# Jetpack Compose

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Jetpack Compose and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Google's declarative UI toolkit for Android, preferred over XML views and praised for tooling and Kotlin fit. Caveat: documentation and boilerplate draw criticism.

## Why people recommend it

- Better than older Android XML views (2 comments): "Compose is a little better about giving the tools you need than the preceding Android Framework, but it's still much more "assembly required"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49634687)) "Technically it had improvements over the XMLs no doubt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48274264))
- Declarative UI with strong tooling (3 comments): "Compose already has declarative UI, excellent tooling, and first-party support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46355766)) "It scales great. It fits great with React-like reactive UI frameworks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46225705)) "Compose UI tooling no longer requires viewing on device." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280688))
- Well documented and works well (2 comments): "Android & Compose is pretty much flawless when it comes to develop for it, it's thoroughly documented and works well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49636018)) "it's thoroughly documented and works well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642492))

## What people warn about

- Poor documentation (2 comments): "Android team and Google and JetBrains should be ashamed of the state of documentation around it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47320099)) "Jetpack Compose documentation is a bit garbage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47387566))
- Heavy boilerplate and manual state handling (3 comments): "seeing rememberXXX(key1, key2) sprinkled all over with keys makes following the code difficult" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49152291)) "a tiny fraction as much boilerplate and manual ratcheting as is required in Compose" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49646456)) "I have to think about everything, everywhere, all the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49148170))
- Still assembly required versus web (2 comments): "Compose is a little better about giving the tools you need than the preceding Android Framework, but it's still much more "assembly required"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49634687)) "Nothing is as easy as JS/HTML/CSS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46158638))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Qt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qt.md): 191 recommend
- [GTK](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gtk.md): 85 recommend
- [Windows Forms](https://hackerapproved.com/p/winforms.md): 76 recommend
- [SwiftUI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/swiftui.md): 75 recommend
- [Tcl/Tk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tcl-tk.md): 61 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Jetpack Compose", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetpack-compose/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).