# Free Pascal compiler

38 Hacker News commenters recommended Free Pascal compiler and 7 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 a fast compiler, small binaries, easy cross-compilation and the Lazarus IDE for building GUIs. Most common caveat: documentation is weak.

## Why people recommend it

- Lazarus IDE for building GUIs (6 comments): "FPC and Lazarus comes out of the box with not just batteries included but an entire carton of batteries" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49386465)) "Often FreePascal with Lazarus is a suitable alternative, and it's also very much alive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49822309)) "Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47454032))
- Cross-compilation and multiplatform support (5 comments): "I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47453856)) "It's nice knowing I can easily recompile for other operating systems if I need to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45802785)) "which seem to me to have a good model for creating cross-platform apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47106674))
- Very fast compiler, small binaries (4 comments): "Fast, small. Extremely quick compiler. The language has its warts but very readable and relatively simple yet powerful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46658385)) "I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47453856)) "Binaries created with Free Pascal Compiler are very small, compilation time is super fast" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49857240))
- Simple, readable, relatively powerful language (3 comments): "Fast, small. Extremely quick compiler. The language has its warts but very readable and relatively simple yet powerful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46658385)) "the compiler is pleasantly fast and the language feels a bit easier to work with than C++" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45805377)) "It's my number one "knock something together that just works" language for humans though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50147260))

## What people warn about

- Language feels dated or stagnant (5 comments): "without these two basic quality-of-life features, Pascal simply feels stuck in history." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47042331)) "Free Pascal is stuck in the old ages with no list comprehension, lamda or map&reduce" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48130879)) "FPC is still stuck in a very C89 model of declarations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50145297))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GCC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gcc.md): 138 recommend
- [Clang](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clang.md): 74 recommend
- [GraalVM Native Image](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graalvm-native-image.md): 31 recommend
- [.NET Native AOT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/net-native-aot.md): 26 recommend
- [Cython](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cython.md): 22 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Free Pascal compiler", https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-pascal/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).