What are the best BASIC-like programming languages?

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Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 18 OptionsWhy?

Best BASIC-like programming languages	Price	Platforms	Desktop targets
92 B4X	Free / paid	Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, Raspberry Pi, Arduino	Windows, Mac, Linux
86 PureBasic	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac	-
-- twinBASIC	Free / paid	Windows, Linux, Mac, Android	-
77 FreeBasic	Free	Windows, DOS, Linux	-
-- Gambas	Free	Linux	-

See Full List

17 Other Options Considered

PureBasic

Top Pro

Standalone executables

Can create single file executables without the need to install other libraries, run time environments, etc. See More

Top Con

Limited free version

Free version is limited to 800 lines and can not create DLL's. See More

SensibleXipeTotec's Experience

Very nice product I like it even more then python. But less support of community, although not bad overall. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Current stable version:5.71

Top Pro

The syntax is very beginner-friendly

Top Con

Some bugs are present on the Linux platform

ThoroughKumarbi's Experience

I've been using it for several years. See More

Top Pro

Same code on Windows, OS X and Linux

Same code can be compiled natively, without any interpreter for OS X, Windows or Linux, using the native GUI toolkit of the OS See More

Top Con

Slightly bogged syntax

Sometimes the syntax bogs down, just a little with long procedure names and such. A truly minor issue. See More

ResponsibleNgalyod's Experience

Once you come to terms with the long procedure names, it is very easy to use. Although you can use APIs, it is not necessary to do so. See More

Top Pro

Many integrated features

Many libraries available without additional installations : 2D & 3D, database, network, sound, xml, JSON, http... See More

Top Con

Not RAD

Not a RAD environment. See More

ConscientiousKisshoten's Experience

Used it for virtually all my home programming since version3 See More

Top Pro

Allows to program at a lower level than most alternatives

ShrewdRehua's Experience

I've written software for both Windows and Linux. It very fast and powerful and includes 32 and 64 bit assembly language--and not just "support" either--if desired,one can (and I have) written software entirely in asm, in the PureBasic IDE. I also use other languages and platforms but most of my work is produced within the PureBasic IDE. My only warning is for new users to be ready to dig into the 2700+ routines PREBUILT for their use. It's absolutely great--I can write more aps, and just plain get more work done, using PureBasic than in any of the "C" dialects (or other) compiling languages. A rather nice bonus is the Form Designer which works very well too. Try it. I don't see how you wouldn't like it. Really, truly. See More

Top Pro

Lifetime license

Pay once, use forever. See More

HelpfulBastet's Experience

Lifetime licence once purchased. Powerful language. Cross platform (desktop not mobile) See More

Top Pro

Constantly updated

AwesomestCoronus's Experience

I've been using PureBasic for many months and I am See More

Top Pro

Supports ARM in addition to x86, AMD64 and others

Top Pro

Can compile to plain C code

Top Pro

Grest user community / forums with the developer very active

See All

twinBASIC

Top Pro

100% Backward Compatible with VB6/VBA

Any code that runs in VB6 will run in twinBASIC (once v1 is released). Code that runs in VBA will also run in twinBASIC, though you need to account for any dependencies on the host application's object model (e.g., the Excel or Access Application object). See More

EagerEileithyia's Experience

Great! See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Android

Top Pro

No runtime requirement

The lack of a runtime dependency makes twinBASIC applications very lightweight and portable. Additionally, compiled executables only include necessary code from any referenced libraries. The classic "Hello, World" program compiles down to an 8 KB .exe with no external dependencies. See More

ProductiveAmirani's Experience

The twinBASIC programming language is a fully compatible replacement for VB6. See More

Top Pro

Compile DLLs to extend VBA functionality

Can be used to extend VBA functionality by compiling standard and ActiveX DLLs in both 32 and 64bit. See More

