# Expo Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/expo/ 19 people recommended Expo in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 15 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free open-source framework for building cross-platform mobile and web apps from the command line, quick for beginners. Critics say dependency churn, breaking upgrades and paid build credits. Summary written by Claude from 39 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 36 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Fast development without native tooling (3 comments in the sample): "Expo honestly makes it so trivial to build stuff from the CLI without ever needing to open that abomination of an app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898712)) "you can make a cross-platform react native app with expo in a day without any AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47804251)) "I used Expo recently and loved the development experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46710116)) - One codebase across platforms (2 comments in the sample): "I love that testing is only (almost) only thing now, instead of 3 platforms." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656550)) "Expo exported to a web target is the same or better than Capacitor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45857609)) - Free and open source (2 comments in the sample): "Expo is a free open source framework that costs absolutely no money to use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46485946)) "Even free-er with Expo and React Native." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47941652)) - Easy start for beginners (2 comments in the sample): "Expo was a great way to get started with zero mobile experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47499919)) "Expo lowered the barrier enough for me to actually ship it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47500906)) ## What people warn about - Dependency hell and build complexity (3 comments in the sample): "I do not prefer Expo due to it's highly annoying build system and dependency hell" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49283339)) "you save yourself from the dependency hell that is expo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49287286)) "a thousand dependencies later, it was running" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47596008)) - Vendor lock-in concerns (2 comments in the sample): "Expo seems better but it's 1) another vendor lock-in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46113149)) "I don't want to rely on an external service just to build my app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484715)) - Breaking SDK upgrades (2 comments in the sample): "came back to have to do big updates with expo to make it work again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49656433)) "the SDK upgrades kept including unlisted breaking changes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49285509)) - Paid build credits and metered usage (1 comment in the sample): "a paid tool with metered usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46484024)) ## Other cross-platform UI frameworks people recommend - [Flutter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/flutter/): 111 recommend, 45 mixed, 93 criticize - [React Native](https://hackerapproved.com/p/react-native/): 61 recommend, 30 mixed, 120 criticize - [Kotlin Multiplatform](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kotlin-multiplatform/): 20 recommend, 5 mixed, 12 criticize - [Skip](https://hackerapproved.com/p/skip/): 16 recommend, 2 mixed, 6 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, "Expo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/expo/ (19 recommend, 2 mixed, 10 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.