# LispWorks Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/lispworks/ 5 people recommended LispWorks in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. 3 of the 5 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Steel Bank Common Lisp”. **Verdict:** People recommend it as a polished Common Lisp IDE with a graphical interface and small GUI binaries. Critics find the paid licenses expensive and the free edition's heap limit restrictive. Summary written by Claude from 21 comments. ## Why people recommend it - Recommended as a top Common Lisp (4 comments in the sample): "The right way to start is with LispWorks or Allegro Common Lisp" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47320641)) "LispWorks and Allegro Common Lisp should not be overlooked" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47142291)) "I think only surpassed by LispWorks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46107268)) - Strong IDE and developer experience (4 comments in the sample): "a really excellent example of what polished developer experience should optimize for" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280159)) "Compare them with things like LispWorks and Delphi, and the difference is stark" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49450762)) "All it's missing is a text editor like LispWorks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48372863)) - Graphical experience like Lisp machines (3 comments in the sample): "It has a graphical experience similar to the survivors from Lisp is Great days, like LispWorks and Allegro Common Lisp" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46924166)) "which contrary to SBCL provide a similar graphics experience as the Lisp machines of yore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406262)) "truly interactive UI elements which themselves map to rich Lisp objects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48385189)) - Small binaries for GUI apps (2 comments in the sample): "The killers, generally, for an enterprise project are the smaller binaries and java interface." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148583)) "tree shaking and small binaries (±5MB a GUI app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47144673)) ## What people warn about - Expensive hobby license price (2 comments in the sample): "price for hobby user license at 750 USD is laughable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48949923)) "Maybe LispWorks, but that's expensive." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47328556)) - Free edition limited by heap (2 comments in the sample): "I can't load my side projects in LispWorks' community edition, so… because of the heap limit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47144492)) "more than what the personal version of lispworks offers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49323790)) ## Other common Lisp implementations people recommend - [SBCL Common Lisp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sbcl/): 44 recommend, 2 mixed, 7 criticize - [Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/steel-bank-common-lisp/): 17 recommend, 6 mixed, 6 criticize - [Dotcl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dotcl/): 6 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.lispworks.com/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "LispWorks", https://hackerapproved.com/p/lispworks/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.