Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Swift VS Elixir

Compare Swift VS Elixir and see what are their differences

Swift logo Swift

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, Linux and z/OS.

Elixir logo Elixir

Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications
  • Swift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

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

  • Elixir Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-20

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

Swift features and specs

  • Performance
    Swift is designed to be high-performance, often running faster than Objective-C due to its modern language constructs and optimized LLVM compiler.
  • Safety
    Swift includes features like optionals, type inference, and safe memory management to reduce common programming errors and crashes.
  • Readability
    Swift's syntax is clean and less cluttered, making it easier to read and maintain.
  • Interoperability
    Swift is fully interoperable with Objective-C, allowing for easy integration with existing iOS and macOS projects.
  • Modern language features
    Swift includes modern programming concepts such as closures, generics, and tuples which can help developers write expressive and efficient code.
  • Memory management
    Swift uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), which helps in efficient memory management without requiring manual intervention from the developer.
  • Active community and support
    Swift has a large, active community and strong support from Apple, ensuring continuous evolution and community-driven improvements.

Possible disadvantages of Swift

  • Newness
    Being relatively new compared to languages like Objective-C, Swift is still evolving, which might lead to occasional stability issues or breaking changes with new updates.
  • Limited legacy support
    Swift does not work with versions of iOS and macOS older than iOS 7 and OS X 10.9, limiting its use in maintaining really old applications.
  • Learning curve
    For developers accustomed to Objective-C or other languages, there is a learning curve associated with familiarizing themselves with Swift’s new syntax and features.
  • Smaller pool of third-party libraries
    Although growing, the ecosystem of third-party libraries for Swift is still smaller compared to more mature languages, potentially limiting immediate availability of tools.
  • Binary compatibility
    Binary compatibility issues can arise, especially when working with a mixed codebase of Swift and Objective-C, requiring extra caution during implementation.
  • Tooling maturity
    Some of the development tools and environments, while robust, can still be less mature compared to the well-established Objective-C tooling.

Elixir features and specs

  • Concurrency
    Elixir leverages the Erlang VM (BEAM) for exceptional concurrency support, making it suitable for scalable and fault-tolerant applications.
  • Fault Tolerance
    Built-in supervision trees in Elixir allow for robust fault tolerance, enabling applications to recover gracefully from errors.
  • Performance
    Elixir boasts impressive performance characteristics, especially for I/O-bound operations, thanks to its efficient concurrency model.
  • Ecosystem
    Elixir’s ecosystem, including the Phoenix framework, provides a rich set of libraries and tools for web development and more.
  • Syntax
    Elixir’s syntax is clean and modern, making it more approachable for developers coming from Ruby or other high-level languages.
  • Metaprogramming
    Elixir supports powerful metaprogramming capabilities, enabling DSLs and macros to add custom functionalities in a seamless manner.
  • Scalability
    Elixir applications can scale vertically and horizontally with ease, making it a good choice for growing applications that need to handle increased load.

Possible disadvantages of Elixir

  • Learning Curve
    Despite its approachable syntax, Elixir’s concurrency and fault-tolerant models can be challenging for developers to master.
  • Ecosystem Maturity
    While growing, the Elixir ecosystem isn’t as mature or extensive as that of languages like Python or JavaScript, which might limit available libraries or community support.
  • Tooling
    The tooling around Elixir, while adequate, may not be as polished or feature-rich as in more established languages.
  • Performance
    Although strong in handling concurrent operations, Elixir may not outperform languages like C++ or Go in CPU-bound tasks.
  • Hiring
    Finding experienced Elixir developers can be difficult compared to more prevalent languages like JavaScript or Python, potentially limiting hiring pools.
  • Resource Usage
    Applications built with Elixir can consume more memory compared to applications written in more low-level languages.
  • Framework Dependency
    Reliance on the Phoenix framework means that projects are often tightly coupled to it, which might limit flexibility.

Swift videos

Honest Review of Swift and First Year Pay

More videos:

  • Review - Maruti Suzuki Swift - Hindi Review - Autoportal
  • Review - 2018 Maruti Swift Review - Still Fun To Drive | Faisal Khan

Elixir videos

Product Review: Elixir - Finally, something good?

