tkinter
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 25 of 45 GUI frameworks by recommenders
Ships with Python so there is nothing extra to install and basic GUIs are quick to build, though modern-looking interfaces, dark mode and accessibility are hard.
Ships with Python so there is nothing extra to install and basic GUIs are quick to build, though modern-looking interfaces, dark mode and accessibility are hard.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Ships with Python, nothing to install
“I love how you stuck with pure Python libraries - tkinter, numpy, and sounddevice.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: VOOG – Moog-style polyphonic synthesizer in Python with tkinter GUI” “it's as available as vim and python and _that's_ the kind of thing I value”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk” “loving, that I don't have to install an additional GUI framework”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Using Python for Scripting” Fine for basic GUIs
“tkinter is perfectly fine but I don't think I would have cared for it at that age.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Gooey: A GPU-accelerated UI framework for Zig” “tkinter is perfectly fine for basic guis”
Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Migrating from Go to Rust” “"good enough" like 99% of the time”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk” Easy to build GUIs
“It's ridiculously easy to build GUIs.”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 in “Bluetui – A TUI for managing Bluetooth on Linux” “tk.Button(text="Hello").pack()”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “How are you automating your coding work?” Impressive standard library module
“The sqlite, tkinter, and shelve modules are the ones I find most impressive.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Using Python for Scripting” “tkinter is the best kept secret in the Python std lib.”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Using Python for Scripting”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Modern-looking UIs are tricky
“trying to do modern kind of interfaces with Tkinter in python and ttk can be kind of tricky/impossible?”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Develop Cross-Platform CLI and GUI Tools with Tcl/Tk” “Native GUI libs look like shit out of the box, and are terrible to work with”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Breaking the Spell of Vibe Coding”
Other GUI frameworks people recommend
The four most recommended other GUI frameworks, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt | 191 | 133 | 59% | 12 | 15 yrs7 owners | — |
| GTK | 85 | 118 | 42% | 12 | — | — |
| Windows Forms | 76 | 33 | 70% | 12 | 15 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| SwiftUI | 75 | 121 | 38% | 11 | 4 yrs8 owners | — |
| tkinterThis page | 15 | 4 | 79% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
20 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“at least made nice scalable native-feeling GUIs and had a sensible API”
“even something like a dark mode is a giant pain in the ass”
“it's as available as vim and python and _that's_ the kind of thing I value”
“trying to do modern kind of interfaces with Tkinter in python and ttk can be kind of tricky/impossible?”
“"good enough" like 99% of the time”
“partially accessible or completely inaccessible”
“tkinter is perfectly fine but I don't think I would have cared for it at that age.”
“Thats why I've always like pytk”
“tkinter is perfectly fine for basic guis”
“Native GUI libs look like shit out of the box, and are terrible to work with”
“It has many good concepts.”
“I love how you stuck with pure Python libraries - tkinter, numpy, and sounddevice.”
“Recently, I used Python and tkinter, which works really well”
“tk.Button(text="Hello").pack()”
“I feel both tools are great fwiw”
“super clunky for interactions I needed heavily”
“tkinter is the best kept secret in the Python std lib.”
“loving, that I don't have to install an additional GUI framework”
“The sqlite, tkinter, and shelve modules are the ones I find most impressive.”
“It's ridiculously easy to build GUIs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.