# Varlink

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Varlink and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A JSON-based IPC protocol from the systemd world, a simpler D-Bus alternative without a broker. Critics note it lacks many-to-many communication.

## Why people recommend it

- Simpler alternative to D-Bus (2 comments): "Maybe you should look at Varlink. The systemd backed D-Bus alternative. It uses JSON." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292711)) "Check varlink, an alternative to D-Bus defined in the SystemD world." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46281220))
- JSON, no binary formats (2 comments): "Maybe you should look at Varlink. The systemd backed D-Bus alternative. It uses JSON." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46292711)) "no binary formats, simpler mechanisms, based on stdout/stdin of processes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46834158))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [gRPC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grpc.md): 25 recommend
- [ConnectRPC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/connectrpc.md): 15 recommend
- [tRPC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/trpc.md): 12 recommend
- [Apache Thrift](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-thrift.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

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