LVGL
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 14 graphics libraries by recommenders
Recommended as a polished, practical GUI framework for embedded screens such as ESP32, with good tooling and direct framebuffer output. Some find it clunky and its fixed font a drawback.
Recommended as a polished, practical GUI framework for embedded screens such as ESP32, with good tooling and direct framebuffer output. Some find it clunky and its fixed font a drawback.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Polished GUI framework for embedded
“Slint and LVGL bindings are where the polished widget stuff lives on ESP32”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Ask HN: Are you using Rust on embedded devices yet? If not, why?” “LVGL is probably what you'd want in that environment.”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “How to build a circular LCD clock” “LVGL which is a brilliant GUI framework for ESP32”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “MicroPythonOS graphical operating system delivers Android-like user experience” Practical default for microcontroller projects
“But then just using plain LVGL would probably be more practical.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “MicroPythonOS graphical operating system delivers Android-like user experience” “LVGL is probably what you'd want in that environment.”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “How to build a circular LCD clock” “No X server, direct framebuffer write, good tooling.”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “How to build a circular LCD clock” Better than rebuilding UI from scratch
“I've basically stopped using libraries for anything that isn't LVGL, TinyUSB, compression or cryptography.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Show HN posts p/month more than doubled in the last year” “stuff that would be completely pointless and absurd to recreate”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “No LLM Code in Dependencies”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor fit when native Android exists
“if you have access to native Android this actually doesn't seem like the best approach to me”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “MicroPythonOS graphical operating system delivers Android-like user experience”
Other graphics libraries people recommend
The four most recommended other graphics 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three.js | 49 | 11 | 82% | 12 | — | Approved |
| wgpu | 27 | 9 | 75% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Skia | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| LVGLThis page | 10 | 2 | 83% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Dawn WebGPU | 9 | 6 | 60% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Slint and LVGL bindings are where the polished widget stuff lives on ESP32”
“No X server, direct framebuffer write, good tooling.”
“LVGL is probably what you'd want in that environment.”
“stuff that would be completely pointless and absurd to recreate”
“the fixed LVGL font is a bummer”
“I've always felt it was rather clunky”
“if you have access to native Android this actually doesn't seem like the best approach to me”
“LVGL which is a brilliant GUI framework for ESP32”
“But then just using plain LVGL would probably be more practical.”
“I've basically stopped using libraries for anything that isn't LVGL, TinyUSB, compression or cryptography.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.