Jetpack Compose
Ranked 17 of 45 GUI frameworks by recommenders
Google's declarative UI toolkit for Android, preferred over XML views and praised for tooling and Kotlin fit. Caveat: documentation and boilerplate draw criticism.
Google's declarative UI toolkit for Android, preferred over XML views and praised for tooling and Kotlin fit. Caveat: documentation and boilerplate draw criticism.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 22
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 22 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Better than older Android XML views
“Compose is a little better about giving the tools you need than the preceding Android Framework, but it's still much more "assembly required"”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “Technically it had improvements over the XMLs no doubt”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Does Anybody Actually Like React?” Declarative UI with strong tooling
“Compose already has declarative UI, excellent tooling, and first-party support.”
Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “Build Android apps using Rust and Iced” “It scales great. It fits great with React-like reactive UI frameworks.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Should CSS be constraints?” “Compose UI tooling no longer requires viewing on device.”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “What's New in Flutter 3.47” Well documented and works well
“Android & Compose is pretty much flawless when it comes to develop for it, it's thoroughly documented and works well.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “it's thoroughly documented and works well”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor documentation
“Android team and Google and JetBrains should be ashamed of the state of documentation around it.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “So you want to write an "app" (2025)” “Jetpack Compose documentation is a bit garbage”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “So you want to write an "app" (2025)” Heavy boilerplate and manual state handling
“seeing rememberXXX(key1, key2) sprinkled all over with keys makes following the code difficult”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity” “a tiny fraction as much boilerplate and manual ratcheting as is required in Compose”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “I have to think about everything, everywhere, all the time.”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity” Still assembly required versus web
“Compose is a little better about giving the tools you need than the preceding Android Framework, but it's still much more "assembly required"”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “Nothing is as easy as JS/HTML/CSS.”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “CSS now has an if() conditional function”
Other GUI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other GUI frameworks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt | 191 | 133 | 59% | 12 | 15 yrs7 owners | — |
| GTK | 85 | 118 | 42% | 12 | — | — |
| Windows Forms | 76 | 33 | 70% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| SwiftUI | 75 | 121 | 38% | 11 | 4 yrs8 owners | — |
| Jetpack ComposeThis page | 22 | 12 | 65% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
34 of the 37 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I was sad to see that enabling high quality line breaks is indeed something you have to configure”
“For any new Android apps nowadays you start with Kotlin and Jetpack compose”
“a tiny fraction as much boilerplate and manual ratcheting as is required in Compose”
“Now that we have libraries such as SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose”
“it's thoroughly documented and works well”
“Android & Compose is pretty much flawless when it comes to develop for it, it's thoroughly documented and works well.”
“Compose is a little better about giving the tools you need than the preceding Android Framework, but it's still much more "assembly required"”
“Oh and now Google and Apple are insisting that this is the way to do UIs in native apps as well”
“something like Compose, in that regard”
“Compose UI tooling no longer requires viewing on device.”
“seeing rememberXXX(key1, key2) sprinkled all over with keys makes following the code difficult”
“I have to think about everything, everywhere, all the time.”
“Try the Flutter and native Android/Kotlin Jetpack compose if you want a feel what they are suppose to feel like.”
“Technically it had improvements over the XMLs no doubt”
“it integrates well with Kotlin DSL capabilities”
“It's not completely flawless, but it truly isn't bad.”
“Plain SwiftUI or compose just isn't eye catching enough”
“It won't even reach Compose level”
“Compose makes UI tolerable compared to JWT too”
“Kotlin with Compose is a massively nicer experience than Dart/Flutter”
“Jetpack Compose documentation is a bit garbage”
“Android team and Google and JetBrains should be ashamed of the state of documentation around it.”
“I think it's really great and I wish more people caught on actually.”
“Oh wow, you learned Compose on Android? Man, was your brain frozen for 50 years?”
“the familiar well designed by Google UI API will help Android developers”
“all provide getters and setters or public properties for GUI state, violating the encapsulation principle”
“none of which I enjoyed very much”
“bundle the entire new Android UI framework (Compose)”
“The good ideas of Flutter, IMHO, got implemented in native Android (Kotlin + Compose).”
“Compose already has declarative UI, excellent tooling, and first-party support.”
“It scales great. It fits great with React-like reactive UI frameworks.”
“Nothing is as easy as JS/HTML/CSS.”
“Jetpack Compose doesn't use Android native controls. That is unfortunate.”
“I've grown to really love Jetpack Compose. Personally, I'd say I like it better than any other framework I've tried before.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.