Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
Ranked 11 of 14 scripting languages by recommenders
People like VBA for automating tasks in Office and for code that just works for years, but it is no longer developed and handles modern things like HTTPS poorly.
People like VBA for automating tasks in Office and for code that just works for years, but it is no longer developed and handles modern things like HTTPS poorly.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: 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
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Code keeps working for decades
“VBA code which doesn't use any arcane features would require no maintenance and can work for decades”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Codex for Almost Everything” Plugs into many systems
“VBA plugged into everything with the sysadmin doing 'version management'”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Have You Seen the New Excel?” Easy to get things working
“everything I tried to do in VBA just worked(TM)”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Visual Basic on the PC with Windows 3.1”
Other scripting languages people recommend
The four most recommended other scripting 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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lua | 186 | 62 | 75% | 12 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| awk | 67 | 18 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| AutoHotkey | 44 | 5 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GDScript | 22 | 16 | 58% | 9 | — | — |
| Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)This page | 6 | 3 | 67% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The 'convenient' primitives, that did 90% of the things that need doing can't do the last 10%”
“OLE/VBA was a joke for these things”
“everything I tried to do in VBA just worked(TM)”
“not being developed anymore and not added to, and its a pain to have it deal with modern stuff like https”
“VBA plugged into everything with the sysadmin doing 'version management'”
“VBA code which doesn't use any arcane features would require no maintenance and can work for decades”
“Perfect for creating subtle off-by-one bugs.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.