The tradeoff between compilation time and programmer productivity and running speed is worth it compared with using any other language. You should consider most users don' t need to build an image . They just do things in the REPL with Revise.jl (which is fast). Or use a bit of PrecompileTools.jl to get good enough startup time (which isn' t complicated if you are the code writer). Package compiling works even large and slow is a bonus. https://pypl.github.io/PYPL.html Julia still grows despite all those controversial articles for a reason.