Marko
Shares rank 18 of 63 web frameworks by recommenders
An open-source JavaScript framework that mixes HTML and JavaScript with concise syntax, praised for compile-time optimizations, partial hydration and a proven track record at eBay.
An open-source JavaScript framework that mixes HTML and JavaScript with concise syntax, praised for compile-time optimizations, partial hydration and a proven track record at eBay.
35 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 54%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Concise, HTML-based syntax
“I quite like the conciseness, and significant whitespace seems like a good match here, but the double hyphen thing really seems odd to me”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “it's more a way to mix HTML and JavaScript in a more intuitive way rather than a declarative, HTML‑based language”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “JS inside HTML, rather than the more React-y HTML inside JS.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” - Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
- Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
Strong compile-time optimizations and performance
“Marko's compiler is designed for partial hydration (by default, without any special developer effort), which performs quite well.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “The compile-time optimizations are extremely impressive”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” Proven at scale, built at eBay
“Marko has been around for over a decade at this point and powers most of eBay.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “Marko was created over a decade ago at Ebay.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “marko comes from Ebay. So, it scales”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” - Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unfamiliar mixed syntax hard to read
“Why do we have to squish everything into HTML-like-but-not-quite blocks?”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “the result is supposed to have brevity, but it’s actually unreadable.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “Marko looks like a mix of at least 3 languages. No thanks!”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “Markojs – declarative, HTML-based language that makes building web apps fun” - Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
- Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
Unnecessary special language instead of HTML
“Why make a special language? Just use HTML and TypeScript that will be compatible with editors, tooling, etc.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language” “The web just doesnt require another paradigm. There is way, way too much tooling for a not-that-complicated problem.”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Marko – A declarative, HTML‑based language”
Other web frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other web 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby on Rails | 337 | 145 | 70% | 12 | 14 yrs38 owners | Approved |
| Django | 277 | 97 | 74% | 12 | 15 yrs38 owners | Approved |
| Next.js | 127 | 256 | 33% | 12 | 3 yrs6 owners | — |
| Phoenix Framework | 85 | 11 | 89% | 12 | 8 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| MarkoThis page | 19 | 16 | 54% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 37 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Marko looks like a mix of at least 3 languages. No thanks!”
“I'd be much more inclined to use something like Astro or Marko, with minimal client-side JavaScript”
“I quite like the conciseness, and significant whitespace seems like a good match here, but the double hyphen thing really seems odd to me”
“Unfortunately, Marko doesn't even get the syntax highlighting right in its own docs for this style.”
“I think it's worth noting Marko's proven nature.”
“The web just doesnt require another paradigm. There is way, way too much tooling for a not-that-complicated problem.”
“it's more a way to mix HTML and JavaScript in a more intuitive way rather than a declarative, HTML‑based language”
“Why do we have to squish everything into HTML-like-but-not-quite blocks?”
“Here I think Marko did the right thing, why they then made even for-loops a dsl is more questionable.”
“I love the landing page for this project. It's very engaging.”
“The one feature I prefer in Marko when compared to Mint is Marko’s nice ID and class syntax”
“I think this is worse than Marko in terms of syntax and certainly in terms of readability”
“It's "define" tag lets you create reusable templates in your reusable templates.”
“Marko was created over a decade ago at Ebay.”
“Marko's compiler is designed for partial hydration (by default, without any special developer effort), which performs quite well.”
“seems like a vast improvement over jsx”
“Marko did ssr by default, a decade before the other frameworks decided to bolt-on ssr”
“This looks promising though.”
“This ` ` and ` ` syntax is awful.”
“marko comes from Ebay. So, it scales”
“Why make a special language? Just use HTML and TypeScript that will be compatible with editors, tooling, etc.”
“Marko has been around for over a decade at this point and powers most of eBay.”
“The compile-time optimizations are extremely impressive”
“it’s trying to focus too hard on brevity and/or cutesiness and doesn’t seem like it would scale well to a full, complex web app”
“in order to use Marko you have to commit to the Marko framework”
“this is more a hybrid of HTML and JavaScript”
“JS inside HTML, rather than the more React-y HTML inside JS.”
“The intro is also incorrect in my opinion.”
“the result is supposed to have brevity, but it’s actually unreadable.”
“Not going back to that spaghetti mesh-up.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.