More videos:

  • Review - REVIEW SENAR GITAR AKUSTIK TERMAHAL (ELIXIR NANOWEB PHOSPOR BRONZE) ORIGINAL
  • Review - As Seen on IG | Episode 1 | KO Elixir Cream | One Month Update | Product Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Swift and Elixir)
Programming Language
31 31%
69% 69
OOP
19 19%
81% 81
Programming
43 43%
57% 57
Generic Programming Language

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Swift and Elixir

Swift Reviews

Top 10 Rust Alternatives
Swift also stands to be among the general-purpose computer languages used to generate codes. The basics of this language are based on a safer approach for the users.
The 10 Best Programming Languages to Learn Today
With the growing popularity of Apple operating systems and applications, having Swift programming skills under your belt is a wise investment. Swift shares some similar characteristics with programming languages Ruby and Python.
Source: ict.gov.ge

Elixir Reviews

Top 10 Rust Alternatives
Elixir is a functional and all-purpose programming language. It is believed to operate on BEAM and uses the imposition of a programming language known as Erlang. This language is typed dynamically and strongly.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Elixir should be more popular than Swift. It has been mentiond 82 times since March 2021. 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.

Swift mentions (30)

  • Migrating Away from Rust
    It surely is, according to Apple's own documentation. > Swift is a successor to the C, C++, and Objective-C languages. It includes low-level primitives such as types, flow control, and operators. It also provides object-oriented features such as classes, protocols, and generics. -- https://developer.apple.com/swift/ If developers have such a big problem glueing C libraries into Java JNI, or Panama, then maybe game... - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
  • Apple's Darwin OS and XNU Kernel Deep Dive
    Yes, Apple themselves, apparently folks wanting Apple to use Rust don't read Apple's documentation or watch talks done by Apple compiler developers. > Swift was designed from the outset to be safer than C-based languages, and eliminates entire classes of unsafe code. -- https://www.swift.org/about/ > Swift is a successor to the C, C++, and Objective-C languages. It includes low-level primitives such as types, flow... - Source: Hacker News / 27 days ago
  • The Top Programming Languages to Learn in 2024
    Swift is Apple's programming language for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app development. It's known for its performance and safety, making it a great choice for developing apps in the Apple ecosystem. Explore Swift here. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Swift was always going to be part of the OS
    The raisons d'être between the CLR (and C#) and Swift are entirely different. Apple has explicitly set out to adopt swift as a successor language to C, Objective-C, C++, and Objective-C++[0][1]. This stands in stark contrast to Microsoft's vision for the CLR, which was… to be a better Java, more or less? (Does anyone actually know what the .NET initiative was all about? Microsoft went absolutely ham on it... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Local Dev Meetup
    What part of the coding universe are you interested in? Swift? React? Fission Ecosystem? Source: over 1 year ago
View more

Elixir mentions (82)

  • Exploring elixir processes using merge sort
    Elixir runs on the Erlang VM, known for creating low latency, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems. Elixir Docs. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Building a Simple REST API with Elixir
    This guide will walk you through creating a basic REST API using Elixir and Phoenix Framework with thorough comments explaining each piece of code. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • An overview of Elixir from C# developer
    Recently, I discovered a programming language called Elixir. Elixir is described as a dynamic, functional language for building scalable and maintainable applications. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • ABEND dump #15
    The first time I saw and used something similar was using doctests in Elixir 3 years ago, but cram tests are much more versatile. In dune, you can use whichever executable binary. You can make your documentation executable. How cool is that!? - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to use queue data structure in programming
    Knowing this information, we can start writing our implementation of this data structure. The easiest way to implement this will be through another data structure, an array. To implement this, I will use Elixir, a dynamic, functional programming language that has absorbed the best programming patterns, and I like it a lot. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Swift and Elixir, you can also consider the following products

Kotlin - Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

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

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

Perl - Highly capable, feature-rich programming language with over 26 years of development

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.