Open-source programming languages and compilers in 2026
51 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Go leads with 140k stars, ahead of Rust. 46 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: Apache-2.0 (13), MIT (13) and See repository (10).
Open-source programming languages and compilers
Complete systems you can adopt 1
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1
SuperCollider supercollider
An audio server, programming language, and IDE for sound synthesis and algorithmic composition.
Complete system Production-ready You make experimental or generative music, sound art or audio research and want full programmatic control.
★ 6.8k GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed today
Frameworks and platforms to build on 3
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1
Runtime dotnet
.NET is a cross-platform runtime for cloud, mobile, desktop, and IoT apps.
Framework or platform Production-ready You build applications on .NET and need the runtime or want to contribute to it.
★ 18k MIT C# Active, pushed today -
2
OTP erlang
Erlang/OTP
Framework or platform Production-ready You build telecom-grade, highly available or massively concurrent systems, or run Elixir.
★ 12k Apache-2.0 Erlang Active, pushed today -
3
Imba imba
🐤 The friendly full-stack language
Framework or platform Usable You want to experiment with a concise language that merges UI framework and language.
★ 6.5k MIT JavaScript Active, pushed today
Building blocks for your own system 4
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1
V8 v8
The official mirror of the V8 Git repository
Building block Production-ready You are embedding a JavaScript engine in your own product or working on runtimes.
★ 25k See repository C++ Active, pushed today -
2
Lua lua
A copy of the Lua development repository, as seen by the Lua team. Mirrored irregularly. All communication should be through the Lua mailing list https://www.lua.org/lua-l.html
Building block Production-ready You need a tiny scripting language to embed in an application.
★ 10k See repository C Active, pushed 17 days ago -
3
Luau luau-lang
A small, fast, and embeddable programming language based on Lua with a gradual type system.
Building block Production-ready You need a safe, fast scripting language to embed in a game or application, or you develop on Roblox.
★ 6.1k MIT C++ Active, pushed today -
4
Gravity marcobambini
Gravity Programming Language
Building block Usable You need a small scripting language to embed in a C or Objective-C application.
★ 4.6k MIT C Active, pushed 22 days ago
Developer tools 41
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1
Go golang
The Go programming language
Developer tool Production-ready You build backend services or command-line tools and value simple code, fast builds and single-binary deploys.
★ 140k BSD-3-Clause Go Active, pushed today -
2
Rust rust-lang
Empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software.
Developer tool Production-ready You need C-level performance with memory safety, for systems software, CLIs, services or WebAssembly.
★ 121k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
3
TypeScript microsoft
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output.
Developer tool Production-ready You write JavaScript projects of any size and want static types and better editor tooling.
★ 112k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed today -
4
CPython python
The Python programming language
Developer tool Production-ready You write Python, or need to build, embed or contribute to the interpreter itself.
★ 78k See repository Python Active, pushed today -
5
Swift swiftlang
The Swift Programming Language
Developer tool Production-ready You build iOS or macOS apps, or want Swift on Linux servers.
★ 71k Apache-2.0 Swift Active, pushed today -
6
Kotlin JetBrains
The Kotlin Programming Language.
Developer tool Production-ready You build Android apps or JVM services and want a more concise, null-safe alternative to Java.
★ 54k See repository Kotlin Active, pushed today -
7
Julia JuliaLang
The Julia Programming Language
Developer tool Production-ready You do scientific computing, simulation or numerical work where Python is too slow and C is too painful.
★ 49k MIT Julia Active, pushed today -
8
Php-src php
The PHP Interpreter
Developer tool Production-ready You build or host PHP applications, or need to build PHP or its extensions from source.
★ 42k BSD-3-Clause C Active, pushed today -
9
LLVM project llvm
The LLVM Project is a collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies.
Developer tool Production-ready You compile C or C++ with Clang, or are building a compiler or language tooling.
★ 41k See repository LLVM Active, pushed today -
10
V vlang
Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software. Compiles itself in <1s with zero library dependencies. Supports automatic C => V translation. https://vlang.io
Developer tool Experimental You want to experiment with a new systems language for hobby projects.
★ 38k MIT V Active, pushed today -
11
Elixir elixir-lang
Simple from zero to scale
Developer tool Production-ready You build real-time or highly concurrent services and want BEAM reliability with friendlier syntax.
