# System.Text.Json

5 Hacker News commenters recommended System.Text.Json and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Built into .NET and widely chosen as the default JSON library, with better ASP.NET integration. Critics say it lacks Newtonsoft.Json's feature parity, debugging ease and mutable JObject.

## Why people recommend it

- Built into .NET, the go-to choice (2 comments): "The go-to nowadays is System.Text.Json, developed by the same person as Newtonsoft.Json, built in to .NET." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898281)) "The built in one is much better these days and plays well with other subsystems in aspnet." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45899376))

## What people warn about

- Lacks easy debugging like Newtonsoft (2 comments): "Years later, it lacks feature parity, including an easy way to debug like Newtonsoft did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256531)) "Or being able to debug exceptions as easily as in Newtonsoft.Json." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48256577))
- Serialization support missing, ignores System.Runtime.Serialization (2 comments): "they stubbornly insisted on reinventing the wheel and ignoring everything in System.Runtime.Serialization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901281)) "Shame it'll be like 3 years until System.Text.Json sees support for serialization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48255119))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [simdjson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simdjson.md): 12 recommend
- [Jackson FasterXML](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jackson.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "System.Text.Json", https://hackerapproved.com/p/system-text-json/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).