# mypyc

7 Hacker News commenters recommended mypyc and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Compiles type-annotated Python to native C extensions that run faster, often with no code changes. Critics say converting large existing codebases is a big job and speedups are limited.

## Why people recommend it

- No changes to existing code (2 comments): "If you want to use the same code unmodified and your code uses type hints, then you should use mypyc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271180)) "it requires no changes to your existing code" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50295501))
- Works well with type hints (3 comments): "If you want to use the same code unmodified and your code uses type hints, then you should use mypyc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50271180)) "if you want that you can use stuff like mypyc + annotations to get that for you" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422020)) "typing+mypy/mypyc goes a very long way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48870171))
- Works well in practice (2 comments): "I've had good success with just using mypyc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50267127)) "typing+mypy/mypyc goes a very long way" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48870171))

## What people warn about

- Gains modest compared with alternatives (2 comments): "mypyc does not support compilation to a native executable and the performance gains were somehow limited to 2x-4x" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48671630)) "We recently swapped out mypyc optimised module for a rust implementation to get a 2-6x speed up" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45825822))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GCC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gcc.md): 138 recommend
- [Clang](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clang.md): 74 recommend
- [Free Pascal compiler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-pascal.md): 38 recommend
- [GraalVM Native Image](https://hackerapproved.com/p/graalvm-native-image.md): 31 recommend
- [.NET Native AOT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/net-native-aot.md): 26 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "mypyc", https://hackerapproved.com/p/mypyc/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).