Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

F# VS Haskell

Compare F# VS Haskell and see what are their differences

F# logo F#

F# is a mature, open source, cross-platform, functional-first programming language.

Haskell logo Haskell

An advanced purely-functional programming language
  • F# Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-15

We recommend LibHunt F# for discovery and comparisons of trending F# projects.

  • Haskell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01

We recommend LibHunt Haskell for discovery and comparisons of trending Haskell projects.

F# features and specs

  • Functional Programming Paradigm
    F# primarily supports functional programming, which promotes immutability and first-class functions, leading to more predictable and maintainable code.
  • Interoperability
    F# provides seamless interoperability with .NET libraries and languages like C#, allowing developers to leverage a vast ecosystem of tools and libraries.
  • Conciseness
    F# code tends to be concise and expressive, reducing boilerplate code and enhancing readability.
  • Type Inference
    Powerful type inference capabilities reduce the need for explicit type annotations, making the code easier to write and refactor.
  • Asynchronous Programming
    F# provides robust support for asynchronous programming, enabling the creation of responsive applications and efficient I/O handling.
  • Community and Resources
    An active community and wealth of online resources provide support and facilitate learning through forums, tutorials, and documentation.
  • Multi-Paradigm
    Despite its functional core, F# also supports imperative and object-oriented programming, offering flexibility to developers.

Possible disadvantages of F#

  • Learning Curve
    For developers coming from imperative or object-oriented backgrounds, the functional programming paradigm in F# can present a steep learning curve.
  • IDE and Tooling
    Although F# is integrated into Visual Studio, the overall tooling and IDE support for F# is not as mature as for more established languages like C#.
  • Market Demand
    The demand for F# skillsets in the job market is comparatively lower than for more mainstream languages, potentially affecting career opportunities.
  • Performance Overhead
    While generally efficient, certain operations in F# may incur performance overhead due to the functional aspects and abstractions, especially when not optimized.
  • Library Support
    Although F# can access the .NET library ecosystem, it has a relatively smaller number of libraries and frameworks specifically designed for it compared to languages like Python or JavaScript.
  • Niche Language
    F# is often considered a niche language, which can lead to a smaller community and fewer resources compared to more popular languages.

Haskell features and specs

  • Pure Functional Programming
    Haskell emphasizes pure functional programming, meaning functions have no side effects. This leads to code that is easier to understand, test, and maintain.
  • Strong Type System
    Haskell's type system is strong and expressive, allowing developers to catch many errors at compile time. This results in more reliable code.
  • Lazy Evaluation
    Haskell uses lazy evaluation by default, which can lead to performance improvements by avoiding unnecessary computations and enabling the creation of infinite data structures.
  • Immutability
    In Haskell, data is immutable by default. This leads to simpler reasoning about code behavior and reduces bugs related to mutable state.
  • High-Level Abstractions
    Haskell provides powerful abstractions like monads, functors, and applicative functors, which can lead to more concise and expressive code.
  • Concurrency
    Haskell has excellent support for concurrency and parallelism through its lightweight threading model and software transactional memory, making it suitable for concurrent applications.
  • Community and Libraries
    Haskell has a dedicated community and a rich set of libraries and tools, which can help accelerate development and provide solutions to common problems.

Possible disadvantages of Haskell

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Haskell has a steep learning curve, particularly for developers who are new to functional programming or coming from imperative and object-oriented backgrounds.
  • Performance Concerns
    While Haskell can be efficient, its performance can sometimes lag behind other languages like C++ or Rust for certain use cases, especially those requiring low-level optimization.
  • Limited Industry Adoption
    Haskell is not as widely adopted in industry compared to languages like Java, Python, or JavaScript, which can limit job opportunities and community size.
  • Compilation Times
    Haskell's compilation times can be long, especially for large projects, which can slow down the development process.
  • Tooling and IDE Support
    While improving, the tooling and IDE support for Haskell is not as mature as for some other popular languages, potentially affecting developer productivity.
  • Complexity of Advanced Features
    Some of Haskell's advanced features, such as monads and type-level programming, can be complex and difficult to master, which can be a barrier for new developers.
  • Library Gaps
    Although Haskell has many libraries, there might be gaps or less mature libraries for some specific use cases compared to more mainstream languages.