WittyChibchacum's Experience

Very impressive. Backwards compatible with VB6! See More

Top Pro

64bit compilation is supported

64bit compilation is supported, as well as 32bit. See More

PassionateFulgora's Experience

The only true VB6 succesor See More

Top Pro

At last! a replacement for VB6

At last there is a replacement for Microsoft VB6 - and for VBA too. See More

IndependentCandaules's Experience

I was able to convert 250,000 line RED program over to TwinBasic with no problem. The code runs about 4 times faster than in RED. And when I upgrade to the Commercial version which will have optimized code it will run even faster. Compiles to .exe are lightning fast too, Less than a second in TwinBasic versus 20 minutes to compile in RED. See More

PersistentAngelia's Experience

I'm a VBA professional developer and I have been following the development of TB closely. I've tried FreeBasic. See More

ShrewdPyrrhichos's Experience

The only real VB6 replacement with backward compatibility to date. See More

SharpHehu's Experience

twinBASIC is really good. You can import existing VB6 applications and run them in twinBASIC. See More

ImaginativeHesperus's Experience

At last a 100% compatible VB6 replacement. twinBASIC programming :) See More

ExceptionalHothr's Experience

TwinBasic is turning into VB6.next. the development process is insane, with new features and bug fixes appearing daily. Best of all it aims to be 100% compatible with VB6... See More

See All

FreeBasic

Top Pro

Straightforward syntax for beginners

Top Con

Needs world class IDE

Needs a world class RAD IDE it does not have one currently. See More

MagicalDiana's Experience

I used it as a hobbyist for several years, does everything I've needed. Close enough to C that it can use C libraries (apparently -- I've never needed much more than the built in libraries, there's a lot included) while being intuitive and you can slap simple crap together almost as fast as Python, without the nonsense Python brings. Get an IDE, FBIde works very well with it. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, DOS, Linux

Current stable version:1.05

GZipped size:11.3 Mb

Top Pro

Produces very fast and compact code

"Hello, world" takes about 12kb. See More

Top Con

Niche

Though the user base is talented and helpful, it is small. See More

SupportiveDuberdicus's Experience

Very good. Used it on Win and Linux. See More

Top Pro

Anything can be programmed

Top Con

Requires some background to use well.

To use FreeBASIC effectively, prior experience with C and compiling from a command shell is essential. This is not ideal for a novice. See More

ImaginativeKuiXing's Experience

I've used FreeBASIC for over a decade. The language itself retains the essence of BASIC, and the runtime library is small enough to learn thoroughly but capable enough for quick prototyping. The class style object oriented features allow for managing complexity in large projects, and the ease of using libraries exposing C bindings allows for endless real world application. I've used FreeBASIC for applications deployed in an enterprise environment that hundreds of people actually use daily. See More

Top Pro

Inline assembly

Supports inline assembly. See More

CourageousAnhur's Experience

the only one free basic compiler that does not let miss too much the advanced features of visualbasic. See More

Top Pro

Very well documented help file which helps one ramp up quickly

IncrediblePhanes's Experience

Works in DOS including FreeDOS FreeBasic is a great language and runs in both Linux and DOS. It doesn't come with IDE and I am free to use my own which has advantages. It is quite compatible in code when I work between PowerBasic (DOS) and FreeBasic. It is more up-to-date with modern laanguages than other Basic-like languages out there. Great community too. See More

Top Pro

Unicode support

LoyalPhilotes's Experience

Make sure and use the WinFBE IDE from planetsquires.com Nearly as good as Visual Basic 6 AND compiles to a single, small, fast, executable file. See More

Top Pro

Easy to prototype without massive library includes

IncredibleLodurr's Experience

Fast, modern, powerful, and of course free. So the leadt I can do to show my appreciation to the authors is to give them a thumb up as an encouragement and thanking sign so that they can continue developing FreeBasic. See More

Top Pro

Easy to prototype without massive library includes

TolerantEleos's Experience

FreeBASIC is a great beginners language. It includes everything a beginner needs to learn to move on to a more advanced language. it teaches data types, the basic of OOP, and how to manage a project. It is cross platform. I have used it on raspberry pi, window 10 and X86 linux boxes. I has a good community that is willing to help. The documentation is great and well written. See More

