Hacker ApprovedDepartments

Jackson FasterXML

Ranked 2 of 3 JSON libraries by recommenders

Java JSON library people choose for its many configuration options and its rich API for navigating documents. The most common caveat is that it is slow, especially with large data.

Java JSON library people choose for its many configuration options and its rich API for navigating documents. The most common caveat is that it is slow, especially with large data.

10 people gave an opinion

recommend it
6
criticize it
4
approval share
60%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 4 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: not recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: not recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 4 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.

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Slow with large data

    “Same thing for Jackson, write you own lazy json library if the data is bigger than a few 100k.”

    Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be”

    “well yeah Jackson is slow.”

    Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be”

Other JSON libraries people recommend

The two most recommended other JSON 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.

Jackson FasterXML compared with 2 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
simdjson12192%7—Approved
Jackson FasterXMLThis page6460%4——
System.Text.Json5456%2——
See all 3 JSON libraries, ranked

What people said

8 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“I'm very happy that these exes are unchecked (incl jackson3).”

RecommendsComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “JEP 540: Simple JSON API (Now in Incubator)”

“You almost can, with Jackson:”

RecommendsComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “JEP 540: Simple JSON API (Now in Incubator)”

“One of my favorite things about Jackson was being able to arbitrarily navigate through the document with a rich API”

RecommendsComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “JEP 540: Simple JSON API (Now in Incubator)”

“which they managed to gut so completely it went from a best-in-class OSS library to unusable”

CriticizesComment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Better Auth is joining Vercel”

“I thought Jackson FasterXML was "too complex". Later, I realised the mind-boggling number of configuration options was weirdly more sustainable”

MixedComment from 31 May 2026 in “wolfSSL releases a new product; wolfCOSE a zero alloc C embbedded COSE stack”

“Same thing for Jackson, write you own lazy json library if the data is bigger than a few 100k.”

CriticizesComment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be”

“well yeah Jackson is slow.”

CriticizesComment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Java Is Fast. Your Code Might Not Be”

“use Jackson now, not the built-in stuff”

RecommendsComment from 24 Jan 2026 in “Banned C++ Features in Chromium”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.