# Strudel

77 Hacker News commenters recommended Strudel and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, browser-based music programming language with a visual REPL and no setup needed. Critics say it confuses people without music theory and slows on complex pieces.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs in browser without setup (4 comments): "Being able to just play in the browser without setup helps me focus on the music and less on fiddling with the tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46123182)) "you can just go to strudel.cc and start coding music right from your browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138094)) "more interactive UI in the browser without installing anything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49395456))
- Visual feedback while coding (4 comments): "I get more motivated when I can see it working directly and change some code here and there!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46122594)) "the syntax and visualization are just making the whole thing a real pleasure to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128680)) "one of Strudel strong point is the browser based rich visualization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124682))
- Clear, pretty syntax (3 comments): "Strudel is my favorite, it has pretty syntax, and their interactive guide (with inline REPL) is extremely well done too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358978)) "the syntax and visualization are just making the whole thing a real pleasure to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128680)) "the visual feedback, the simplicity of musical expression" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765538))
- Easy to get started (2 comments): "Strudel is easier to get started with, and definitely more visual/immediate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128701)) "The main benefit of strudel is it’s much easier to get started." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49381280))

## What people warn about

- Struggles on complex pieces (3 comments): "both Strudel and Tidal Cycles seem to struggle on moderately complex compositions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46612525)) "the webapp starts struggling and I find myself back at the drawing board" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137142)) "It had a little problem with stuttering on more complex examples." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46129582))
- License limits use and embedding (2 comments): "strudel's license is so restrictive that it's impossible to use on anything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49246828)) "I wanted to embed it on my blog but couldn’t because of the license." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188534))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [SuperCollider](https://hackerapproved.com/p/supercollider.md): 12 recommend
- [Csound](https://hackerapproved.com/p/csound.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

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