# Snap! programming language

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Snap! programming language and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Snap! as a low-floor language for kids that still scales up to real computer science concepts. Critics say it is poorly documented and rarely used outside its own environment.

## Why people recommend it

- Low floor, high ceiling (3 comments): "consider Snap! ( https://snap.berkeley.edu/ ) over/after Scratch. It's nearly a superset, similarly "low-floor" but much "higher ceiling" powerful language." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941046)) "Snap! is a real programming language with no ceiling, with the visual appearance of a toy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667878)) "Snap! may in fact be better from the perspective of teaching computer science concepts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667716))
- Teaches real computer science concepts (2 comments): "Snap! also teaches real computer science at college level while staying accessible to kids" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663719)) "Snap! may in fact be better from the perspective of teaching computer science concepts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667716))
- Accessible to kids and adults (2 comments): "Snap! also teaches real computer science at college level while staying accessible to kids" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663719)) "This fixes the intimidation problem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49668016))
- Builds on Logo heritage (2 comments): "thank you for all your work not just on Snap!, but on Logo before that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49669187)) "I'm also a huge fan of Snap!, which has all the advantages of Logo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663505))

## What people warn about

- Poorly documented, especially new features (2 comments): "my biggest gripe with Snap is that they don't like to add documentation with new features" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49664647)) "it's not well documented like I mentioned earlier" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49669078))
- Rarely used in real-world work (2 comments): "I still don't see this being used like other languages for real stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49677029)) "it's not really something that's used in the real world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666774))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Scratch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/scratch.md): 69 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Snap! programming language", https://hackerapproved.com/p/snap-programming-language/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).