VB.NET
Shares rank 110 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
People recommend VB.NET for readable, beginner-friendly syntax on .NET. Common caveat: critics say it is largely C# with VB syntax and lost VB 6's distinct character.
People recommend VB.NET for readable, beginner-friendly syntax on .NET. Common caveat: critics say it is largely C# with VB syntax and lost VB 6's distinct character.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 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
Readable, less C-style clutter
“I find it more legible and beginner-friendly than any C-derived languages.”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?” “the code is vastly more readable (to me) than C-style code”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “.NET 10” “vastly more readable than C/C#/Java etc.”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?” Easier than many other languages
“So much easier then JavaScript/typescript, Python, and many other languages.”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?” “In some ways it's actually easier than VB6”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Feels like C# with VB syntax
“VB.NET was a different beast, and C# was a superior language. But it was never the same.”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “What did you love about VB6?” “VB.NET has the verbosity of C# but with none of the benefits.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “What if there was no BASIC in EndBASIC? – by Julio Merino” “Unfortunately it was a one-to-one match to C#.”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?” - Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Thoreau BASIC – What if BASIC hadn't gone out of fashion?”
Lost VB 6's distinct strengths
“However VB 6 had much easier way to deal with COM interop, and had better AOT developer experience versus Native AOT in .NET.”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “XLIDE: VBA without excel” “for what it could have been, its definitely not the same”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “I'm writing a history of Visual Basic, Chapter 1 is up” Seen as a poor design
“This was something VB.NET fixed but was also why VB.NET was (in my opinion) a failure.”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “What if there was no BASIC in EndBASIC? – by Julio Merino” “VB.Net was a very thin veneer of VB on top of the .Net runtime. It was not good.”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available”
Other programming languages people recommend
The four most recommended other programming 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.
See all 163 programming languages, rankedWhat people said
20 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I find it more legible and beginner-friendly than any C-derived languages.”
“VB.NET was worst of both worlds”
“VB.NET can do everything what you can do with C#.”
“Unfortunately it was a one-to-one match to C#.”
“So much easier then JavaScript/typescript, Python, and many other languages.”
“I loved it back in the early 2000s.”
“vastly more readable than C/C#/Java etc.”
“VB.Net was a very thin veneer of VB on top of the .Net runtime. It was not good.”
“However VB 6 had much easier way to deal with COM interop, and had better AOT developer experience versus Native AOT in .NET.”
“This was something VB.NET fixed but was also why VB.NET was (in my opinion) a failure.”
“VB.NET has the verbosity of C# but with none of the benefits.”
“VB.NET is open source, supports AOT, and there is little else that VB 6 does better”
“for what it could have been, its definitely not the same”
“No, a VB.NET migration isn't feasible.”
“let's rewrite the entire thing as VB.NET and make it completely different”
“VB.NET was a different beast, and C# was a superior language. But it was never the same.”
“should have migrated to VB.NET by now”
“You can still have that experience with VB.NET, C#, Delphi”
“In some ways it's actually easier than VB6”
“the code is vastly more readable (to me) than C-style code”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.