★ 27k Apache-2.0 Elixir Active, pushed today -
12
Solidity argotorg
Solidity, the Smart Contract Programming Language
Developer tool Production-ready You are writing smart contracts for Ethereum or an EVM-compatible chain.
★ 26k GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed today -
13
Bend bendlang
Bend 2: a fast language that blocks AI mistakes via proof. Install: curl -fsSL https://bend-lang.com/install.sh | sh
Developer tool Experimental You are researching verified or massively parallel programming and want to experiment with a new language.
★ 25k Apache-2.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
14
Ruby ruby
The Ruby Programming Language
Developer tool Production-ready You build web apps with Rails or want an expressive scripting language.
★ 24k See repository Ruby Active, pushed today -
15
Cloc AlDanial
cloc counts blank lines, comment lines, and physical lines of source code in many programming languages.
Developer tool Production-ready You need a quick breakdown of a codebase's size by language.
★ 24k GPL-2.0 Perl Active, pushed 8 days ago -
16
JDK openjdk
JDK main-line development https://openjdk.org/projects/jdk
Developer tool Production-ready You work on the JDK itself; most teams should install a built distribution such as Temurin.
★ 23k GPL-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
17
Gleam gleam-lang
⭐️ A friendly language for building type-safe, scalable systems!
Developer tool Usable You want Erlang VM concurrency and fault tolerance with a friendly type system.
★ 22k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 2 days ago -
18
Crystal crystal-lang
The Crystal Programming Language
Developer tool Usable You like Ruby's syntax but need compiled performance for services or tools.
★ 20k Apache-2.0 Crystal Active, pushed today -
19
Nim nim-lang
Nim is a statically typed compiled systems programming language. It combines successful concepts from mature languages like Python, Ada and Modula. Its design focuses on efficiency, expressiveness, and elegance (in that order of priority).
Developer tool Usable You want compiled performance with concise syntax and strong metaprogramming.
★ 18k See repository Nim Active, pushed today -
20
Odin odin-lang
Odin Programming Language
Developer tool Usable You write performance-sensitive native code and want a simpler, modern C replacement.
★ 12k Zlib Odin Active, pushed today -
21
Pkl apple
A configuration as code language with rich validation and tooling.
Developer tool Usable Your configuration has grown large enough that plain YAML causes mistakes and you want validated, reusable config.
★ 12k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today -
22
GCC gcc-mirror
Developer tool Production-ready You need the GCC source; most users install GCC from their system's packages.
★ 11k GPL-2.0 C++ Active, pushed today -
23
SDK dart-lang
The Dart SDK, including the VM, JS and Wasm compilers, analysis, core libraries, and more.
Developer tool Production-ready You build Flutter apps or want one language for mobile, web and server code.
★ 11k BSD-3-Clause Dart Active, pushed today -
24
Clojure clojure
The Clojure programming language
Developer tool Production-ready Your team values a data-oriented Lisp with full access to Java libraries.
★ 11k See repository Java Active, pushed today -
25
Reason reasonml
Simple, fast & type safe code that leverages the JavaScript & OCaml ecosystems
Developer tool Usable You want OCaml's type system with a syntax familiar to JavaScript developers, particularly for native OCaml projects.
★ 10k MIT OCaml Active, pushed 30 days ago -
26
XGo goplus
XGo is a programming language that reads like plain English. But it's also incredibly powerful — it lets you leverage assets from C/C++, Go, Python, and JavaScript/TypeScript, creating a unified software engineering ecosystem. Our vision is to enable everyone to become a builder of the world.
Developer tool Usable You teach programming or want a gentler Go-compatible language for scripts and data work and are comfortable on a niche toolchain.
★ 9.5k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed 13 days ago -
27
BAML BoundaryML
The programming language for agents
Developer tool Usable You call LLMs for structured data in production code and want typed, testable prompts.
★ 9.5k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
28
Zig ziglang
Moved to Codeberg
Developer tool Usable Use the Codeberg repository; this one is kept only as a pointer.
★ 43k MIT Zig Slowing, pushed 11 months ago -
29
Penrose penrose
Create beautiful diagrams just by typing notation in plain text.
Developer tool Usable You create many mathematical or technical diagrams and want them generated consistently from text.
