QML
Shares rank 18 of 45 GUI frameworks by recommenders
Declarative UI language from Qt that people use with C++ logic to build fast, animated interfaces; critics say its JavaScript side and tooling are weak.
Declarative UI language from Qt that people use with C++ logic to build fast, animated interfaces; critics say its JavaScript side and tooling are weak.
37 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 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
Clean split between C++ logic and UI
“I love the separation between the logic being written in C++ and UI in QML I think it's absolutely a great combo”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML” “These days you write the logic in C++ and UI in QML which is a very pleasent experience.”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “Native all the way, until you need text” “allows better separation of business logic (written in C++) and graphical interface”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “App Store web has exposed all its source code” - Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “Swift on Android: Full Native App Development Now Possible”
Quick to build animated, pixel-perfect UIs
“It is far simpler to create amazing pixel perfect UIs with drooling-inducing animations in QML.”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “The Codex App” “QML is a great language for writing beautiful, responsive, modern UI with animations easily”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Iced 0.14 has been released (Rust GUI library)” “simple things like your mentioned watchface idea are really quick to do in QML”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: AsteroidOS 2.0 – Nobody asked, we shipped anyway” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Writing a blatant Telegram clone using Qt, QML and Rust. And C++”
- Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “KDE onboarding is good now”
Easy to learn, quick to be productive
“I think QML is very easy to get started with and you should just give it a go.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Writing a blatant Telegram clone using Qt, QML and Rust. And C++” “I'd picked up QML pretty quickly and got productive faster than WPF/XAML”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “KDE turns 30 and someone's brought an AI-native desktop proposal” Readable and lean on devices
“Qt is very close to native C++, so both are actually quite lean and fast on these devices”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: AsteroidOS 2.0 – Nobody asked, we shipped anyway” “Haven't seen any other come even remotely close to the readability of Qml.”
Comment from 2 Aug 2026 in “I don't recommend Tailwind CSS”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
JavaScript part is weak or messy
“For simple stuff, qml is OK/better (except the JS part)”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Sycamore – next gen Rust UI library powered by fine-grained reactivity” “QML is complete trash. It's fine for simple UIs with minimal logic and prototypes but for anything beyond that you'll always need to implement the logic in C++”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML” “Qt Qml (essentially object embedded javascript, capturing js and all of callback hell in single swoop) slapped on top of C++”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “KDE onboarding is good now” - Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Deno Desktop”
Mobile performance is janky
“jankier on mobile than Flutter or Swift would be”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Swift on Android: Full Native App Development Now Possible” “starting a new mobile UI with QML these days is just madness IMHO”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Swift on Android: Full Native App Development Now Possible” Not a native look and feel
“does not provide native look and feel and requires (or at least used to require) a lot of manual work”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” “QML is an entirely separate widget toolkit that really isn't a great fit for desktop programs”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” Weak tooling and no compile-time checks
“The real problem is when you change your properties or your underlying types or the methods, their names or signatures and NOTHING tells you which part of your QML code will be affected.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Developing a Beautiful and Performant Block Editor in Qt C++ and QML” “doesn't integrate with the wider JS tooling”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold”
Other GUI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other GUI frameworks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt | 191 | 133 | 59% | 12 | 15 yrs7 owners | — |
| GTK | 85 | 118 | 42% | 12 | — | — |
| Windows Forms | 76 | 33 | 70% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| SwiftUI | 75 | 121 | 38% | 11 | 4 yrs8 owners | — |
| QMLThis page | 21 | 16 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 50 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I first encountered this behaviour on Linux desktop with Qt QML apps as far back as 2015.”
“It's like a peek into a CSS future from a different timeline. Something we could have had.”
“I'd picked up QML pretty quickly and got productive faster than WPF/XAML”
“Or a functional clone of QML with some improvements.”
“QML is legitimately good.”
“Haven't seen any other come even remotely close to the readability of Qml.”
“QML/JavaScript is a horrible mess and not suitable for desktop software”
“Qt QML is already annoying in C++ since you have to juggle 2 lifetime systems”
“These days you write the logic in C++ and UI in QML which is a very pleasent experience.”
“QML is an entirely separate widget toolkit that really isn't a great fit for desktop programs”
“doesn't integrate with the wider JS tooling”
“does not provide native look and feel and requires (or at least used to require) a lot of manual work”
“I think what you're asking for has existed for a long, long time.”
“it works quite well in the desktop”
“For simple stuff, qml is OK/better (except the JS part)”
“Give Qt with QML a try! I wrote a blog post about it”
“Qt is very close to native C++, so both are actually quite lean and fast on these devices”
“simple things like your mentioned watchface idea are really quick to do in QML”
“It is far simpler to create amazing pixel perfect UIs with drooling-inducing animations in QML.”
“since it's not a browser it has a much simper runtime available for the js that you write”
“starting a new mobile UI with QML these days is just madness IMHO”
“QML is great for UI, it's just that Qt developers”
“I think the combo of QML & C++ is great since QML lets you focus on the UI”
“IMO it's a nice experience.”
“It's incredible language for UI.”
“You still can’t control the Qml code via Rust or whatever interop language you use.”
“Qt Qml (essentially object embedded javascript, capturing js and all of callback hell in single swoop) slapped on top of C++”
“jankier on mobile than Flutter or Swift would be”
“it does not have feature parity with Qt Widgets, so you end up having to roll up your own components”
“The real problem is when you change your properties or your underlying types or the methods, their names or signatures and NOTHING tells you which part of your QML code will be affected.”
“I love the separation between the logic being written in C++ and UI in QML I think it's absolutely a great combo”
“QML is complete trash. It's fine for simple UIs with minimal logic and prototypes but for anything beyond that you'll always need to implement the logic in C++”
“we have two totally separate UI frameworks where you can either use the nice native QtWidgets”
“I think QML is very easy to get started with and you should just give it a go.”
“QML is a great language to make GUIs”
“QML is a great language for writing beautiful, responsive, modern UI with animations easily”
“But then you lose the aforementioned breadth of features and compatibilities with all the browser code ever written.”
“QML is not exactly like HTML, but in a lot of ways it's better.”
“Indeed, I wrote my note-taking app using Qt with QML”
“allows better separation of business logic (written in C++) and graphical interface”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.