# Wuffs

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Wuffs and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended for writing memory-safe file decoders that run fast, since the compiler proves safety without runtime bounds checks. Caveat: programs take longer to write because of explicit safety proofs.

## Why people recommend it

- No runtime bounds checks (2 comments): "WUFFS illustrates that if we're willing to give up generality we can have a language which is entirely safe but doesn't do runtime bounds checks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50193498)) "it isn't emitting bounds checks it just checks that you proved you don't have bounds misses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48622514))
- Safety checked at compile time (3 comments): "It has compile-time spatial memory safety, where Rust has compile-time temporal safety but runtime spatial safety" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920193)) "WUFFS is able to guarantee safety of the codec at compile time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49956437)) "all of the safety in WUFFS was checked during compilation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49057310))
- Fast, sometimes rivals handwritten code (4 comments): "WUFFS provides strong concrete evidence. A WUFFS image decoder is entirely safe because that was the whole point, but it's also a lot faster" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49387490)) "WUFFS can actually rival handwritten implementations in certain cases." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346129)) "you'll see benchmarks very favorably comparing to rust implementations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45924755))
- Suggested for safe parser design (5 comments): "really this kind of problem screams out for the approach taken in WUFFS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45946058)) "we should use a language purpose-built to do that safely" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50282840)) "replace all parsers with something at least as safe as" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750117))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Rust](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rust.md): 2039 recommend
- [Go](https://hackerapproved.com/p/go-programming-language.md): 1254 recommend
- [Python](https://hackerapproved.com/p/python.md): 1067 recommend
- [Zig](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zig.md): 743 recommend
- [TypeScript](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typescript.md): 574 recommend

## Cite as

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