F# videos

F# Software Foundation Year in Review

More videos:

  • Review - F# Blues Harp Review
  • Review - F# base Bhavika flute review by Dhyey patel ji

Haskell videos

Functional Programming & Haskell - Computerphile

More videos:

  • Review - Marloe Haskell Review
  • Review - Marloe Watch Company - Haskell - Watch Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to F# and Haskell)
Programming Language
39 39%
61% 61
OOP
42 42%
58% 58
Generic Programming Language
Development
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Haskell might be a bit more popular than F#. We know about 21 links to it since March 2021 and only 21 links to F#. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

F# mentions (21)

  • What's New in F# 9
    It's an open-source project with its own F# Software Foundation. If Microsoft drops it, I think it would continue. https://fsharp.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Rust panics under the hood, and implementing them in .NET
    Before Rich made Clojure for the JVM, he wrote dotLisp[1] for the CLR. Not long after Clojure was JVM hosted, it was also CLR hosted[2]. One of my first experiences with ML was F#[3], a ML variant that targets the CLR. These all predate the MIT licensed .net, but prior to that there was mono, which was also MIT licensed. 1: https://dotlisp.sourceforge.net/dotlisp.htm 2: https://github.com/clojure/clojure-clr. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Roc – A fast, friendly, functional language
    Oh yeah. A key hindrance of F# is that MS treats it like a side project even though it's probably their secret weapon, and a lot of the adopters are dotnet coders who already know the basics so the on-boarding is less than ideal. https://fsharp.org/ is the best place to actually start. https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/ is the standard recommendation from there but there's finally some good youtube and other... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Building React Components Using Unions in TypeScript
    Naturally I’d recommend using a better language such as ReScript or Elm or PureScript or F#‘s Fable + Elmish, but “React” is the king right now and people perceive TypeScript as “less risky” for jobs/hiring, so here we are. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • I am a ChatGPT bot - Ask me anything #2
    Are you really a bot? Yes, I'm a small F# program that glues together the public API's provided by Reddit and OpenAI. I was created by /u/brianberns. You can find my source code here. Source: about 2 years ago
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Haskell mentions (21)

  • Is there a programming language that will blow my mind?
    Haskell - a general-purpose functional language with many unique properties (purely functional, lazy, expressive types, STM, etc). You mentioned you dabbled in Haskell, why not try it again? (I've written about 7 things I learned from Haskell, and my book is linked at them bottom if you're interested :) ). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Where to go from here?
    Where you go is entirely up to you. According to haskell.org, Haskell jobs are a-plenty. sigh. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Haskell.org now has "Get Started" page!
    Should they be part of haskell.org or something else? Source: over 2 years ago
  • Haskell.org now has "Get Started" page!
    Haskell.org now has a big purple Get Started button that takes you to a nice short guide (haskell.org/get-started) that quickly provides all the basic info to get going with Haskell. It is aimed for beginners, to reduce choice fatigue and to give them a clear, official path to get going. Source: over 2 years ago
  • dev environment for windows
    I just jumped into the wiki "Write Yourself a Scheme in 48 hours" which looks pretty good. (although some of the text explanation is hard to understand without context).. I used cabal to set up the starter project. Sublime editor seems to work OK and I just use the git Bash shell on windows to compile the program directly on the command line. So maybe this is all good enough for now (?). It seems installing... Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing F# and Haskell, you can also consider the following products

Elixir - Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications

Python - Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

Clojure - Clojure is a dynamic, general-purpose programming language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming.

JavaScript - Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions