Swift logo

Swift

An innovative new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.
21K
13.1K
+ 1
1.3K

What is Swift?

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.
Swift is a tool in the Languages category of a tech stack.
Swift is an open source tool with 65.6K GitHub stars and 10.1K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Swift's open source repository on GitHub

Who uses Swift?

Companies
2536 companies reportedly use Swift in their tech stacks, including Uber, Slack, and Robinhood.

Developers
14731 developers on StackShare have stated that they use Swift.

Swift Integrations

Sentry, gRPC, Strapi, SwiftUI, and Snyk are some of the popular tools that integrate with Swift. Here's a list of all 73 tools that integrate with Swift.
Pros of Swift
259
Ios
180
Elegant
126
Not Objective-C
107
Backed by apple
93
Type inference
61
Generics
54
Playgrounds
49
Semicolon free
38
OSX
36
Tuples offer compound variables
24
Clean Syntax
24
Easy to learn
22
Open Source
21
Beautiful Code
20
Functional
12
Dynamic
12
Linux
11
Protocol-oriented programming
10
Promotes safe, readable code
9
No S-l-o-w JVM
8
Explicit optionals
7
Storyboard designer
6
Optionals
6
Type safety
5
Super addicting language, great people, open, elegant
5
Best UI concept
4
Its friendly
4
Highly Readable codes
4
Fail-safe
4
Powerful
4
Faster and looks better
4
Swift is faster than Objective-C
4
Feels like a better C++
3
Easy to learn and work
3
Much more fun
3
Protocol extensions
3
Native
3
Its fun and damn fast
3
Strong Type safety
3
Easy to Maintain
2
Protocol as type
2
All Cons C# and Java Swift Already has
2
Esay
2
MacOS
2
Type Safe
2
Protocol oriented programming
1
Can interface with C easily
1
Actually don't have to own a mac
1
Free from Memory Leak
1
Swift is easier to understand for non-iOS developers.
1
Numbers with underbar
1
Optional chain
1
Great for Multi-Threaded Programming
1
Runs Python 8 times faster
1
Objec
Decisions about Swift

Here are some stack decisions, common use cases and reviews by companies and developers who chose Swift in their tech stack.

Shivam Bhargava
AVP - Business at VAYUZ Technologies Pvt. Ltd. · | 22 upvotes · 697.4K views
Needs advice
on
Node.jsNode.jsPythonPython
and
RailsRails

Hi Community! Trust everyone is keeping safe. I am exploring the idea of building a #Neobank (App) with end-to-end banking capabilities. In the process of exploring this space, I have come across multiple Apps (N26, Revolut, Monese, etc) and explored their stacks in detail. The confusion remains to be the Backend Tech to be used?

What would you go with considering all of the languages such as Node.js Java Rails Python are suggested by some person or the other. As a general trend, I have noticed the usage of Node with React on the front or Node with a combination of Kotlin and Swift. Please suggest what would be the right approach!

See more
Needs advice
on
AngularJSAngularJSFlutterFlutter
and
LaravelLaravel

I'm building a web and mobile application for transferring virtual digital currencies between 3 types of users for real-world applications, not in-game. I've been contacting companies for recommendations and estimates, and two have come back with Laravel and either Flutter or Android Studio/Swift. I've been studying Flutter, and I think that's the way to go, but for the web app and backend, Laravel just doesn't seem right. Maybe, I'm so used to PHP that it looks like a step backward or being stuck in the past or for bloated WordPress sites and text document management. And the components of Laravel, although they look handy, are rather pricey. Looking at similar kinds of apps, I see them being built in AngularJS, TypeScript, Node.js. What do you folks think? Thank You.

See more
Needs advice
on
Node.jsNode.jsReactReact
and
React NativeReact Native

I'm researching what Technology Stack I should use to build my product (something like food delivery App) for Web, iOS, and Android Apps. Please advise which technologies you would recommend from a Scalability, Reliability, Cost, and Efficiency standpoint for a start-up. Here are the technologies I came up with, feel free to suggest any new technology even it's not in the list below.

For Mobile Apps -

  1. native languages like Swift for IOS and Java/Kotlin for Android
  2. or cross-platform languages like React Native for both IOS and Android Apps

For UI -

  1. React

For Back-End or APIs -

  1. Node.js
  2. PHP

For Database -

  1. PostgreSQL
  2. MySQL
  3. Cloud Firestore
  4. MariaDB

Thanks!

See more
Chinomnso Awazie
Fullstack Web Developer · | 5 upvotes · 38.7K views

I am a React developer who is bootstrapping a tech startup that will be heavy on multi-platform apps. I am torn between deciding what platform(s) to stick with for the company. I have read a lot about these frameworks/languages, and opinions seem to be on the extremes. Can people who currently work with Swift React Native or Android SDK (individually, or a combination of them) share their realtime perspectives and experiences working with them?

See more
Lucas Litton
Founder & CEO at Macombey · | 1 upvote · 23.2K views

Supernova is a great tool when exporting designs and using the front-end UI code for Swift. The process is quick and easy.

See more
Needs advice
on
PythonPython
and
SwiftSwift

please which is better to learn this year, Swift or Python

See more

Blog Posts

Swift Alternatives & Comparisons

What are some alternatives to Swift?
Objective-C
Objective-C is a superset of the C programming language and provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic runtime. Objective-C inherits the syntax, primitive types, and flow control statements of C and adds syntax for defining classes and methods. It also adds language-level support for object graph management and object literals while providing dynamic typing and binding, deferring many responsibilities until runtime.
React Native
React Native enables you to build world-class application experiences on native platforms using a consistent developer experience based on JavaScript and React. The focus of React Native is on developer efficiency across all the platforms you care about - learn once, write anywhere. Facebook uses React Native in multiple production apps and will continue investing in React Native.
Kotlin
Kotlin is a statically typed programming language for the JVM, Android and the browser, 100% interoperable with Java
Golang
Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.
Java
Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!
See all alternatives

Swift's Followers
13086 developers follow Swift to keep up with related blogs and decisions.