Gemma 4 vs Qwen 3.5: what 5 developers chose.
109 opinions. 5 developers named a direct preference: Qwen 3.5 3–2. Approval is 62% vs 61%.
If you want code quality, choose Gemma 4. If you want privacy & local use, choose Qwen 3.5. The 3–2 direct split is not a landslide; it is a difference in working style.
Choose Gemma 4 if you…
- 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 you…
- 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
Code quality for Gemma 4. Privacy & local use for Qwen 3.5.
Net sentiment per topic: praise minus complaints, as a share of mentions. Positive means more praise than complaints. Hover a dot for the raw counts.
Net sentiment = praise minus complaints, as a share of each tool's mentions. The dot lanes are only for readability; position is the score.
View data table
| Topic | Gemma 4 | Qwen 3.5 | Mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code quality | +60 | +33 | 20 / 12 |
| Privacy & local use | +100 | +100 | 6 / 6 |
| Reliability | -60 | -100 | 10 / 5 |
| Speed | +100 | +33 | 6 / 6 |
The same decision, from both sides.
Paraphrased from comments where a developer named a preference or described a switch. Each links to the original.
Picked Gemma 4 2 developers
Qwen needed repeated fixes that Gemma avoided, leaving less working code per hour.
Reports Gemma 4 26B-A4B ran far faster than Qwen 3.5 35B-A3B in a Claude Code harness.
Picked Qwen 3.5 3 developers
Gemma 4 is better at visuals and language, but Qwen 3.5 27B is stronger at code overall.
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.
Qwen 3.5 produced the stronger codebase overall, with better architecture and completeness, though it verified too little.
The numbers.
| Metric | Gemma 4 | Qwen 3.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Approval | 62% | 61% |
| Last 90 days | – | – |
| Opinions | 68 | 41 |
| Developers | 57 | 38 |
| First-hand opinions | 57 | 32 |
| Direct picks | 2 | 3 |
| Type | Model | Model |
| Made by | — | — |
Related matchups.
How to read this comparison.
Approval is the positive share of opinions that took a side, with the rank based on the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval. Direct picks count comments where a developer explicitly preferred one tool or described switching. Small samples are noisier; check the opinion counts.
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