# Slint

36 Hacker News commenters recommended Slint and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A free, native cross-platform UI toolkit for desktop and embedded apps, usable from Rust, C++, Python or JavaScript without a browser runtime. Critics most often raise licensing limits and hard-to-customise widgets.

## Why people recommend it

- Native cross-platform, no browser runtime (4 comments): "We're actually working on a native open source cross-platform UI toolkit called Slint that's trying to do exactly that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868421)) "It’s a native, cross-platform UI framework for desktop and embedded (Rust/C++/Python/JS), with no browser runtime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656928)) "There is no browser under the hood so it is much more lightweight." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47689912))
- Runs on embedded and desktop (4 comments): "Slint is the main one that will go smaller than that (it will run on actual MCU if you need it to)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48310003)) "It's early days but it's looking very promising and is light enough to work on embedded systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118025)) "one missing from that list: Slint, which i work on. runs on Linux, Windows, macOS and embedded" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48631625))
- Usable from several languages (3 comments): "the UI layer is decoupled from the application language, so you can use Rust, JavaScript, Python, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868464)) "It’s a native, cross-platform UI framework for desktop and embedded (Rust/C++/Python/JS), with no browser runtime" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46656928)) "Slint has nice QML syntax for UI and logic (and the underlying framework) is written in Rust." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545906))
- Lightweight and faster than Electron (3 comments): "significantly faster and more lightweight than Electron" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48527909)) "There is no browser under the hood so it is much more lightweight." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47689912)) "It's early days but it's looking very promising and is light enough to work on embedded systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118025))

## What people warn about

- Licensing restricts some uses (4 comments): "its more permissive license is made for desktop apps and explicitly forbid embedded (so automotive)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47330429)) "They are more restrictive than most of the Rust ecosystem being dual Apache/MIT" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47688776)) "Licensing a library as GPLv3 severely limits where it can or should be used." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47026673))
- Custom theming and look are hard (2 comments): "Slint has invented their own set of UI components, so slint apps don't look and feel like anything else." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49242498)) "It's virtually impossible to make a custom theme without re-implementing most widget logic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47757439))
- Missing dynamic widgets and callbacks (2 comments): "Not being able to dynamically insert widgets from code was the only thing that turned me off of it for my use case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47752743)) "the more you use it, the more you run into limitations like missing async support for callbacks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47693423))
- Boilerplate setup and thin docs (2 comments): "in some ways it is weird and it requires quite a lot of boilerplate setup" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47003586)) "tutorials and docs are still lacking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48517668))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Qt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qt.md): 191 recommend
- [GTK](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gtk.md): 85 recommend
- [Windows Forms](https://hackerapproved.com/p/winforms.md): 76 recommend
- [SwiftUI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/swiftui.md): 75 recommend
- [Tcl/Tk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tcl-tk.md): 61 recommend

## Cite as

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