# Dart programming language Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/dart/ 45 people recommended Dart programming language in Hacker News comments, 11 had mixed feelings and 31 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 38 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Praised as a modern, easy-to-learn language with strong tooling and native compilation; critics say it is mostly useful only with Flutter. Summary written by Claude from 55 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 52 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Modern language features (4 comments in the sample): "It has a lot of modern features, nullable types, pattern matching, sum types, and factory constructors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46483706)) "it's really modern in comparison (same generation as Kotlin swift and typescript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46483714)) "Dart 3.0+ in general is a much nicer language than before" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49302269)) - Easy to learn and pleasant (4 comments in the sample): "Dart however is itself a lovely language and extremely easy to pick up if you have any knowledge in programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48013648)) "I was surprised how pleasant Dart was compared to JavaScript and TypeScript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464710)) "Dart is really easy to pick up, it's a beautiful language imho." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48003769)) - Strong tooling and CLI (3 comments in the sample): "it has an extremely strong and modern cli tool, which is a one stop shop for all your formatting, linking, and project building needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48288424)) "has pub.dev and a CLI that makes it extremely easy to add packages" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484793)) "It is simple, has great tooling, and compiles to native code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437427)) - Compiles to fast native code (3 comments in the sample): "Darts strengths is JIT/AOT compilation, hot reload, concurrency, null safety to deliver performant UIs across platforms" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46420897)) "it benefits from AOT and can actually be faster than a binary after it gets hot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49284645)) "it was the only language that could have small aot binaries" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656754)) ## What people warn about - Weak adoption and unclear direction (4 comments in the sample): "keeps these limping along with weak support and no clear vision" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280405)) "Dart was awful, lost to Javascript because no one rated it highly enough to justify moving off Javascript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487394)) "Google tried fixing some of this with Dart but chickened out at the last second." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357750)) - Mostly useful only with Flutter (3 comments in the sample): "My personal favorite language is probably Dart, but it's basically useless outside of Flutter" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46417983)) "It failed at its initial goal and hasn’t really found a footing outside of Flutter." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297529)) "That it is also the only real use case for Dart also doesn’t help matters." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46528693)) - Syntax feels clunky to some (3 comments in the sample): "Dart looks ok, but looking at the Dart equivalents of JS examples like {foo: 1}, I'd rather use JS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46153127)) "Dart's syntax style doesn't match mine. As much as I tried to enjoy it, after a while I just couldn't look at it anymore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49288323)) "It's aged like the recent languages but feels clunkier like a language that's much much older." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484784)) ## Other programming languages people recommend - [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust/): 1346 recommend, 468 mixed, 715 criticize - [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language/): 855 recommend, 270 mixed, 513 criticize - [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python/): 683 recommend, 261 mixed, 719 criticize - [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig/): 454 recommend, 181 mixed, 358 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Dart programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dart/ (45 recommend, 11 mixed, 31 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.