Top Pro

Flexible but familiar

It's still BASIC but with enough new features to allow several programming paradigms. See More

RickZeeland's Experience

Open source basic compiler for Windows, DOS and Linux. Even supports old QuickBASIC programs, 3rd party libraries such as the C runtime library, Allegro, SDL, OpenGL, GTK+, and the Windows API . See More

Top Pro

Gets up and running in a day

With the helpful documentation it takes just a couple of hours to build an application launcher executable for Windows. See More

Top Pro

Soild and dependable since version 0.1

Top Pro

Lots of I/O and functions built-in (and documented), rather than in add-on libraries

Top Pro

Very helpful community

See All

Gambas

Top Pro

Complete IDE for GUI development

You can't find such a level of easy GUI development in any other language on the Linux platform. See More

Top Con

Not cross platform

SkillfulVucubCaquix's Experience

A joy to code with. All other Linux GUI development tools need to look at this implementation as an example of what they should strive to be. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux

Current stable version:3.18.2

Top Pro

Easy to get started for someone familiar with VB on Windows

Top Con

May have trouble interfacing to C code structs

Managed struct objects in Gambas makes it harder to use with C code structs. See More

PoisedHauhet's Experience

EZ !!! See More

Top Pro

Constantly updated

New features and bug fixes along with performance enhancements. See More

Top Con

QT license

Although QT can be used freely for open-source applications, it is not free for commercial use. See: https://www.qt.io/licensing/ See More

TrustingAglaophonos's Experience

Very good programming tool. Easy to use and very much like Visual Basic but not a clone. It's basically Visual Basic but without all the problems of VB See More

Top Pro

Complete application development suite

Supports GTK and QT along with web. Built in Form building with JIT speed. If you are developing an application targeting Linux only give this a look. See More

Top Pro

Fast to write apps

Top Pro

Enhanced with a new test suite

Top Pro

Runs on Windows 10 WSL2 environment, reported successful compilation on MacOS

See All

QB64

Top Pro

Free

Free and open-source. See More

GeorgeMcGinn's Experience

QB64 is an open source BASIC compiler for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. I have used it in Linux and OSX to create binary executable files in support of several research projects. It's ease in integrating C++ header files, including the ability to run Assembler code makes it one of the most powerful BASIC dialects around. The community is very supportive and responsive to issues and enhancements. All development enhancements can be downloaded and tested by anyone prior to an official release, and you have access to the community developers through Discord and its web forum. Having been a PowerBASIC developer, QB64 ranks up with this Windows-only BASIC for both learning and serious application development. I have even wrote and worked on my own Linux system commands (binaries) using QB64 as part of my Ubuntu distro. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Top Pro

Detailed Wiki and active forum

LivelyGoibniu's Experience

Modern, Fast, Friendy, good forum support See More

Top Pro

Fast

LivelyErecura's Experience

I've been working with this for 10 years and I am 99% satisfied with this. Has its small ways of getting used to, but definitely worth learning and an amazing BASIC adaptation. See More

Top Pro

Multiplatform

Has versions for Windows, Linux and macOS. See More

CharmingTumatauenga's Experience

I started with QB64 back in my sophomore year of high school. Didn't realize then how powerful and extensive it was. Since then, I've written several libraries that take advantage of the Windows API as well as some other DLLs and headers. Task dialogs, Win32 native GUIs, Windows Registry, HID, XInput, etc. You can even use web API like REST by using external HTTPS libraries. Very fun to use. 100% would recommend this to anyone starting out with programming, especially if they want to learn C/C++. See More

Top Pro

Can use all memory

JoyousMut's Experience

As a developer working in the QB64 Team, anything I could say is biased, of course. I just wanna thank you guys for the mention. See More

Top Pro

Integrates well with WinAPI

IncrediblePhanes's Experience

The IDE is quite buggy and the developers are real bad people. Some in the community are just as bad as the developers. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use syntax

