# PureScript

15 Hacker News commenters recommended PureScript and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Haskell-style typed language compiling to JavaScript, praised for row polymorphism and expressiveness. Critics note it is tied to the JavaScript runtime and that its ecosystem can be thin.

## Why people recommend it

- Row polymorphism (4 comments): "It's orders of magnitude better than Elm and even improves upon Haskell in some meaningful ways (row polymorphism)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559289)) "Even by default you get more power than i.e. vanilla Haskell, with row-types." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796754)) "statically typed languages that support row polymorphism a la PureScript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401402))
- More expressive than Haskell or Elm (3 comments): "If you're looking for something approaching Haskell's expressiveness but with fewer of these issues, check out PureScript." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48218927)) "It's orders of magnitude better than Elm and even improves upon Haskell in some meaningful ways (row polymorphism)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559289)) "Even by default you get more power than i.e. vanilla Haskell, with row-types." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796754))
- Rich type system with ADTs (2 comments): "statically typed languages that support row polymorphism a la PureScript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47401402)) "the language allows for algebraic data types, nominal types, etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46192215))

## What people warn about

- Tied to JavaScript runtime (1 comments): "you're stuck with JavaScript runtime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46261344))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

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