Lua

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lua is a lightweight scripting language designed primarily for embedded use in applications.

It features a small core written in C/C++, automatic memory management, fast execution through a simple virtual machine, a flexible table-based data model, and a standard library that fits in a few hundred kilobytes, making it suitable for games, embedded systems, and extensible software.

For example, Lua is embedded in OpenResty for dynamic request processing, in Tarantool as a scripting layer for data transformations, and in the Kong Gateway API gateway for routing, authentication, and plugins.

According to our data, Lua is the third most popular programming language on the web.
It has 5.8% of the programming language market share and is detected on 4.9% of all websites.

It appears on 15.2% of all websites in Korea, 7.6% in Canada, and 7.5% in Australia.

Statistics based on 4M+ analyzed websites. About this data

📊 Rankings and Market Share

🏆 Lua Awards

⚡ Sites Built With Lua

We have data on 195,799 websites that use the Lua programming language. Here is a list of some of the top ranked ones.

The highest rated site using Lua is shopify.com.

#WebsiteRankCountryLanguage
1 shopify.com #29 Canada English
2 p**nhub.com #34 United States English
3 line.me #78 Japan English
4 reuters.com #128 Switzerland English
5 bloomberg.com #149 United States English
6 shein.com #223 Singapore English
7 elpais.com #277 Spain Spanish
8 pbs.org #298 English
9 redtube.com #352 United States English
10 lenovo.com #415 China English
11 imgbb.com #440 France English
12 lanacion.com.ar #447 Argentina Spanish
13 infobae.com #452 Argentina Spanish
14 youp**n.com #457 United States English
15 cmoa.jp #477 Japan Japanese
16 as.com #487 Spain English
17 thetimes.com #497 United Kingdom English
18 paramountplus.com #519 United States American English
19 wattpad.com #530 American English
20 mundodeportivo.com #540 Spanish

📈 Usage Statistics

Most of the sites that use Lua:

Most of the sites using Lua are from the United States and the United Kingdom.

  • United States 31.8%
  • United Kingdom 7.9%
  • Germany 4.2%
  • Australia 4.2%
  • Canada 3.9%
  • China 3.8%
  • India 3.7%
  • Korea 3.1%
  • Japan 2.9%
  • Other 34.5%

Most Lua users speak English, Chinese, or German.

  • English 72.6%
  • Chinese 3.1%
  • German 3.1%
  • Spanish 2.6%
  • Korean 2.3%
  • Japanese 2.1%
  • French 2.1%
  • Russian 1.7%
  • Czech 1.3%
  • Other 9.1%

The Lua programming language is especially popular on .com top-level domains.

  • .com 60%
  • .co.uk 2.8%
  • .org 2.7%
  • .net 2.2%
  • .com.au 2.2%
  • .de 2.1%
  • .ru 1.4%
  • .cz 1.3%
  • .sk 1.2%
  • Other 24.1%

The primary market segments for websites utilizing Lua include online shopping, marketing and merchandising, and fashion and beauty.

  • Online Shopping 32.5%
  • Marketing/Merchandising 11.5%
  • Fashion/Beauty 10%
  • Business 9.4%
  • Blogs/Wiki 3.6%
  • Entertainment 3.4%
  • Internet Services 2.7%
  • Sports 2.5%
  • Education/Reference 2.3%
  • Other 22.1%

🕵️ Similar Technologies

These are some of the best Lua alternatives.

RankName
4
C#
Redmond, Washington, United States

A high-level, statically typed, object-oriented programming language developed for the .NET platform.
6
Java
Austin, Texas, United States

A multi-platform, object-oriented programming language first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995, designed to run across different systems through the Java Virtual Machine.
7
Scala
Lausanne, Switzerland

An object-oriented programming language designed to improve and address the limitations of Java.
11
CFML
San Jose, California, United States

A scripting language for web development, usually associated with Adobe ColdFusion.
14
Erlang
Stockholm, Sweden

A high-level functional programming language designed for building concurrent, distributed, and fault-tolerant systems.

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💬 Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lua from?

Lua is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Which country uses Lua the most?

The majority of Lua users are from the United States.

Who uses Lua?

According to our data, Lua is used on thousands of sites, including such established ones as shopify.com, line.me, and reuters.com.

Is Lua used on government websites?

In total, we found Lua on 25 government sites in the United States.

Do academic institutions use Lua?

Yes. Overall, we know of 54 academic websites in the United States that use Lua.

How does Lua compare to the competition?

Lua is one of the most popular programming languages, second only to JavaScript and PHP.

What are the alternatives to Lua?

Alternatives and possible competitors to Lua may include C#, Java, and Scala.

👉 See Also

🗃️ About This Data