Makes it fun and easy to develop programs. See More

ConsiderateAuahituroa's Experience

Very good product. And now adds a very cool debugger See More

Top Pro

Very good documentation with plenty of current tutorials

Top Pro

Easy to interface with gamepads and joysticks

See All

AutoIt

Yabasic

Top Pro

Extensive documentation

There is a great in-depth learning resource availabe for new users (link). See More

Visual Basic

Top Con

Microsoft

Microsoft is fickle when deciding what technology it will support. MS has a long list of dead tech littering its path. Foxpro, Silverlight, lightswitch, .net standard, VB is now added to the list. See More

Top Pro

RAD IDE

Has a world class RAD IDE. It is state of the art in a programmers environment complete with one click source control. See More

CreativeGuayota's Experience

NOICE See More

Top Con

Almost as bad as Python, but less used

Top Pro

Huge community

Being Microsoft's introductory language, visual basic has a strong and large community. See More

Scott's Experience

Along with Visual Studio, this was the first language I've ever used that was fun. See More

Top Con

Microsoft does not support it as a first line language

Top Pro

Very good fit for beginner developers

A beginner developer can worry about the code logic first, and then learn the language. Visual Basic lets you do basically anything if you really want, while still having the power to be a fully statically-typed and object-oriented. See More

Top Con

Tends to get clunky due to prebuilt assets

Top Con

Knowing VB is not a well-marketable skill

Being a visual basic programmer, you're unlikely to be taken seriously by other programmers and most employers. In the 2015 Stack Overflow survey, it was voted the second most dreaded language among developers. See More

See All

thinBASIC

AppGameKit 2.0

Top Pro

Built-in Android Export with All Dependencies included

Exporting APK/AAB doesn't require downloading Android Studio and setting up SDK. Everything that is required to build an APK/AAB is part of the package. See More

Top Con

Restrictive virtual buttons

"AppGameKit" does not grant editing the very basic parameters of virtual buttons such as font and text size. The only method some people suggest is to use an image for every single "button". See More

TrustingBebinn's Experience

Best modern representation of BASIC language with export to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Raspberry PI and Web Browser. See More

Specs

Desktop targets:Windows, Mac, Linux, HTML5

Dev platforms:Windows, Mac, Linux

Mobile targets:iOS, Android

3D:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

Performance

Top Pro

Comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

AGK comes with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the Code::Blocks IDE for writing AGK scripts. A key feature of the IDE is its ability to broadcast compiled programs to other devices for testing. See More

Top Pro

Fast development

There are plenty of functions which facilitate development and deployment. For example, the AGK player immediately plays the updated bytecode on Android devices then the online site helps with building an APK file for Google Play Store in minutes. See More

Top Pro

Excellent documentation

Every function is fully documented with examples and exercises. The Tutorial PDF is a full Introduction to 3D game programming with integrated references to every functionality and its most important usecases. The documentation is regulary updated. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Supports developing games for Android, iOS, PC, Mac, Linux and now HTML5. See More

Top Pro

HTML5 support

The AppGameKit Basic can now export to HTML5. See More

See All

Xojo

Top Pro

Language (similar to VB) is easy to learn and use

Top Con

Quirky IDE

While the IDE tries to be a RAD environment it does not leave the programmer enough control over what method or function you are working on from the keyboard. You must constantly grab the mouse to move to the next method. You cannot use pgdn or arrow to navigate through the code file. See More

TolerantZislbog's Experience

Xojo has been around since 1998 and I've been using it since 2001 for internal tools, consulting and making products to sell. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac, Pi, Web,iOS

Visual GUI Builder:Yes

Top Pro

Easy to use

Easy to make compiled native apps. See More

Top Con

Subscription-based/Not free

Using this product you're betting the company will still be around. If they get bought out by an enterprise that wants to use the tech internally, all they need to do is stop offering subscriptions and suddenly you're scrambling to rebuild your entire app on other technology. See More

Top Pro

Fast compiled code

Internal testing show it is faster than gcc and significantly faster than .net 5. See More

