Fira Code
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 25 monospace fonts by recommenders
A free monospaced coding font with programming ligatures, valued for readability and for telling ambiguous characters apart. Some users drop the ligatures, and it renders oddly in some terminals.
A free monospaced coding font with programming ligatures, valued for readability and for telling ambiguous characters apart. Some users drop the ligatures, and it renders oddly in some terminals.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Free and easy to read
“I find the free choices (JetBrains Mono, Iosevka, Fira Code, ...) quite enough.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “I use Fira Code (like many) and it is very readable as well.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source” Long-time favorite font
“I've been happily using this for the last decade or so.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “FiraCode: Free monospaced font with programming ligatures” “I've always preferred it since I've been using it.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Against fancy ligatures in programming fonts” “the font I've been using for years now”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Ligatures can't be disabled in mintty
“ligatures in Fira Code cannot be disabled when using the Cygwin terminal in Windows (mintty)”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font” Some find it ambiguous in tests
“I use Fira Code, which I eliminated in the first round.”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font” “it looks two characters wide”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Against fancy ligatures in programming fonts”
Other monospace fonts people recommend
The four most recommended other monospace fonts, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iosevka | 108 | 10 | 92% | 9 | 5 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| Nordwand Mono | 40 | 4 | 91% | 1 | — | — |
| Myna | 29 | 10 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| Berkeley Mono | 27 | 6 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Fira CodeThis page | 16 | 3 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
14 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There are some notable improvements, most visibly the slash in 0.”
“ligatures in Fira Code cannot be disabled when using the Cygwin terminal in Windows (mintty)”
“my monospace font of choice is a aggressively subsetted variant of Fira Code with no ligatures whatsoever”
“I find that I can skim through the text faster when the font is wider.”
“Before that I was using Fira Code/Mono which was also fantastic.”
“I find the free choices (JetBrains Mono, Iosevka, Fira Code, ...) quite enough.”
“I've used it on occasion, I like it.”
“the font I've been using for years now”
“Fira Code is hard to beat when it comes to ambiguous characters.”
“I use Fira Code, which I eliminated in the first round.”
“it looks two characters wide”
“I've always preferred it since I've been using it.”
“I use Fira Code (like many) and it is very readable as well.”
“I've been happily using this for the last decade or so.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.