# Deno 234 Hacker News commenters recommended Deno and 176 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 2 years (13 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended for its permission-based sandbox and easy single-file TypeScript scripting with URL imports and no install step, though Node compatibility gaps and doubts about its future recur. ## Why people recommend it - Permission system and sandboxing (8 comments): "well deno has 'allow-read' 'allow-write' kind of permission, so if something tries to read from my ~/.ssh or other important folder, it can just block it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48240238)) "The Deno sandbox is the answer here — network access is restricted to an allowlist, and the execution environment has scoped permissions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47928351)) "to take advantage of its permissions system, and instructed it to use Deno instead of Python or bash commands. It's worked pretty well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49974965)) - Single-file scripts, no install step (8 comments): "It's a single portable, self-upgradeable executable and your shell scripts can directly reference the repositories/http(s) modules/versions it needs to run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46618370)) "I can reference any repository modules directly, use a shebang in the top of the script with self/executable, and no install step." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838161)) "being able to put your whole "project" in a single file that grabs dependencies from URLs reduces friction a surprising amount" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46876642)) - Simple, productive, batteries included (5 comments): "I use Deno daily and while it's true that it's in this weird position where it's not sexy like bun or enterprise-y like node, it has a great developer experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50020037)) "Things like Deno, Bun, even Go and Python make writing quick, small, modern server sides so much quicker, easier and safer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496648)) "deno is like node without all the shitty parts. It's just so simple and productive and has so much good stuff built in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48241796)) - Improving Node compatibility (3 comments): "Today there seems to be a lot of parity, and I think things like JSR and strong importmaps support start to weigh in Deno's favor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46126164)) "Node compatibility getting better with every release makes the transition a lot easier for existing projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48242087)) "is performant and has dramatically improved node compatibility while exposing a proper permission broker api" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48081176)) ## What people warn about - Node and npm compatibility gaps (4 comments): "I tried several times to port Node projects to Deno. Each time compatibility had "improved" but I still didn't have a working build after a few days of effort." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46125577)) "they've gone in the route of just taking Node native libraries and what not just because they gave up on working out the compatibility" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617504)) "While we have a lot of test coverage and we use tests directly from Node.js codebase, we just don't catch everything." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48676345)) - Uncertain future after acquisition (5 comments): "Coming out swinging with 2.0 and then decreasing regions and rewriting the product that makes you money soon after was certainly a choice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47473276)) "Deno is also either: 1. Pivoting to Cloud (for AI Agents to use Deno) 2. Looking for an exit to an AI lab or infrastructure partner." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46689508)) "This is disappointing, and really makes me question what is the point if even open source is now this easily enshittified" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50021397)) - Early npm rejection hurt adoption (4 comments): "Some of the early decisions, like their initial refusal to fully support package.json and the npm eco-system, made me unsure of their suitability as the basis for a business." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50023750)) "All the breaks from the first system in the name of “we’re doing it right this time” probably killed the momentum." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47469571)) "Deno asking you to throw out package.json on day one was basically asking you to rewrite your entire build config" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47472985)) - Complicated URL-based import resolution (2 comments): "Deno has very complicated import resolution, so building my own import resolver to be compatible with it is a bit of a pain." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48662530)) "Url-based imports are a bad idea as soon as you go beyond writing your entire program in a single source file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47471215)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Bun](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bun.md): 493 recommend - [Node.js](https://hackerapproved.com/p/node-js.md): 257 recommend - [Ant JavaScript runtime](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ant-javascript-runtime.md): 16 recommend - [workerd](https://hackerapproved.com/p/workerd.md): 13 recommend - [Mystral Native](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mystral-native.md): 7 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Deno", https://hackerapproved.com/p/deno/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).