Top Con

No Android support

They plan to eventually support Android, but for now, they only support iOS. See More

See All

OpenXava

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

Technology:Java

VB.NET

Top Con

.NET is so messy

Microsoft shenanigans, big size, security, cross-platform issues, etc... See More

Top Pro

Uses .NET

Other than its predecessor Visual Basic, VB.NET uses the .NET framework and can therefore speed up development without too much compromise on speed. You can even use the less bloated .NET core. See More

KindDanand's Experience

Has no future at Microsoft and isn't updated as regularly as C#. If you want to use .NET, use C#, not VB.NET which is likely to be more productive. See More

Top Con

Is Basic-like

It's still Basic-like, that means it uses a lot of space for non-logic. C#, Java, Rust, Go, all of them are way more efficient to read and write. VB.NET has no trick up its sleeve to combat that. See More

Top Pro

Modern

Multicore/thread, GPU accelleration and modern WPF can be utilized very comfortably. See More

UnbiasedParthenos's Experience

I have been able to create a quite complex application using VB.Net. I was able to get help from the community forum and by searching the internet. See More

Top Con

No silly characters

No silly gobbledigook characters like {} for functions and ; for line endings. See More

Top Pro

Object-Oriented

VB.NET is an Object-Oriented basic dialect. Because of that all projects from small to big can be structured well and even after a few years maintain its comprehensive structure. See More

Picblick's Experience

I worked in a medium software company that used mainly VB.NET. They were in the middle of switching to C# because it was easier to find good developers who were interested in C-like syntax than Basic. Nevertheless it is an extremely powerful Basic dialect that can run on most platforms, is very stable and has all the benefits from modern Object Oriented Designs. See More

See All

Blitz3D

ResponsibleIoMatuaKore's Experience

very good basic language that can make 3d games very quickly See More

Specs

Desktop targets:Windows

Languages:Basic

Dev platforms:Windows

BCX

Current stable version:7.8.8

Desktop targets:Windows

GZipped size:1 MB

See All Specs

PowerBASIC

Ruby

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B4X

Top Pro

Powerful general purpose programming tool

As mentioned in its website, "With B4X, anyone who wants to, can develop real-world solutions." See More

Top Con

Some Programming Experience may be needed

The getting started and basic language guides appear to assume some prior programming knowledge which may confuse the beginner programmer. Also since B4X is a wrapper for Java, it may take some knowledge of Java to learn B4X - for example when creating a console-only application. The syntax can get quite complex compared to some other languages when creating console-only programs. Knowledge of using the command line to run a JAR file is necessary as well to run console-only programs. So an interactive console-only application is not quite as interactive as say running a similar program in other languages. A simple input/output console-only program in QB64 would require only a few lines of code and will work in other variations of BASIC such as Liberty Basic, BBC with slight tweaks. Python, Ruby, Nim, etc.. are similar in their terseness. See here what it would look like to produce a similar console application in B4X. Of course, one can totally bypass the need for a console app by using the internal IDE debugger for interactive feedback. To be honest, most developers are not educators and it takes a monumental effort to write or make video tutorials with the mindset of a beginner, especially smaller companies that are one-man shows or only a few developers. It takes a village to raise a competent programmer. With that in mind, the book by Wyken Seagrave "B4A Rapid Android App Development Using Basic" is highly recommended. See More

NicePontus's Experience

just start and See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, Raspberry Pi, Arduino

Desktop targets:Windows, Mac, Linux

License:Apache License 2.0

Languages:B4X

See All Specs

Top Pro

Create easy, fast cross-platform views with less code

B4XUI custom views are designed, by Erel and other forum members, exactly with this in mind; custom views that act and feel exactly the same no matter what platform you target. See More

Gary Chike's Experience

One of the largest and most vibrant communities I've seen for a language that's not in the Top 20 of the Tiobe Index. See More

Top Pro

Live code swapping

A huge productivity boost when you can run your apps on the devices and make code changes real time without needing to recompile. See More