★ 8k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 3 days ago -
30
OCaml ocaml
The core OCaml system: compilers, runtime system, base libraries
Developer tool Production-ready You build compilers, analysers or financial systems that benefit from a strong type system.
★ 6.6k See repository OCaml Active, pushed 3 days ago -
31
Scala3 scala
The Scala 3 compiler, also known as Dotty.
Developer tool Production-ready Your team uses the JVM and wants a strongly typed functional language, or uses Spark or Akka-based stacks.
★ 6.3k Apache-2.0 Scala Active, pushed today -
32
Ponyc ponylang
Pony is an open-source, actor-model, capabilities-secure, high performance programming language
Developer tool Experimental You build highly concurrent systems and want compile-time safety guarantees around shared data.
★ 6.2k BSD-2-Clause Pony Active, pushed today -
33
Red red
Red is a next-generation programming language strongly inspired by Rebol, but with a broader field of usage thanks to its native-code compiler, from system programming to high-level scripting and cross-platform reactive GUI, while providing modern support for concurrency, all in a zero-install, zero-config, single ~1MB file!
Developer tool Experimental You like Rebol-style dialects and want small self-contained tools with simple GUIs.
★ 6.1k BSL-1.0 Red Active, pushed today -
34
Alda alda-lang
A music programming language for musicians. :notes:
Developer tool Usable You are a musician or programmer who wants to write music in a text editor.
★ 6k EPL-2.0 Go Active, pushed 10 days ago -
35
Groovy apache
Apache Groovy: A powerful multi-faceted programming language for the JVM platform
Developer tool Production-ready You write Jenkins pipelines, Gradle builds or Spock tests, or need a scripting language on the JVM.
★ 5.5k Apache-2.0 Groovy Active, pushed today -
36
Unit samuelmtimbo
Next Generation Visual Programming System
Developer tool Experimental You are interested in exploring visual, live dataflow programming.
★ 4.9k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today -
37
Leo aleo-labs-protocol
🦁 The Leo Programming Language. A Programming Language for Formally Verified, Zero-Knowledge Applications
Developer tool Usable You are building privacy-preserving applications specifically on Aleo.
★ 4.8k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
38
GHC ghc
Mirror of the Glasgow Haskell Compiler. Please submit issues and patches to GHC's Gitlab instance (https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc). First time contributors are encouraged to get started with the newcomers info (https://gitlab.haskell.org/ghc/ghc/wikis/contributing).
Developer tool Production-ready You write Haskell; contributions go to GHC's GitLab, not here.
★ 3.3k See repository Haskell Active, pushed today -
39
Elvish elves
Powerful scripting language & versatile interactive shell
Developer tool Usable You want a shell with a real programming language and are happy to leave POSIX compatibility.
★ 6.4k BSD-2-Clause Go Slowing, pushed 7 months ago -
40
Orca hundredrabbits
Esoteric Programming Language
Developer tool Usable You make electronic music and want an unusual, visual way to sequence instruments.
★ 5.1k MIT JavaScript Slowing, pushed 12 months ago -
41
Wenyan wenyan-lang
文言文編程語言 A programming language for the ancient Chinese.
Developer tool Experimental You are curious about language design or classical Chinese and want something playful.
★ 20k MIT TypeScript Quiet, pushed 3 years ago
Lists, courses and other material 2
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1
Ultimate Python huangsam
Ultimate Python study guide 🐍 🐍 🐍
List, course or other material Production-ready You are learning or refreshing Python and prefer reading and running code to reading prose.
★ 6k MIT Python Active, pushed yesterday -
2
Gopl-zh.github.com gopl-zh
:books: Go语言圣经中文版 🇨🇳
List, course or other material Production-ready You read Chinese and want to learn Go from a well-known book.
★ 5k BSD-3-Clause Go Slowing, pushed 4 months ago
Open-source licenses
- Permissive: 34. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
- Strong copyleft: 6. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
- Weak copyleft: 1. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.
Languages
Go 6, C++ 5, Rust 4, TypeScript 4, C 3, Java 3, Python 2, OCaml 2, JavaScript 2, Swift 1, Kotlin 1, Julia 1, LLVM 1, V 1, Elixir 1, Ruby 1, Perl 1, Crystal 1, C# 1, Nim 1, Erlang 1, Odin 1, Dart 1, Zig 1, Scala 1, Pony 1, Red 1, Groovy 1 and Haskell 1.
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