# CrossOver by CodeWeavers 51 Hacker News commenters recommended CrossOver by CodeWeavers and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for running Windows games and apps on Mac and Linux, though many titles fail and performance can lag native Windows. ## Why people recommend it - Runs many Windows games on Mac (5 comments): "Crossover works wonders. Currently playing Hogwarts Legacy from the Epic Store on my Macbook M4 Pro" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47525137)) "Crossover has allowed me to 100% Spider-Man Remastered on a base M5 MacBook Pro." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48116309)) "CrossOver lets me play most single player games just fine on my M4 Pro" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277386)) - Runs Windows business and legacy apps (5 comments): "sold a polished version of Wine making a lot of Windows only enterprise software work on Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46368825)) "Crossover maintained compatibility with 32-bit windows applications even after Catalina." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46673533)) "I use crossover and/or Lutris on Linux in order to run most of my 90s Windows games" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45962856)) - Long-running, well-maintained project (4 comments): "compatibility layers like Crossover/Wine are already great for gaming" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45952216)) "Credit to wine and cross over (?)for years and years of work as well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45895524)) "I've been a happy customer on and off for about 20 years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47339740)) - Performance close to native (3 comments): "Crossover could play the game at nearly the same framerate as native" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45802995)) "Some crossover games perform better than the native ports" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46142376)) "About the same as Linux, if you use Crossover." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102341)) ## What people warn about - Many games still fail or break (4 comments): "For a while it was possible to get it working with Crossover, and then it broke again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675737)) "With CrossOver there are a handful of games that work well, most don't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45793607)) "crossover didn't work most of the time, got stuff working under wineskin and let the license lapse" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46180733)) - Performance lags native Windows (3 comments): "not always enough in terms of performance for many games compared to a Windows machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47277547)) "I would imagine the experience would be pretty poor" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46103739)) "you've gotta run most PC games using CrossOver on Mac with significant performance implications" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46393726)) - Costs money while Proton is free (3 comments): "Crossover support is worse than Proton, so it will not be viable alternative in real gaming scenarios." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48643511)) "CrossOver ($ annual license fee) is not ideal compared to Steam on Windows or Steam/Proton on Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47254813)) "It's exciting to pay Crossover to support half of the library Proton offers for free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792505)) - Setup and upkeep are cumbersome (2 comments): "the user experience with Crossover is that you have to manage the whole thing of installing Windows Steam in a Wine bottle" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45908175)) "Just knowing there's a folder called drive_c on my Mac is the stuff of nightmares." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47693340)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Bottles](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bottles.md): 13 recommend - [Sikarugir](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sikarugir.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "CrossOver by CodeWeavers", https://hackerapproved.com/p/crossover/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).