Cocoa
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 application frameworks
Apple's native framework for macOS and iOS apps, praised for easy interface building, good documentation and long-term usability. Critics point to frequent API changes and awkward syntax.
Apple's native framework for macOS and iOS apps, praised for easy interface building, good documentation and long-term usability. Critics point to frequent API changes and awkward syntax.
30 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Easy UI building with Interface Builder
“all you need to do is initialize an NSButton and then tweak a few properties to customize it as desired”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Windows native app development is a mess” “you'd just instantiate said button in Interface Builder, hook it up to a delegate”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Windows native app development is a mess” “have nice customization options, and creating custom components is easy”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari continues” - Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Windows native app development is a mess”
Well documented and still usable
“the frameworks were well documented and 1 Cocoa book could get you a long way”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “Cocoa since 2000, which is still useable”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11” “Cocoa still exists and is usable.”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft May Have Created the Slowest Windows in 25 Years with Windows 11” Admired design and abstractions
“Their Cocoa based frameworks were good for their time, I'll grant you that.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Valdi – A cross-platform UI framework that delivers native performance” “Cocoa was so good. I even liked old-school Interface Builder's IoC.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Bad Dye Job” “I want the perfection that led to Cocoa and all its abstractions.”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Why Objective-C” - Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Claude is an Electron App because we've lost native”
Good balance of abstraction and simplicity
“The value lies more in the collection of frameworks referred to as Cocoa”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source” “it just had/has the right mix of abstraction and simplicity”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Frequent breaking changes over time
“They literally broke Cocoa so it was throwing hopeless useless exceptions”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry” “Carbon and Cocoa changed a bunch of times”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” “they forced ARC to all objects”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity” Dated, awkward API style
“in the Apple world you first subclass 7 interfaces in some unreadable Smalltalk-wannabe syntax and pray you don't need to access the documentation”
Comment from 22 Mar 2026 in “Windows native app development is a mess” “whenever I work with Cocoa APIs, I wistfully think of another timeline”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Malleable Computing, Emacs, and You”
Other application frameworks people recommend
The two most recommended other application frameworks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CocoaThis page | 23 | 7 | 77% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Ash Framework | 19 | 3 | 86% | 10 | — | Approved |
| GNUstep | 8 | 5 | 62% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
34 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“They literally broke Cocoa so it was throwing hopeless useless exceptions”
“I tried porting Cocoa and decided not to.”
“The value lies more in the collection of frameworks referred to as Cocoa”
“Carbon and Cocoa changed a bunch of times”
“they forced ARC to all objects”
“I don't. And I don't have to, as I delegate that sort of stuff (mostly) to Cocoa/CocoaTouch etc.”
“Cocoa and Objective-C are both great, but I think there's one huge problem”
“it just had/has the right mix of abstraction and simplicity”
“was an Eldorado for boutique developers”
“This is the company that shifted from Toolbox to Carbon to Cocoa and each step was better than the last.”
“whenever I work with Cocoa APIs, I wistfully think of another timeline”
“undo/redo were reliable to implement through the framework”
“newer toolkits like GTK, Tk, wxWidgets, DWM, Cocoa, etc are great at today”
“Cocoa was refreshing at first”
“There's a lot of realy brilliant stuff in their system frameworks, and in SwiftUI, Cocoa, and UIKit.”
“Cocoa and SwiftUI are more consistent in the sense that a lot of stuff automatically adapts when Apple changes styling”
“You don't even need to write any code.”
“have nice customization options, and creating custom components is easy”
“you'd just instantiate said button in Interface Builder, hook it up to a delegate”
“all you need to do is initialize an NSButton and then tweak a few properties to customize it as desired”
“in the Apple world you first subclass 7 interfaces in some unreadable Smalltalk-wannabe syntax and pray you don't need to access the documentation”
“the window-and-widget APIs across all desktops should be Cocoa-shaped”
“Cocoa is excellent but who knows when Apple will deprecate it”
“Cocoa remains one of the most amazing libraries ever.”
“I want the perfection that led to Cocoa and all its abstractions.”
“a lot was possible with just Cocoa”
“Amusingly the macOS version is based on Cocoa, which I presume Finder is also based on”
“they all ran fine on much poorer hardware than a modern browser on an M1”
“When working with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch libraries, it's so much easier to find.”
“the frameworks were well documented and 1 Cocoa book could get you a long way”
“Cocoa still exists and is usable.”
“Cocoa since 2000, which is still useable”
“Cocoa was so good. I even liked old-school Interface Builder's IoC.”
“Their Cocoa based frameworks were good for their time, I'll grant you that.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.