Polars
Fast DataFrame library written in Rust with Python bindings, built on Apache Arrow.
HN commenters like Polars as a pandas replacement123 with a cleaner, more consistent expression-based API456 and much faster performance.789 Caveats include frequent deprecations between minor releases and streaming that can still load everything into memory,1011 and some users stick with pandas out of habit or prefer DuckDB for heavier jobs.121314
Why people recommend it
Cleaner API · 3
Commenters find its syntax more intuitive, more consistent and less error-prone than pandas.
“Tools like Polars and dplyr and even SQL require code that's far closer to how people think.”
“polars and duckdb are objectively better APIs in addition to their implementation improvements”
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“This has been my go-to library for data processing due to the enhanced ergonomics compared to Pandas and SQL.”
Performance · 3
Users report much faster, multithreaded processing, including large speedups over legacy code.
“If performance is important then I'd strongly recommend trying it out.”
“I made the backend swappable, polars or duckdb. Got a 40-80x speed improvement.”
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“I use Polars 2.0(rc) to (pre)calculate billions of weather scores on https://therno.com and it has been a lifesaver”
Pandas replacement · 3
Many have switched from pandas and push their teams to do the same.
“I love polars. Did a lot of evangelizing in work to get people to give up pandas in favor of it.”
“Polars has been around for a bit and as noted it is much better than pandas”
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“people in my network have been talking about polars (as an alternative to pandas)”
Expressions · 3
The pl.col expressions are declarative, deferred and reusable across dataframes.
“I use Polars at work because it’s just (subjectively) nicer to work with.”
“Now I can do things I couldn't even dream of with Pandas! And it's fast, too!”
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“If performance is important then I'd strongly recommend trying it out.”
Rust foundation · 2
Its Rust core on Arrow is exposed to Python through PyO3 bindings.
“successfully solved the interface boundayr problems described in the article”
“Polars Rust is built on Arrow and packed_simd.”
Maturity · 1
One commenter says its documentation and resources are mature enough for daily use.
“Polars is more than mature enough in both documentation and resources for it to be a daily driver.”
Caveats and dissent
API churn · 1
Minor releases often deprecate, remove or change features.
“Polars is one of the few Python libraries from the hundreds I use that I need to read the notes of every minor release”
Streaming leaks · 1
Python streaming interfaces sometimes still materialized all data into memory.
“Almost every time I would use its streaming interfaces in Python, it would STILL materialize everything into memory.”
Pandas inertia · 2
Some users and teams stay with pandas because they know its API well.
“I use polars or duckdb now exclusively. Better syntax, better performance.”
DuckDB alternative · 2
Some commenters prefer DuckDB or ClickHouse for larger workloads.
“Personally I switched to using DuckDB instead of polars for most things where pandas is too slow.”
Exploratory research · 1
One commenter keeps pandas for interactive research and uses Polars only in production.
“I use pandas for research and polars for production systems.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“we use it as a fallback mechanism for things that aren't supported yet in the new engine”
Threads where it came up
- Pre-Release of Polars 2.0 6 mentions
- Pandas Should Go Extinct 5 mentions
- Polars 2.0 4 mentions
- Python Polars Cheatsheet (based on our O'Reilly book) 2 mentions
- Pandas Exercises for Data Analysis (Interactive) 2 mentions
- Libraries Run Rust Inside Python (With PyO3) 1 mention
Also written as polars. Data: polars.json. 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 27
“Tools like Polars and dplyr and even SQL require code that's far closer to how people think.”
“Polars is great”
“It's also got much better support for more complex array shapes”
“I use Polars 2.0(rc) to (pre)calculate billions of weather scores on https://therno.com and it has been a lifesaver”
“successfully solved the interface boundayr problems described in the article”
“I use Polars at work because it’s just (subjectively) nicer to work with.”
“polars and duckdb are objectively better APIs in addition to their implementation improvements”
“Polars is more than mature enough in both documentation and resources for it to be a daily driver.”
“Polars has been around for a bit and as noted it is much better than pandas”
“I use polars or duckdb now exclusively. Better syntax, better performance.”
“But for data exploration, I usually prefer Polars”
“If performance is important then I'd strongly recommend trying it out.”
“This has been my go-to library for data processing due to the enhanced ergonomics compared to Pandas and SQL.”
“Polars is one of the few Python libraries from the hundreds I use that I need to read the notes of every minor release”
“I love polars. Did a lot of evangelizing in work to get people to give up pandas in favor of it.”
“Now I can do things I couldn't even dream of with Pandas! And it's fast, too!”
“Almost every time I would use its streaming interfaces in Python, it would STILL materialize everything into memory.”
“Polars Rust is built on Arrow and packed_simd.”
“people in my network have been talking about polars (as an alternative to pandas)”
“tools like DuckDB or Polars can read only the columns they need”
“I use pandas for research and polars for production systems.”
“Polars seems to be the most prominent competitor in the Python DataFrame space”
“I made the backend swappable, polars or duckdb. Got a 40-80x speed improvement.”
“numpy/scipy/matplotlib/pandas/plotly/polars/pyarrow/jupyter, which is essential to my work”
“Python+Pandas/Polars+Jupyter notebooks”
“Personally I switched to using DuckDB instead of polars for most things where pandas is too slow.”
“another reason I love polars”