Pete Simpson's Experience

I use B4A (for Android) and B4J (for both Windows and MacOS applications and also for server side solutions) since 2012 to create bespoke applications and network solution for my clients that own and run small to medium size businesses. The B4X community forum really is second to none. The forum is full of extremely talented B4X developers that are always ready, willing and able to help any B4X community members with any development queries that may arise. Anyway Software support staff are extremely easy to get in contact with, so much so that you can either message them via the community forum (preferred option) or via email (software enquiries only) and you will receive an response extremely quickly. See More

Top Pro

The B4X development language

The B4X development language is an advanced version of BASIC but with lots more advanced features included in the package. All the standard views (not the advanced/custom views) in B4A are the actual native views Android uses. See More

Alwaysbusy's Experience

Updates are fast. If a bug is discovered, a fix is released within hours, sometimes faster. Direct contact with the developers from Anywhere Software is a big asset See More

Top Pro

No complexities compared with other tools

No need to learn JAVA, C+, PHP, or any other complementary languages in order to achieve exactly what you need. See More

DependableBachue's Experience

Downloaded the trial, and tried some samples... the easiest way of test and learn. Easy learning-curve See More

Top Pro

A highly motivated program author who is very active in the forums

Erel Uziel is simply the most pro-active Soft-Creator/Forum Manager you will ever come across. If it has not yet been asked & answered, just ask and you will be answered withing minutes, and thanks to it being a trully international forum, this is achieved 24h/7d. See More

ConsiderateKisin's Experience

Vastly simplifies App development for Android, IOS and Java See More

Top Pro

Many code examples of fully working apps for free

The Forum is filled with many code examples of fully working apps for free. Code snippets, animation, different type of views etc. can be easily downloaded and used in your own app. See More

SensibleSaubarag's Experience

I use B4A (for Android) and B4J (for both Windows MacOS applications and also for server side solutions) to create bespoke applications and solution for my clients that own and run small to medium size businesses. See More

Top Pro

B4A (B4X suite of development tools) is constantly evolving and being updated

Anywhere Software are constantly updating their B4X suite of development tools. From updating the IDE to innovating the new XUI cross platform (Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS and Linus) for shared libraries including the XUI2D gaming libraries. Anywhere Software development tools are constantly evolving and excellent improvements come with that. See More

Top Pro

Smart String Literal is an excellent addition

Once you get your head around Smart String Literal, this feature can be extremely useful. Smart String Literal is extremely useful with multi-line strings and is great for keeping your code looking nice and tidy. See More

Top Pro

IDE layout, look and feel

The IDE layout is so intuitive and so simple to use that it actually makes application development less stressful and hassle free. You can accomplish a lot with B4A with very little effort. See More

Top Pro

Debugging in B4X really is second to none, simply excellent

Using the debugger in the B4X suite of RAD tools really is a pleasant experience. The built in hot-swap-able code feature saves developers a lot of time as there's no reassembly necessary. See More

Top Pro

Excellent library creators and wrappers

For a 3rd party applications, it's just astonishing how many great libraries there are on the forum available for B4A, B4J, B4i, and B4R. Using a code module, classes or a mixture of both with or without XUI, anybody can create their own libraries within the B4X suite of development tools and share them on the forum for others to use. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to use and powerful for IoT

Support for Bluetooth/BLE, MQTT, TCP/UDP, Serial, NFC, Websockets, HTTP/2 across platforms make it the ideal tool for IoT projects. See More

Top Pro

Many informative video tutorials

The tutorials help beginners as well as more experienced programmers grasping important concepts. See More

Top Pro

Erel has much passion for his tool

The speed of answer topics is amazing. See More

Top Pro

Almost everything is free and complete

Except the IDE for iOS. Even so it's very cheap. See More

Top Pro

RAD

VERY Rapid Application Development, with tons of pro features. See More

Top Pro

Large user community

Over the years it has built up a very active user community that is very involved in the evolution of B4X. In their forums you can find any answer to your questions, and if it is not there, they will answer you. See More

