Google Guava
Ranked 3 of 5 Java libraries by recommenders
People recommend Guava as a well-maintained Java library that fills gaps in the standard library. Some developers say they don't need it.
People recommend Guava as a well-maintained Java library that fills gaps in the standard library. Some developers say they don't need it.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Easy to pull in as dependency
“Unless you have some other mitigating factor or requirement, I think it'd be silly not to pull these in as dependencies”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “We should all be using dependency cooldowns” “With Mango or Guava its even easier.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Grok Build Is OSS” Fills gaps in Java standard library
“C++ and Java have a bunch of stdlib extensions like boost, Guava, Apache Commons etc.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Why I love OCaml (2023)” “In Java we needed Guava to do anything interesting with functional programming.”
Comment from 7 Jan 2026 in “Stop Designing Languages. Write Libraries Instead (2016)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Some developers avoid using it
“I don't use apache commons or guava at all in java”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Async Rust never left the MVP state” “Guava for whatever cool reason, and so on.”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Malicious Rust Crate Arrayref Runs a Build-Time Payload”
Other Java libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other Java libraries, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lombok | 9 | 13 | 41% | 4 | — | — |
| Apache Commons | 8 | 2 | 80% | 5 | — | — |
| Google GuavaThis page | 7 | 2 | 78% | 5 | — | — |
| LMAX Disruptor | 6 | 3 | 67% | 5 | — | — |
| Java Vector API | 5 | 3 | 63% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Guava for whatever cool reason, and so on.”
“Two large libraries with everything the developers heart desired and well maintained by large organizations.”
“With Mango or Guava its even easier.”
“the drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits in convenience, quality, and security”
“I don't use apache commons or guava at all in java”
“That learning transfers over.”
“In Java we needed Guava to do anything interesting with functional programming.”
“Unless you have some other mitigating factor or requirement, I think it'd be silly not to pull these in as dependencies”
“C++ and Java have a bunch of stdlib extensions like boost, Guava, Apache Commons etc.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.