What are the best alternatives to Java for Android development?

Question

11

Options
Considered

58

User
Recs.

Aug 14, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

11 Options Considered

Best alternatives to Java for Android development	Price	Price	Current stable version
88 Kotlin	-	Free, Open Source	1.2
-- Clojure	-	Free, Open Source	1.9
-- Lua	-	–	–
-- C++	-	Depends on Implementation	Depends on Implementation
-- C#	-	Free	7

See Full List

Request recommendations from the community

I Recommend...

Help millions of people make better decisions.

Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.

11 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Kotlin

My Recommendation for Kotlin

Amazing IDE support

The need for Java interoperability has forced some limitations

MagicalThoas

Java interoperability

No runtime overhead

Easy to learn if you have prior programming experience

Now officially supported by Google

Does not impose a particular philosophy of programming

Low-risk adoption for existing Java codebases

Officially supported for Android development

Easy adoption for existing Java programmers

Great tooling support

Multi platform support

Is built to solve industrial problems

My Recommendation for Clojure

My Recommendation for Clojure

Simplicity as a pillar of culture.

Confusing error messages

Few components of syntax

Huge ecosystem of libraries to work with

Designed for concurrency

Extremely useful tool for automation, configuration and dependency management available out of the box

Interactive development

My Recommendation for Lua

My Recommendation for Lua

Corona

Batteries not included

LÖVE

Easy to make mistakes when declaring variables

Overall language

Fast

Clean and simple syntax suitable for beginners

Very easy to integrate with C and C++

Helpful community

There are lots of quality game engines written in Lua

My Recommendation for C++

My Recommendation for C++

Best way to understand algorithms

Module system is not great

Teaches low-level programming, but doesn't have as many pitfalls as C

Teaches problem solving

Huge language supports most everything

My Recommendation for C#

My Recommendation for C#

Incredibly well-engineered language

Complex syntax

Supports some functional features

Sandboxing has performance implications

My Recommendation for Beeware

My Recommendation for Beeware

Open source

Still in alpha

One codebase. Multiple apps.

Python makes it easier for beginners to start.

My Recommendation for Kawa

My Recommendation for Kawa

My Recommendation for Delphi

My Recommendation for Delphi

Single code base to create Windows, iOS, Mac OS and Android app

Runtime speed

Able to deliver single executable applications

Strongly typed

My Recommendation for Kivy

My Recommendation for Kivy

My Recommendation for Xtend

My Recommendation for Xtend

Difficult to configure in Android Studio

Ruby-like syntactic conveniences

Slower compilation

Type inference

Code runs just as fast as Java

Easy to switch back to Java

Extend even library classes with new methods

Succint

Better defaults than Java

My Recommendation for Ruboto

My Recommendation for Ruboto