# Tiny C Compiler (TCC)

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/tcc/

26 people recommended Tiny C Compiler (TCC) in Hacker News comments, 10 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 12 months, in 19 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Tiny, very fast C compiler people use for quick development builds and embedding. Caveats: generated machine code is poor and it is not a drop-in replacement for other compilers.

Summary written by Claude from 25 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 24 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Very fast compile times (5 comments in the sample): "use debug mode and tcc compiler for almost instant compile times" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46251815)) "tcc is 8x faster, twice as fast isn't doing it justice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46929238)) "~9x faster compilation - very useful during development" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45858310))
- Small compiler praised as great (2 comments in the sample): "a great small compiler compared to C/Clang" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46373629)) "TCC is probably the most famous example" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46942145))
- Embeddable via libtcc and scripting (1 comment in the sample): "I have used tcc as a scripting language in the past." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50230180))

## Other c compilers people recommend

- [Fil-C](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fil-c/): 110 recommend, 39 mixed, 43 criticize
- [Visual C++](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-c-plus-plus/): 21 recommend, 5 mixed, 15 criticize
- [Claude's C Compiler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-s-c-compiler/): 14 recommend, 20 mixed, 77 criticize
- [DJGPP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/djgpp/): 13 recommend, 0 mixed, 2 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Tiny C Compiler (TCC)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tcc/ (26 recommend, 10 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.