Swagger
Ranked 4 of 4 API description languages by recommenders
Developers recommend it for generating API docs and a GUI from definitions, and it pairs well with Zod. Critics say its out-of-band approach conflicts with REST.
Developers recommend it for generating API docs and a GUI from definitions, and it pairs well with Zod. Critics say its out-of-band approach conflicts with REST.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Pairs well with Zod
“the swagger+zod integration is pretty decent, though it changes the typical patterns a bit”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Why we migrated from Python to Node.js” “Hono + Zod + Swagger is pretty nice all around”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Why we migrated from Python to Node.js” Automates work from API definitions
“why not let swagger do that for you at compile time?”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “RIP Low-Code 2014-2025” “Swagger evens that advantage.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “RIP Low-Code 2014-2025”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Conflicts with REST principles
“they are the antithesis of REST, because they are the very out of band information that a REST client isn't allowed to depend on”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “The Lost Art of XML” “Swagger and OpenAPI were attempts to solve problems that only exist because we didn't stick with REST”
Comment from 25 Jan 2026 in “The Lost Art of XML”
Other API description languages people recommend
The three most recommended other API description languages, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAPI Specification | 30 | 22 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| TypeSpec | 11 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Skir | 7 | 9 | 44% | 1 | — | — |
| SwaggerThis page | 6 | 5 | 55% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Swagger descriptions+GUI[1]”
“requires one extra hop to pull the details necessary to interact with the api, and it pollutes context in a similar way as mcp”
“why not let swagger do that for you at compile time?”
“every tool that decided to prefer yaml (docker/k8s, swagger, etc.)”
“Swagger evens that advantage.”
“Swagger and OpenAPI were attempts to solve problems that only exist because we didn't stick with REST”
“they are the antithesis of REST, because they are the very out of band information that a REST client isn't allowed to depend on”
“in swagger, from the definition of schema you are not able to easily figure out the related class”
“Hono + Zod + Swagger is pretty nice all around”
“the swagger+zod integration is pretty decent, though it changes the typical patterns a bit”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.