AppKit
Fewer than 5 people recommend it so far, so there's no written verdict. Here is what commenters said.
2recommend
2warn against
Jan 2, 2026first mention
Aug 2, 2026latest mention
Why people recommend it
“basic things AppKit was doing correctly in the late 90s”
“The framework was designed around the assumption that users would become experts.”
Builds native macOS apps in Swift/AppKiton “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since P…”
Caveats and dissent
“Having written actual apps with AppKit, it is horrendously complicated for simple things.”
long-time Apple developeron “SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity”
“leaks are happening on the AppKit”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity 1 mention
- Stop the Apple Music app from launching 1 mention
- Native all the way, until you need text 1 mention
- Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2026) 1 mention
- Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold 1 mention
- Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (March 2026) 1 mention
Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 7
“Having written actual apps with AppKit, it is horrendously complicated for simple things.”
“basic things AppKit was doing correctly in the late 90s”
“This guy run a benchmark vs. AppKit and SwiftUI is still slow in macOS26”
“Technologies: Swift, Objective-C, AppKit, UIKit, SwiftUI, CoreData, REST, Stock/Forex/Crypto”
“The framework was designed around the assumption that users would become experts.”
“Technologies: Swift, Objective-C, AppKit, UIKit, SwiftUI, Stock/Forex/Crypto”
“leaks are happening on the AppKit”