8051 microcontroller
Shares rank 18 of 28 microcontrollers by recommenders
Recommended for embedded jobs that don't need 16 or 32 bits, with decades of tooling. Critics find its old tooling and 8-bit ALUs painful.
Recommended for embedded jobs that don't need 16 or 32 bits, with decades of tooling. Critics find its old tooling and 8-bit ALUs painful.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 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
Good when 16 or 32 bits aren't needed
“I do think 8051 is better when you don't need 32 or even 16 bits.”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better” “8051 is better when you don't need 32 or even 16 bits”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better” Long-lived and still in use
“The 8051 is eternal, it will probably outlive x86 and ARM.”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “Hosting a website on an 8-bit microcontroller” “It's still alive and kicking.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Do 8051/8031 assembly like its 1984”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Old, cumbersome tooling
“anything is better than an 8051 core you need a copy of Keil C51 and a lot of patience”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better” “not having to work with ancient 8051 tooling and 8 bit ALUs”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better” Considered inferior to newer chips
“RISC-V is an improvement over PIC and 8051”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “A 3rd World Embedded Engineer Responds to "RISC-V They Should Have Known Better"” “Yeah, so was 8051 and it sucked too”
Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “RISC-V: They Should Have Known Better”
Other microcontrollers people recommend
The four most recommended other microcontrollers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32 | 190 | 35 | 84% | 12 | 5 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Arduino boards | 81 | 73 | 53% | 12 | 16 yrs7 owners | — |
| Raspberry Pi Pico | 72 | 16 | 82% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Raspberry Pi RP2350 | 47 | 13 | 78% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 8051 microcontrollerThis page | 8 | 4 | 67% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“leverage 50 something years of experience, tooling, examples, etc.”
“We still have the venerable 8051 for anyone who likes old architectures”
“RISC-V is an improvement over PIC and 8051”
“8051 is better when you don't need 32 or even 16 bits”
“I do think 8051 is better when you don't need 32 or even 16 bits.”
“not having to work with ancient 8051 tooling and 8 bit ALUs”
“Yeah, so was 8051 and it sucked too”
“anything is better than an 8051 core you need a copy of Keil C51 and a lot of patience”
“set the world on fire with its applications”
“The 8051 is eternal, it will probably outlive x86 and ARM.”
“It's still alive and kicking.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.