Top Pro

The B4A (B4X suite) designer

Being able to connect to real online devices and running live designer script code is essential for any design and layout. You can also preview your designs on real devices or in the cloud before testing the layouts in the end products. See More

Top Pro

Creating your libraries with ease and also shared B4X XUI views

Using B4X developers can create their own libraries by using the built-in compile to library feature. Developers can even create a simple library using B4A and use that same library in B4J. The forum is full of libraries that have been created in this way and then shared online for other B4X developers to use. Another B4X feature allows developers to create XUI (cross platform user interface) views that can be used with B4A, B4J and B4i, just create one XUI view and use that view in all three B4X packages. See More

Top Pro

Tightly integrated framework

Top Pro

IDE themes (light, dark, etc.)

The B4X suite of development tools allows you to select from a multitude of color themes for the IDE, if need be you can manually change each individual text color (Comments, Errors, Warnings, Operator, Identifier, Annotation, Numbers, etc.) to suit your needs. See More

Top Pro

B4A and B4i are relatively cheap, B4J and B4R is 100% FREE

The price for B4A and B4i are extremely cheap considering the high quality of the applications. You get a great discount deal if you buy both B4A and B4i as a bundle. If you only need B4J and B4R you can download the full packages and use them for FREE with full technical support. See More

Top Pro

An extremely active forum where you can find answers to any issue you may may come across

The forum is always active and most of the questions that you might want to ask have already been asked and previously answered. When you ask a new question, the chances are that your question will be answered within hours and not days. See More

See All

The Best 1 of 18 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for B4X

My Recommendation for B4X

Powerful general purpose programming tool

Some Programming Experience may be needed

Create easy, fast cross-platform views with less code

Live code swapping

The B4X development language

No complexities compared with other tools

A highly motivated program author who is very active in the forums

Many code examples of fully working apps for free

B4A (B4X suite of development tools) is constantly evolving and being updated

Smart String Literal is an excellent addition

IDE layout, look and feel

Debugging in B4X really is second to none, simply excellent

Excellent library creators and wrappers

Very easy to use and powerful for IoT

Many informative video tutorials

Erel has much passion for his tool

Almost everything is free and complete

RAD

Large user community

The B4A (B4X suite) designer

Creating your libraries with ease and also shared B4X XUI views

Tightly integrated framework

IDE themes (light, dark, etc.)

B4A and B4i are relatively cheap, B4J and B4R is 100% FREE

An extremely active forum where you can find answers to any issue you may may come across

17 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for PureBasic

My Recommendation for PureBasic

Standalone executables

Limited free version

The syntax is very beginner-friendly

Some bugs are present on the Linux platform

Same code on Windows, OS X and Linux

Slightly bogged syntax

Many integrated features

Not RAD

Allows to program at a lower level than most alternatives

Lifetime license

Constantly updated

Supports ARM in addition to x86, AMD64 and others

Can compile to plain C code

Grest user community / forums with the developer very active

My Recommendation for twinBASIC

My Recommendation for twinBASIC

100% Backward Compatible with VB6/VBA

No runtime requirement

Compile DLLs to extend VBA functionality

64bit compilation is supported

At last! a replacement for VB6

My Recommendation for FreeBasic

My Recommendation for FreeBasic

Straightforward syntax for beginners

Needs world class IDE

Produces very fast and compact code

Niche

Anything can be programmed

Requires some background to use well.

Inline assembly

Very well documented help file which helps one ramp up quickly

Unicode support

Easy to prototype without massive library includes

Easy to prototype without massive library includes

Flexible but familiar

Gets up and running in a day

Soild and dependable since version 0.1

Lots of I/O and functions built-in (and documented), rather than in add-on libraries

Very helpful community

My Recommendation for Gambas

My Recommendation for Gambas

Complete IDE for GUI development

Not cross platform

Easy to get started for someone familiar with VB on Windows

May have trouble interfacing to C code structs

Constantly updated

QT license

Complete application development suite

Fast to write apps