Comparisons / Gemma 4 vs Qwen 3.5
AI models for coding · HN opinions Nov 2025 – Nov 2026
Gemma 4 vs Qwen 3.5: what developers actually say
Based on 109 opinions on Hacker News from developers who discussed these two, most of them first-hand users.
Gemma 4 comes out slightly ahead overall. It has 68 opinions from 57 authors versus 41 from 38 for Qwen 3.5, while approval is nearly tied at 62% and 61%. Gemma 4 also leads on code-quality mentions, 16 positive to 4 negative against 8 to 4, and on speed, 6 to 0 against 4 to 2. Qwen 3.5 wins the explicit preference split 3 to 2, so choose it when those direct head-to-head comments matter more than the wider evidence base.
When developers explicitly said they prefer one or switched: 2 picked Gemma 4, 3 picked Qwen 3.5.
Choose Gemma 4 if
- Want the larger opinion sample and more firsthand reports
- Weight code-quality and speed mentions over the 3-2 preference split
- Want a local model with 6 positive speed mentions and no speed complaints
Choose Qwen 3.5 if
- Weight the 3-2 explicit preference split
- Trust the comments calling Qwen 3.5 stronger at coding and tool calls
- Are willing to trade Gemma 4's larger sample for Qwen 3.5's head-to-head wins
Where each one wins and loses
PraiseComplaintsA = Gemma 4B = Qwen 3.5
Code quality
Reliability
Privacy & local use
Autonomy
Speed
Why developers switched
Picked Gemma 4
Says Qwen needed repeated fixes that Gemma avoided, leaving less working code per hour.HN comment · Apr 13, 2026
Reports Gemma 4 26B-A4B ran far faster than Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B in a Claude Code harness.HN comment · Apr 2, 2026
Picked Qwen 3.5
Says Gemma 4 is better at visuals and language, but Qwen 3.5 27B is stronger at code overall.HN comment · Apr 6, 2026
Says HN and local-model discussion suggests Qwen 3.5 is stronger at logic, coding and tools, while Gemma 4 leads on writing and world knowledge.HN comment · Apr 5, 2026
Says Qwen 3.5 produced the stronger codebase overall, with better architecture and completeness, though it verified too little.HN comment · Apr 2, 2026
Summaries are paraphrased. Each links to the original comment.
Side by side
| Gemma 4 | Qwen 3.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | 62% | 61% |
| Last 90 days | – | – |
| Opinions | 68 | 41 |
| First-hand users | 57 | 32 |