2 comments): "shows Julia (and Chapel) in the ideal small-but-fast corner" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49696039)) "I would argue Chapel or Futhark could be such languages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48065765))

## What people warn about

- Narrow HPC focus, too low level (2 comments): "it is too low level to attract a large public outside of the HPC community" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48067485)) "they only focus on HPC as userbase" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49017855))
- Parallel features copy OpenMP (1 comments): "Some of the parallelization features seem like they just copied OpenMP without meaningfully improving on it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47808074))

## 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, "Chapel programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/chapel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).