MicroUI by rxi
Ranked 2 of 3 UI libraries by recommenders
A tiny, portable immediate-mode UI library in ANSI C that people praise for its minimal size, and it suits things like Raylib debug menus. Critics say it lacks window system integration and seems limited and possibly abandoned.
A tiny, portable immediate-mode UI library in ANSI C that people praise for its minimal size, and it suits things like Raylib debug menus. Critics say it lacks window system integration and seems limited and possibly abandoned.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 87%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 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
Tiny, minimal, lightweight code
“The whole thing's less than 2kLoCs. If it needs ongoing maintenance, something's gone wrong IMO.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” “it's really interesting in how minimal it is”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” “It's supposed to be a _tiny_ library.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” - Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C”
- Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C”
Respected author, well-written code
“I'm a fan of rxi's work, including this one.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” “It helps to read code from the masters, too”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Mastering Dyalog APL”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Limited and possibly abandoned
“IIRC the library was quite nice, even if a bit limited.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” “it's kinda abandonware at this point”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” No window system or external access
“Nice, except the hard part seems to be missing: interfacing with an actual window system”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C” “no ability for an outside process to enumerate or interact with the controls”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “MicroUI – A tiny, portable, immediate-mode UI library written in ANSI C”
Other UI libraries people recommend
The two most recommended other UI 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonsai by Jane Street | 27 | 3 | 90% | 8 | 10 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| MicroUI by rxiThis page | 13 | 2 | 87% | 2 | — | — |
| Reagent | 5 | 1 | 83% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The issues are standard for all naive immediate GUI libs”
“it's only 14.6 kB compressed!”
“The whole thing's less than 2kLoCs. If it needs ongoing maintenance, something's gone wrong IMO.”
“It's supposed to be a _tiny_ library.”
“IIRC the library was quite nice, even if a bit limited.”
“this is actually a big advantage compared to the renderer being baked into the library”
“pretty nifty but im trying to figure out what the use case for this is”
“it's really interesting in how minimal it is”
“I'm a fan of rxi's work, including this one.”
“This library's default is greyscale anyway, so it's by default colorblind friendly.”
“it's fantastic for Raylib debug menus”
“it's lighter weight and written in C”
“no ability for an outside process to enumerate or interact with the controls”
“it's kinda abandonware at this point”
“Nice, except the hard part seems to be missing: interfacing with an actual window system”
“It helps to read code from the masters, too”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.