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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to OtterLang – Pythonic scripting language that compiles to native code

Hey HN! I’ve been building OtterLang, a small experimental scripting language designed to feel like Python but compile down to native binaries through LLVM. The goal isn’t to reinvent Python or Rust, but to find a middle ground between them: Python-like readability and syntax Rust-level performance and type safety Fast builds and transparent Rust FFI (you can directly import Rust crates without writing bindings) OtterLang is still early and very experimental. the compiler, runtime, and FFI bridge are being rewritten frequently. Please star the repo, and contribute to help this project.

OtterLang is an experimental scripting language that combines Python-like syntax with native code compilation via LLVM. It targets developers seeking middle ground between Python's readability and Rust's performance… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    New programming language!

    Nov 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Hi friends, I started casually working on scrapscript in 2015. I built a few compilers over the years to test out various ideas/implementations, and I think I'm finally happy with the overall design. The code is not public yet. Email me at [email protected] if you're interested in joining the core team later this year. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback :)

    2023 · scrapscript.org · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Automate text based tasks with fully customizable workflows

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  4. 4

    I'm the lead developer of Otterkit. We've been working on this compiler for the past few months. The goal is to support the latest COBOL 2022 standard and compile it to C# (will support nativeAOT as well) Currently most of the work is being done on the parsing side of it to ensure that it can correctly parse all of the 2022 standard. We're almost done writing the parser, and will soon move to the codegen and runtime library. Please let me know what your opinion is on the project. I'll be here to answer any questions about it. We're also looking for contributors if anyone is interested in…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    I've built many interpreters over the years, and Bolt represents my attempt at building the scripting language I always wanted. This is the first public release, 0.1.0! I've felt like most embedded languages have been moving towards safety and typing over years, with things like Python type hints, the explosive popularity of typescript, and even typing in Luau, which powers one of the largest scripted evironments in the world. Bolt attempts to harness this directly in the lagnauge rather than as a preprocessing step, and reap benefits in terms of both safety and performance. I intend to be…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    A truly logic-less templating language for Rust servers.

    2016 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Hi, I made a bridge (https://github.com/fzyzcjy/flutter_rust_bridge v2.0.0) between Flutter and Rust, which auto translates syntaxes like arbitrary types, &mut, async, traits, results, closure (callback), lifetimes, etc. The goal is to make a bridge between the two, seamlessly as if working in one single language. Then, as an example, I showed how to write Rust applications with GUI by utilizing Flutter. That is discussed in the link in details. To play with it, please visit the GitHub repo, or refer to the end of the article for detailed folders and commands. When I…

    2024 · cjycode.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    a python-like language with hindley-milner-like type system, which is compiled to c - alehander92/Airtight

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    ArkScript is a small, fast, functional and scripting language for C++ projects - ArkScript-lang/Ark

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Cannoli Programming Language. Contribute to joncatanio/cannoli development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Full Stack Python explains programming concepts in plain language and provides links to the best tutorials for those topics.

    2014 · fullstackpython.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12D
    Darklang▲326

    2019 · medium.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    I made this simple language over the past year, and it's time for me to say it's "done" (for now) and focus on other projects. I've struggled to answer the question "what is this language for?" other than "it's just for me" — and that's probably good enough. But I also wanted to make something "complete" that others could use if they wanted to. Writing my own language was an incredibly rewarding experience, and I'd recommend everyone trying it. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback, and please share your own experience if you've also made a language.

    2023 · cassette-lang.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    Ape Programming Language. Contribute to kgabis/ape development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    🔬 a C++ compiler middle-end, using an LLVM backend - artagnon/rhine

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16FS

    Hi HN! I've been working on the fuse programming language, it's a statically typed purely functional language with higher-kinder types and ad-hoc polymorphism. It compiles to the GRIN whole-program optimizer, producing LLVM-generated native code. Fuse supports ADTs, Generics, Type Methods, Traits, Pattern matching etc. all in a functional style with no mutations. I’ve been developing the language for 5 years, with code written in Scala. I’ve started coding the language from the base of System F that was implemented as part of the book: Types and Programming Languages (tapl). And then…

    Aug 2026 · fuselang.org · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    I built Copapy as an experiment: Can Python be used for hard real-time systems? Instead of an interpreter or JIT, Copapy builds a computation graph by tracing Python code and uses a custom copy-and-patch compiler. The result is very fast native code with no GC, no syscalls, and no memory allocations at runtime. The copy-and-patch compiler currently supports x86_64 as well as 32- and 64-bit ARM. It comes as small Python package with no other dependencies - no cross-compiler, nothing except Python. The current focus is on robotics and control systems in general. This project is early but…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Robyn is a high-performance async Python web framework powered by a Rust runtime. Build fast, scalable web applications with Python's simplicity and Rust's speed.

    2025 · robyn.tech · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    spaCy is a free open-source library for Natural Language Processing in Python. It features NER, POS tagging, dependency parsing, word vectors and more.

    2015 · spacy.io · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    A few weeks ago I saw a post about someone converting an entire C++ codebase to Rust using AI in under two weeks. That inspired me — if AI can rewrite a whole language stack that fast, I wanted to try building a programming language from scratch with AI assistance. I've also been noticing growing global interest in Korean language and culture, and I wondered: what would a programming language look like if every keyword was in Hangul (the Korean writing system)? Han is the result. It's a statically-typed language written in Rust with a full compiler pipeline (lexer → parser → AST →…

    Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    An experimental Python-to-C transpiler and domain specific language for embedded high-performance computing - zanellia/prometeo

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    This is a hobby project of mine that I started a few years ago to learn about programming language implementation. It was created 95% without AI, although a few recent commits include code from Gemini CLI. I started out following Crafting Interpreters, but gradually branched off that until I had almost nothing left in common. Tech stack: Rust, Cranelift (JIT compilation), LALRPOP (parser). Original title: "A small programming language where everything is a value" (edited based on comments)

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    PyTermGUI is a highly modular framework offering most of the features one would expect from a GUI library, such as a mature and open Widget API, animations, mouse support and other goodies, right inside the terminal! The markup language is another great feature of the library, and is used by practically all elements of it. It is based on Rich's implementation, but uses a more concise and easier to humanly parse syntax, while being over 10 times faster at parsing due to a long list of optimizations. There is a full Window Manager API included as well, allowing the user to move, resize and…

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    This is an introduction to the "Nature" project: https://nature-lang.org/docs/getting-started/meet-nature I am the author of the Nature language, and today I have released the 0.4.0-beta version. For detailed updates, please see https://nature-lang.org/docs/prologue/release-notes Now, Nature can easily interact with C language. It is anticipated that in about six months, Nature will release a version available to the community. By then, there will be stable syntax API, a complete standard library, and support for development tools. Moreover,…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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