Awesome C++: a curated list of C++ libraries
/awesome-cpp
Awesome C++ is a hand-curated directory of C++ and C libraries, grouped by problem domain rather than dumped alphabetically. The real value is the license tag attached to every entry — you can rule out GPL-only options before you even click through. It's worth bookmarking as a starting point for a new subsystem, though the entries themselves are one-line pitches, not reviews.
Overview of the curated list
Awesome C++ is a single GitHub README that indexes C++ and C libraries by category — Standard Libraries, Frameworks, Artificial Intelligence, Audio, and dozens of others. Every entry gets a one-line description plus a license tag like [MIT] or [Boost] in brackets. It's a discovery index, not a tutorial or a replacement for the standard library docs.
What the list covers
- ✓Standard Libraries and Frameworks sections cover STL alternatives, cross-platform utility libs like Boost and Abseil, and app frameworks like Qt and JUCE.
- ✓A full Artificial Intelligence category lists C++ tools for neural nets, deep learning, and speech recognition — TensorFlow, PyTorch, Kaldi, and more.
- ✓An Asynchronous Event Loop section rounds up the async I/O libraries (Asio, libuv, libevent, libhv) developers reach for in networked C++ code.
- ✓Domain-specific sections go into niches most awesome-lists skip: Audio, Biology (bioinformatics), BitTorrent, and Chemistry (quantum/molecular simulation).
- ✓A CLI section catalogs argument-parsing and terminal UI libraries like CLI11, argparse, and Boost.Program_options.
- ✓Every entry is tagged with its license in brackets ([MIT], [BSD], [GPL], [Boost]) right next to the description, so you can filter by license without opening each repo.
When to use Awesome C++
- •Starting a new C++ subsystem and wanting to survey options before writing your own — check the relevant category before reinventing an argument parser or event loop.
- •Filtering libraries by license before you commit to one, since the [MIT]/[BSD]/[GPL] tags are visible without opening every repo.
- •Scoping unfamiliar C++ niches like bioinformatics or quantum chemistry where you don't already know the landmark libraries.
- •Cross-checking whether a library you're evaluating has a maintained header-only or single-file alternative listed nearby.
Strengths
- ✓License tags are printed inline for nearly every entry, which saves a trip to each repo just to check if it's GPL.
- ✓Categories go beyond the usual JSON-parsers-and-web-frameworks awesome-list formula into Biology, Chemistry, and BitTorrent — genuinely niche coverage.
- ✓It's free to browse, MIT-licensed itself, and open to community pull requests, so it isn't a static snapshot.
Limitations of the list
- △Entries are one-line pitches with no comparison, benchmark, or recommendation between similar libraries in the same category — you still have to evaluate each one yourself.
- △Some listed projects are explicitly marked [retired] or point at long-dead sites (Apache C++ Standard Library, for instance), and nothing tells you which entries are still maintained.
- △No search, no filters, no tags. Ctrl-F is the interface.
Other C++ resource collections
Who is this list for?
Awesome C++ suits developers scoping a new C++ project who want a category-sorted starting point instead of a blank search bar — especially useful for niches like audio, bioinformatics, or BitTorrent where you might not already know the landmark libraries by name. It's less useful if you already know your ecosystem cold or want curated depth (reviews, comparisons) rather than breadth.
Frequently asked questions
Awesome C++ is free to browse on GitHub with no paywall or signup — it's a public README anyone can read, star, or fork at no cost.
The README doesn't state a fixed update schedule; Awesome C++ is updated through community pull requests whenever a contributor adds or removes an entry, not on a set release cadence.
Awesome C++ accepts community contributions through GitHub pull requests — adding a library means submitting a PR with your entry rather than emailing a maintainer.
Awesome C++ covers C++ and C libraries across categories like Standard Libraries, Frameworks, Artificial Intelligence, Asynchronous Event Loop, Audio, Biology, BitTorrent, Chemistry, and CLI tooling, among others.
Awesome C++ is maintained on GitHub where outside contributors submit entries via pull requests, rather than being a single-author, closed list.
Awesome C++ is released under the MIT license, as listed in the repository's license file.
Related repositories
Is awesome-cpp worth your time?
ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity can all read this page. Ask one of them what it makes of awesome-cpp.