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Stacks575

Followers540

+ 1

Votes399

OCaml

Stacks307

Followers176

+ 1

Votes28

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F# vs OCaml: What are the differences?

What is F#? Strongly-typed, functional-first programming language for writing simple code to solve complex problems. F# is a mature, open source, cross-platform, functional-first programming language. It empowers users and organizations to tackle complex computing problems with simple, maintainable and robust code.

What is OCaml? A general purpose industrial-strength programming language. It is an industrial strength programming language supporting functional, imperative and object-oriented styles. It is the technology of choice in companies where a single mistake can cost millions and speed matters, .

F# and OCaml can be categorized as "Languages" tools.

F# is an open source tool with 2.09K GitHub stars and 341 GitHub forks. Here's a link to F#'s open source repository on GitHub.

Olo, Huddle, and Property With Potential are some of the popular companies that use F#, whereas OCaml is used by Hammer Lab, NG Informática, and Maersk Digital. F# has a broader approval, being mentioned in 25 company stacks & 130 developers stacks; compared to OCaml, which is listed in 6 company stacks and 6 developer stacks.

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Pros of F#

Pros of OCaml

53
Pattern-matching
42
Makes programming fun again
38
Type providers
32
Delightful
30
Frictionless
26
Static type inference
21
Composable
19
Ml syntax
17
REPL
17
Succinct
10
DDD
9
Making invalid states impossible
7
Great community
7
WebSharper
7
Language support for units of measure
6
Functional Programming
6
Powerful
5
Beautiful Code
5
Compact
5
Multiplatform
5
Functional paradigm
5
Computation Expressions
5
Open source
5
Less bugs
5
Productive
4
Allow use JS and .NET libraries
4
Object oriented features
4
Fun to write

7
Satisfying to write
6
Pattern matching
4
Also has OOP
4
Very practical
3
Easy syntax
3
Extremely powerful type inference
1
Efficient compiler

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Cons of F#

Cons of OCaml

3
Microsoft tend to ignore F# preferring to hype C#
2
Interop between C# can sometimes be difficult
1
Hype
1
Type Providers can be unstable in larger solutions

3
Small community
1
Royal pain in the neck to compile large programs

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What companies use F#?

What companies use OCaml?

See which teams inside your own company are using F# or OCaml.

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What tools integrate with F#?

What tools integrate with OCaml?

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What are some alternatives to F# and OCaml?

Haskell

It is a general purpose language that can be used in any domain and use case, it is ideally suited for proprietary business logic and data analysis, fast prototyping and enhancing existing software environments with correct code, performance and scalability.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

Clojure

Clojure is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

See all alternatives

F# vs OCaml