OpenGL
Ranked 2 of 7 graphics APIs by recommenders
Simple, cross-platform graphics API that still runs well everywhere and suits learning, though critics call it old, messy and inconsistent across drivers.
Simple, cross-platform graphics API that still runs well everywhere and suits learning, though critics call it old, messy and inconsistent across drivers.
65 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 39
- criticize it
- 26
- approval share
- 60%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 39 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Runs across all major platforms
“seems to work portably across the NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Mesa, Apple drivers and more vendors I've tried first-hand”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0” “it's cross-platform, old (which is good and bad at the same time) and is the easiest of them all.”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer” “OpenGL still exists, runs and works fine on the two platforms that matter.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)” - Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)”
- Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL”
Simple entry point for learning
“You want to start with OpenGL because the API is organized roughly around these high level concepts.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “OpenGL is still the simplest way to start learning hardware accelerated rendering”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “OpenGL is a fantastic way to introduce people to basic graphics programming.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)” - Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)”
Performance good enough for many uses
“It's so much easier than Vulkan or writing shaders and the performance is more than good enough for a lot of applications.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “you can render the entire level in OpenGL with just zbuffer and alpha tested sprites and it'll run perfectly fine”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “Making Graphics Like it's 1993” “As a non-AAA developer, I can't imagine anything else I'd really need.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)” - Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL”
Still works well today
“OpenGL still exists, runs and works fine on the two platforms that matter.”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “How I learned Vulkan and wrote a small game engine with it (2024)” “OpenGL is not obsolete and is totally fine for many use cases.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “I've had very good results with it despite it being "old".”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” - Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Confusing, messy, badly designed API
“it is an incredibly confusing and (in many places) just plain badly designed API”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” “The problem with OpenGL is that it is a complete mess compared to the D3D APIs”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft lowers AI software growth targets” “I definitely prefer the D3D model instead of the extension soup of GL or Vulkan.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0” Global state and extension sprawl
“The whole idea of granular and indipendent extensions is pretty stupid across GL, Vulkan and Wayland.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “MAUI Is Coming to Linux” “Going entirely back to the granular GL-style state soup would have significant 'usability problems'.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “No Graphics API” “requires a global state. This often leads to bad design, is miserable to multi-thread”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL” Inconsistent drivers and buggy behavior
“Godot had to implement a DirectX backend, when they only originally planned Khronos APIs, due to driver support issues”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0” “A big complaint I hear about OpenGL is that it has inconsistent behavior across drivers”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Simplifying Vulkan One Subsystem at a Time” “In real life there’s lots of bugs around and difficult to read error messages.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0” Dated design needs emulation workarounds
“the way a buffer clamps or overflows compared to the PS2 may be hardcoded in OpenGL 2.1 meaning you have to write emulation”
Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: PS2 games statically recompiled to WebAssembly” “Why would you want to learn an API for graphics cards from the 90s instead of an API for the graphics card from the 2010s?”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Learn OpenGL, extensive tutorial resource for learning Modern OpenGL”
Other graphics APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other graphics APIs, 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.
See all 7 graphics APIs, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 97 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the GL api has no structs which makes it easier to port the API to different languages and environments”
“Godot had to implement a DirectX backend, when they only originally planned Khronos APIs, due to driver support issues”
“seems to work portably across the NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Mesa, Apple drivers and more vendors I've tried first-hand”
“I definitely prefer the D3D model instead of the extension soup of GL or Vulkan.”
“With 4.6 we can get Direct State Access, Programmable Vertex Pulling and MultidrawIndirect.”
“OpenGL is extensible and thus you can add that feature should you so choose”
“if you can target modern OpenGL this isn't a problem in practice”
“In real life there’s lots of bugs around and difficult to read error messages.”
“exactly the thing that I needed to get into graphics programming”
“the way a buffer clamps or overflows compared to the PS2 may be hardcoded in OpenGL 2.1 meaning you have to write emulation”
“a used out of shape electric guitar you found on the flea market that is long since out of production”
“OpenGL is still the simplest way to start learning hardware accelerated rendering”
“Why would you want to learn an API for graphics cards from the 90s instead of an API for the graphics card from the 2010s?”
“You want to start with OpenGL because the API is organized roughly around these high level concepts.”
“WebGPU is like 5 years behind OpenGL 4.6, which is already 8 years old.”
“I've had very good results with it despite it being "old".”
“requires a global state. This often leads to bad design, is miserable to multi-thread”
“OpenGL is the only truly cross-platform graphics API out there.”
“OpenGL works fine, I'm using it in my hobby game engine”
“it is an incredibly confusing and (in many places) just plain badly designed API”
“It's so much easier than Vulkan or writing shaders and the performance is more than good enough for a lot of applications.”
“OpenGL is not obsolete and is totally fine for many use cases.”
“it's cross-platform, old (which is good and bad at the same time) and is the easiest of them all.”
“OpenGL has more longevity with emulation than Vulkan has, because hardware is not getting better.”
“you can render the entire level in OpenGL with just zbuffer and alpha tested sprites and it'll run perfectly fine”
“The whole idea of granular and indipendent extensions is pretty stupid across GL, Vulkan and Wayland.”
“A big complaint I hear about OpenGL is that it has inconsistent behavior across drivers”
“it's just a little less terrible than Vulkan when it comes to texture memory”
“I do think it's a terrible API, but there just isn't anything better yet.”
“OpenGL served that purpose perfectly, but it's unfortunately abandoned.”
“which allows hassle-free buffer allocation and descriptor-set-free bindless textures.”
“Going entirely back to the granular GL-style state soup would have significant 'usability problems'.”
“The problem with OpenGL is that it is a complete mess compared to the D3D APIs”
“there was a graphics API that worked on all of the major platforms: OpenGL”
“OpenGL is a fantastic way to introduce people to basic graphics programming.”
“found it very instructive to have all of them to compare at the same time”
“OpenGL still exists, runs and works fine on the two platforms that matter.”
“If performance isn't a problem, using anything else--OpenGL, DirectX 11, game engines, etc.”
“very small amounts of source code needed to get started”
“As a non-AAA developer, I can't imagine anything else I'd really need.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.