# Qt Creator

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Qt Creator and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, cross-platform IDE for Qt and C++ with a working form editor and reliable debugging. One critic finds its code intelligence weaker than clangd.

## Why people recommend it

- Form editor that actually works (5 comments): "I can whip together a rough GUI using QtCreator and then write the app logic in Python super quickly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46387915)) "With Qtcreator one could build UI full UI in 2 days if the wireframes or a UI already exists." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50308872)) "Qt Quick and Qt Creator isn't RAD per se but I feel like it gets you close." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49811505))
- First-class support for Qt (3 comments): "If you write Qt applications, Qt Creator is perfectly usable and as it's cross-platform you only need to be familiar with one IDE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48903260)) "QtCreator is first-class citizen for everything related to Qt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46216512)) "qt is a first class citizen, it works well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46216884))
- Debugging that just works (3 comments): "The tooling, that is why. Having QtCreator, Qt Design Studio, compiling QML to native code, debugging experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46419100)) "On other IDEs such as QtCreator with clang or gdb it shows the break red dot exactly where the issue is." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50130620)) "Breakpoints just work. Debugging just works. Everything… works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46212362))
- Good enough for most workflows (3 comments): "Qt Creator is actually very good, perhaps unexpectedly so for those who haven't used it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46294349)) "I agree Qt Creator is really good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46294947)) "good enough for most workflows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49978260))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [JetBrains IDEs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-ides.md): 233 recommend
- [IntelliJ IDEA](https://hackerapproved.com/p/intellij-idea.md): 206 recommend
- [Microsoft Visual Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio.md): 165 recommend
- [Delphi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delphi.md): 126 recommend
- [Xcode](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xcode.md): 100 recommend

## Cite as

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