Free Pascal compiler
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 26 compilers by recommenders
Recommended for a fast compiler, small binaries, easy cross-compilation and the Lazarus IDE for building GUIs. Most common caveat: documentation is weak.
Recommended for a fast compiler, small binaries, easy cross-compilation and the Lazarus IDE for building GUIs. Most common caveat: documentation is weak.
45 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 38
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 38 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 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
Lazarus IDE for building GUIs
“FPC and Lazarus comes out of the box with not just batteries included but an entire carton of batteries”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload” “Often FreePascal with Lazarus is a suitable alternative, and it's also very much alive.”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft killed FoxPro in 2007. Anyway, here's FoxPro revived” “Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Delphi 13.1 Released, with ARM64 support” - Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available”
- Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Toro: Deploy Applications as Unikernels”
- Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold”
Cross-compilation and multiplatform support
“I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Delphi 13.1 Released, with ARM64 support” “It's nice knowing I can easily recompile for other operating systems if I need to.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “which seem to me to have a good model for creating cross-platform apps”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “When Code is Free, Why is Claude is an Electron app?” - Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux”
- Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
Very fast compiler, small binaries
“Fast, small. Extremely quick compiler. The language has its warts but very readable and relatively simple yet powerful.”
Comment from 17 Jan 2026 in “High-Level Is the Goal” “I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Delphi 13.1 Released, with ARM64 support” “Binaries created with Free Pascal Compiler are very small, compilation time is super fast”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers” - Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
Simple, readable, relatively powerful language
“Fast, small. Extremely quick compiler. The language has its warts but very readable and relatively simple yet powerful.”
Comment from 17 Jan 2026 in “High-Level Is the Goal” “the compiler is pleasantly fast and the language feels a bit easier to work with than C++”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “It's my number one "knock something together that just works" language for humans though.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Language feels dated or stagnant
“without these two basic quality-of-life features, Pascal simply feels stuck in history.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “PascalABC.net” “Free Pascal is stuck in the old ages with no list comprehension, lamda or map&reduce”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Blaise v0.7.0 (alpha) – Independent of Free Pascal compiler” “FPC is still stuck in a very C89 model of declarations”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Free Pascal compiler now supports dynamic packages” - Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “PascalABC.net”
- Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Our space game has a built-in RISC-V emulator that runs Linux”
Other compilers people recommend
The four most recommended other compilers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCC | 138 | 123 | 53% | 12 | 15 yrs9 owners | — |
| Clang | 74 | 50 | 60% | 12 | — | — |
| Free Pascal compilerThis page | 38 | 7 | 84% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GraalVM Native Image | 31 | 9 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| .NET Native AOT | 26 | 13 | 67% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 74 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“We're developing our game in Pascal, too, as our main coder is quite prolific in it.”
“It's my number one "knock something together that just works" language for humans though.”
“Free Pascal and Lazarus exist as a happy compromise between those things and native code integration”
“FPC is still stuck in a very C89 model of declarations”
“Congratulations on the achievement, and to everyone that made it happen.”
“strike such a nice balance of responsiveness in the development lifecycle”
“Dynamic packages allow programmers to create and install components, controls, and Lazarus extensions in seconds without rebuilding the entire Lazarus IDE.”
“The fly in the ointment is the documentation, which leaves a lot to be desired.”
“works fine on Linux and cross-compiling for Windows”
“felt that the language had really stagnated”
“it is a PITA to get working for C++ libraries specifically”
“Free Pascal strings are as close as you get to magic, compared to C/C++.”
“FreePascal can compile TP programs with no changes except for the MS-DOS graphics.”
“Binaries created with Free Pascal Compiler are very small, compilation time is super fast”
“instead of using something like the modern Free Pascal Compiler”
“Often FreePascal with Lazarus is a suitable alternative, and it's also very much alive.”
“FPC and Lazarus comes out of the box with not just batteries included but an entire carton of batteries”
“Literally 5 seconds on Google would find the FreePascal Compiler and Lazarus.”
“FPC added generics before Delphi and more recently it implemented management operators before Delphi.”
“Fortunately there's Lazarus and FreePascal as an alternative.”
“it's a pretty good equivalent that uses the same programming language”
“FreePascal is great, but it hardly has a presence at big corporations.”
“It can use FPC in Delphi mode so that it can test itself.”
“Free Pascal is stuck in the old ages with no list comprehension, lamda or map&reduce”
“Free Pascal adds a few of the niceties of "class" types to "object" types”
“had this capability (to easily spin up GUI)”
“Especially when FreePascal allows you to make UIs with Lazarus for free.”
“I like FreePascal. The compiler is fast and it has great multiplatform and cross-compilation support.”
“which seem to me to have a good model for creating cross-platform apps”
“the language is _far_ more modern than Lazarus / FPC”
“without these two basic quality-of-life features, Pascal simply feels stuck in history.”
“Fast, small. Extremely quick compiler. The language has its warts but very readable and relatively simple yet powerful.”
“Freepascal has one of the better ways of making GUIs”
“the overwhelming majority of the development is community-driven”
“Free Pascal with Lazarus for classic Mac ppc would be ideal”
“Sure there is FreePascal and Lazarus, sadly it doesn't get enough love.”
“the compiler is pleasantly fast and the language feels a bit easier to work with than C++”
“It's nice knowing I can easily recompile for other operating systems if I need to.”
“Cross-compilation and platform support is excellent”
“it has been around for almost 30 years now, so it's very mature”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.