GNU Octave
Hacker ApprovedNumerical computing environment in Developer tools
Free, open-source MATLAB-compatible environment for numerical computing and plotting, with syntax people find similar. Caveat: incompatibilities with some scripts and less capability than MATLAB in specialized areas.
Free, open-source MATLAB-compatible environment for numerical computing and plotting, with syntax people find similar. Caveat: incompatibilities with some scripts and less capability than MATLAB in specialized areas.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 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 alternative to costly MATLAB licenses
“It just had to be decent enough to save $$$$ vs a Matlab license.”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust” “GNU Octave if you’re on NIX or you don’t have $40k for a license”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “What it takes to transpose a matrix” “GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Nvidia announces native GPU programming in Rust” - Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “MATLAB programming language sinking in popularity”
Syntax close to MATLAB, easy to switch
“Octave is the closest thing to being Matlab without being Matlab”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language” “Octave has extended Matlab's syntax with amazing improvements”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Python Data Science Handbook” “Octave saved me there since the syntax is similar.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Wolfram Language and Mathematica Version 15, AI Assistant, Symbolic Music, More” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “In Defense of Matlab Code”
Good for numerical computing and plotting
“Octave did the math magic, generating tables and saving graphics in png format”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “In Defense of Matlab Code” “It's really great for numerical computing and plotting.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “In Defense of Matlab Code”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing MATLAB functionality in some areas
“the former just could not replicate a large enough portion of the latter's functionality”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “In Defense of Matlab Code” “It does not have the capabilities of Matlab in the areas that I worked in”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “In Defense of Matlab Code” “Matlab was better than Octave in many ways”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “How an MIT research project became the Julia programming language” Less polished, feels half-baked
“I'm not sure Octave ever really got that polish to compete with MATLAB”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Woxi: Wolfram Mathematica Reimplementation in Rust” “I tried GNU Octave, but it felt half-baked.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Please Switch to Python. Or R. Or Anything. Just Not Stata, SAS, SPSS, or Matlab”
What people recommend instead
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MATLAB | 69 | 55 | 56% | 12 | 20 yrs5 owners | — |
| GNU OctaveThis page | 22 | 6 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
28 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“GNU Octave for free since you really pay for toolboxes/packages”
“Octave is the closest thing to being Matlab without being Matlab”
“Matlab was better than Octave in many ways”
“Getting linear algebra in a programming language close to math formulas”
“it is a free software alternative to MATLAB”
“Octave saved me there since the syntax is similar.”
“many of its libraries were built on peer reviewed legacy code provably reproducible with prior aerospace published works”
“I tried GNU Octave, but it felt half-baked.”
“GNU Octave if you’re on NIX or you don’t have $40k for a license”
“I found MATLAB/Octave was good”
“I had everything else I needed and did not need to wait”
“It just had to be decent enough to save $$$$ vs a Matlab license.”
“I'm not sure Octave ever really got that polish to compete with MATLAB”
“Free alternatives like Octave and RunMat are nice, but niche”
“Octave is so much better than Matlab syntax wise”
“the readability that is the core defense of MATLAB/Octave”
“the Octave version has slight incompatibilities which may be a PITA for any non trivial script”
“Octave did the math magic, generating tables and saving graphics in png format”
“use a domain-specific tool where it fits (Octave for the math)”
“The most sensible thing I've heard this year.”
“the former just could not replicate a large enough portion of the latter's functionality”
“I love Octave, it's one of my favourite languages.”
“It does not have the capabilities of Matlab in the areas that I worked in”
“Octave was very helpful for me in school.”
“there are high quality free and/or open source alternatives”
“Octave online https://octave-online.net/”
“It's really great for numerical computing and plotting.”
“Octave has extended Matlab's syntax with amazing improvements”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.