mruby
Ranked 4 of 4 Ruby implementations by recommenders
A lightweight Ruby implementation people use for scripting and for packaging their scripts as standalone executables. Caveats raised include thin documentation and awkward embedding.
A lightweight Ruby implementation people use for scripting and for packaging their scripts as standalone executables. Caveats raised include thin documentation and awkward embedding.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 73%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not 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
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Ships apps as standalone executables
“I've had fun converting my projects and scripts into standalone executable files.”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Compiling Ruby to machine language” “The one thing I like the most about mruby is the way you can ship apps.”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Mruby: Ruby for Embedded Systems” “This feature alone is a reason why I in some occasions use MRuby”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Mruby: Ruby for Embedded Systems”
Other Ruby implementations people recommend
The three most recommended other Ruby implementations, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JRuby | 13 | 2 | 87% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Spinel Ruby compiler | 12 | 8 | 60% | 2 | — | — |
| TruffleRuby | 10 | 1 | 91% | 8 | — | Approved |
| mrubyThis page | 8 | 3 | 73% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“xserver and mruby for instance also succumbed to claude.”
“It's quite frictionless if you don't use many Ruby gems”
“Mruby is great for scripting”
“I don't think they have become a competitive options.”
“it uses Ruby’s own native-extension build system for compilation”
“has a very active and friendly discord”
“As-is, embedding mruby kind of sucks, which is a real shame.”
“This feature alone is a reason why I in some occasions use MRuby”
“The one thing I like the most about mruby is the way you can ship apps.”
“The lack of documentation means that I'd just waste my time though.”
“The primary users are C hackers.”
“My gut feeling comparing the two is that mRuby is a better (or at least less “quirky”) language”
“the two languages can be quite complimentary”
“I've had fun converting my projects and scripts into standalone executable files.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.