VBA
Shares rank 99 of 163 programming languages by recommenders
People recommend VBA for getting automations working fast inside Excel and Office, especially for non-programmers. Critics call it a dead language with a poor editor and a legacy-systems trap.
People recommend VBA for getting automations working fast inside Excel and Office, especially for non-programmers. Critics call it a dead language with a poor editor and a legacy-systems trap.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 56%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not 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: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Fast, workable automation for non-programmers
“VBA et al succeeded because they enabled workers to move forward on things they would otherwise be blocked on organizationally”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “6-Day and IP Address Certificates Are Generally Available” “people liked them because you could get something working fast”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “AI agents are starting to eat SaaS” Powerful inside Excel and Access
“Excel, VBA and, where you had one knowledgeable employee, MS Access makes for incredibly powerful”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “AI Is Killing B2B SaaS” “Excel has VBA and a strong API.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “XLIDE: VBA without excel”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Dead language, legacy systems
“a little problematic as is a dead leanguage since 2006”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?” “VBA still has a stranglehold on legacy systems.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “XLIDE: VBA without excel” Poor IDE and error feedback
“it would show a modal error message if the line you'd just written contained a syntax error”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words” “the VBA IDE is a horrible dev experience in pretty much every way”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Ireland’s Diarmuid Early wins world Microsoft Excel title”
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
All 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“MS Office VBA bootlickers”
“it would show a modal error message if the line you'd just written contained a syntax error”
“where the type system was surprisingly strict!”
“Excel has VBA and a strong API.”
“VBA still has a stranglehold on legacy systems.”
“VBA is single threaded only because threads are hard.”
“30 years after Delphi and VBA, we've only regressed in terms of truly integrated development environments”
“deprecating a so powerful language”
“the only automations I got working on windowns/office was VBA”
“Excel, VBA and, where you had one knowledgeable employee, MS Access makes for incredibly powerful”
“I saw dozens of date time mistakes in VBA code, but no tests that would catch them”
“VBA et al succeeded because they enabled workers to move forward on things they would otherwise be blocked on organizationally”
“the VBA IDE is a horrible dev experience in pretty much every way”
“The problem with VBA or PS is that you'll be posted out in 2-3 years and your successor might not even know what VBA is”
“people liked them because you could get something working fast”
“Even VBA had this 30 years ago”
“a little problematic as is a dead leanguage since 2006”
“VBA was a terrible bet for a target language”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.