Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (MSVC)
Shares rank 5 of 18 c compilers by recommenders
Recommended for its mature ecosystem, steady standards progress and easy toolchain install. Critics often cite a rough C compiler and incomplete or buggy standards conformance.
Recommended for its mature ecosystem, steady standards progress and easy toolchain install. Critics often cite a rough C compiler and incomplete or buggy standards conformance.
49 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 29
- approval share
- 41%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Steadily improving standards support
“I am so happy that MSVC added 128 bit integers to their standard library”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Building Your Own Efficient uint128 in C++” “Use the new standards-conformant preprocessor with `/Zc:preprocessor`”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “C extensions, portability, and alternative compilers” “even MSVC has shaped up a bit”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Why does C have the best file API” Mature ecosystem and normal tooling
“Small enough that it's basically nothing, downloads in a couple of seconds over 56k dialup, and you get to use normal tooling.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “HelloAssembly: The smallest possible complete Windows application (2021)” “One thing I will give to them is the MSVC ecosystem.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” Quick, small toolchain install
“Small enough that it's basically nothing, downloads in a couple of seconds over 56k dialup, and you get to use normal tooling.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “HelloAssembly: The smallest possible complete Windows application (2021)” “Portable toolchain install for MSVC + WinSDK took about 30 seconds to download. Very easy.”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows API Is Successful Cross-Platform API” Good optimization output
“It has been doing lto (aka ltcg) for a very long time at reasonably good throughput.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “Communication Between the Compiler, the Build System, and Beyond” “I find MSVC and especially ICC output to be quite decent”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “When Compilers Surprise You”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Incomplete or buggy standards conformance
“minus atomics and aligned memory allocators (still between experimental or not going to happen)”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Giving C a superpower: custom header file (safe_c.h)” “MSVC wouldn't compile without adding /std:c++17, because of course it defaults to earlier.”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “The beauty and simplicity of the good old C-style void* in C++” “MSVC is quite a bad benchmark as far as C (not C++) standards conformance goes”
Comment from 31 May 2026 in “wolfSSL releases a new product; wolfCOSE a zero alloc C embbedded COSE stack” - Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “My AI Adoption Journey”
Slow debug builds and heavy install
“its Edit & Continue functionality makes debug builds unbearably slow, but at least it doesn't work”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Is Rust faster than C?” “my eyes water when I install MSVC (and that's usually just for the linker!)”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “Tiny C Compiler” C compiler is rough
“MSVC’s C compiler is rough, but pretty much necessary for actual cross platform”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Giving C a superpower: custom header file (safe_c.h)” “The msvc arm was pretty odd when we used it in ~2003. We did not trust it at all.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “You can't fool the optimizer”
Other c compilers people recommend
The four most recommended other c compilers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fil-C | 160 | 60 | 73% | 13 | — | Approved |
| Claude's C Compiler | 39 | 83 | 32% | 5 | — | — |
| Visual C++ | 29 | 17 | 63% | 12 | — | — |
| Tiny C Compiler (TCC) | 22 | 3 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (MSVC)This page | 20 | 29 | 41% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 59 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“how MSVC and clang-tidy have struggled to achieve the Core Guidelines ideas for lifetimes”
“It has been doing lto (aka ltcg) for a very long time at reasonably good throughput.”
“Some compilers are better than others (Clang>MSVC for example)”
“Small enough that it's basically nothing, downloads in a couple of seconds over 56k dialup, and you get to use normal tooling.”
“They officially saw no need for C support going forward.”
“They don’t really seem to care much about regular C support”
“numerous instances of new releases of MSVC breaking GSL compilation”
“Current C toolchains including MSVC strongly ties OS with the C's internal types”
“has been a neverending source of confusion since at least the 1990s”
“That's purely msvc picking a wrong block size and being stuck with it.”
“MSVC has stabilised the ABI since VS 2015, we are on VS 2026 now.”
“MSVC wouldn't compile without adding /std:c++17, because of course it defaults to earlier.”
“MSVC is quite a bad benchmark as far as C (not C++) standards conformance goes”
“Use the new standards-conformant preprocessor with `/Zc:preprocessor`”
“Luckily they've fixed it very fast.”
“Portable toolchain install for MSVC + WinSDK took about 30 seconds to download. Very easy.”
“Funny, I have the same feelings after 5 seconds of using MSVC”
“MSVC doesn't compile a secret master-password into your software”
“One thing I will give to them is the MSVC ecosystem.”
“refuse to break ABI and have done so for over a decade”
“MSVC was quite bad at optimising and inlining away to the expression trees”
“even MSVC has shaped up a bit”
“It doesn't affect other compilers like MSVC”
“why bother using stuff that forces you into MSVC hell lol?”
“my eyes water when I install MSVC (and that's usually just for the linker!)”
“it absolutely had bugs, sometimes in handling the language spec correctly”
“I am so happy that MSVC added 128 bit integers to their standard library”
“its Edit & Continue functionality makes debug builds unbearably slow, but at least it doesn't work”
“a small change that improved an error message led to a 10% slowdown.”
“Microsoft would still have me as a happy customer and MSVC user”
“One thing that worries me though is the reliance on undocumented MSVC behavior”
“I find MSVC and especially ICC output to be quite decent”
“I've heard that MSVC does (did?) that, but if so that's an MSVC problem.”
“The msvc arm was pretty odd when we used it in ~2003. We did not trust it at all.”
“Even beginner assembly coders on their first day wouldn't write such bullshit”
“the tricks that Microsoft came up with to mitigate the impact rely on metadata that only MSVC emits”
“made out of a dozen javascript processes which makes typing text need a beefy computer”
“MSVC’s C compiler is rough, but pretty much necessary for actual cross platform”
“minus atomics and aligned memory allocators (still between experimental or not going to happen)”
“It seems that MSVC doesn't like those macros, though.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.