Xmake
Hacker ApprovedRanked 11 of 17 build systems by recommenders
Free Lua-scripted C/C++ build tool that people find simpler than CMake and vcpkg. Critics find the Lua pitch unconvincing and say it is slow and niche.
Free Lua-scripted C/C++ build tool that people find simpler than CMake and vcpkg. Critics find the Lua pitch unconvincing and say it is slow and niche.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 69%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not 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 carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Far easier than CMake and vcpkg
“the experience was night and day compared to cmake + vcpkg”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Xmake: A cross-platform build utility based on Lua” “The least painful C/C++ build tool I've used is xmake”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++” Works well in new projects
“xmake seems very well-thought-out, and supports the most modern use-cases”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++” “Personally I use them in new projects using XMake and it just works.”
Comment from 29 Mar 2026 in “C++26 is done ISO C++ standards meeting, Trip Report”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lua as selling point unconvincing
“the homepage presents Lua as the main selling point, and the AI button makes me not want to interact with it at all”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Xmake: A cross-platform build utility based on Lua” “Basically the only reason states for why I should use this is lua, and that’s not inherently compelling to me for build tooling.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Xmake: A cross-platform build utility based on Lua” Reported as slow
“it seems to be rather slow, very niche and tbh I can't see a reason to use it over CMake.”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “I built a Cargo-like build tool for C/C++” “My work uses this and it's slooooooow. Would not recommend.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Xmake: A cross-platform build utility based on Lua”
Other build systems people recommend
The four most recommended other build systems, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bazel | 79 | 41 | 66% | 12 | 3 yrs3 owners | — |
| GNU Make | 76 | 42 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| CMake | 58 | 93 | 38% | 12 | — | — |
| Apache Maven | 44 | 42 | 51% | 12 | — | — |
| XmakeThis page | 11 | 5 | 69% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“life is mostly simple and I never do it wrong”
“xmake has proven it is doable.”
“fast like ninja and has no DSL, the build file is just lua”
“it seems to be rather slow, very niche and tbh I can't see a reason to use it over CMake.”
“The documentation gap is the biggest hurtle.”
“xmake seems very well-thought-out, and supports the most modern use-cases”
“The least painful C/C++ build tool I've used is xmake”
“Personally I use them in new projects using XMake and it just works.”
“the homepage presents Lua as the main selling point, and the AI button makes me not want to interact with it at all”
“we voluntarily forego most of the advantages we have learned over sixty years of software engineering”
“I think the creators did it a disservice to xmake when they tried to unluaize the syntax.”
“I find it substantially easier to mess around with compiling shaders to SPIRV, processing assets”
“It took just a couple of minutes to have a working example that fully supported C++ modules and import std”
“the experience was night and day compared to cmake + vcpkg”
“It can generate a Visual Studio project, then use the xmake CLI to integrate and compile the project”
“there no integrations available with Visual Studio”
“My work uses this and it's slooooooow. Would not recommend.”
“Basically the only reason states for why I should use this is lua, and that’s not inherently compelling to me for build tooling.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.