# Google OR-Tools

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Google OR-Tools and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Google library people use to solve scheduling and assignment problems; critics say it is mostly linear programming and can be slow on hard instances.

## Why people recommend it

- Scheduling and assignment problems (2 comments): "Was using or-tools to solve my friend's scheduling problems with coworkers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48389095)) "I built this for a conference planner SaaS, which felt very real." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48391290))

## What people warn about

- Slow on some problems (3 comments): "it would take multiple minutes to generate assignments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48121093)) "take 15 minutes or more for ~every non-commercial solver (or-tools, HIGHS, ipopt, etc)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48877961)) "we need solutions faster than my initial exploration with OR Tools could yield" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48124259))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Z3 SMT solver](https://hackerapproved.com/p/z3.md): 24 recommend
- [MiniZinc](https://hackerapproved.com/p/minizinc.md): 6 recommend
- [OR-Tools CP-SAT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/or-tools-cp-sat.md): 6 recommend
- [Gurobi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gurobi.md): 6 recommend
- [JuMP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jump.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Google OR-Tools", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-or-tools/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).