Static typing on the BEAM: Gleam, Elixir, and Elm

Gleam and the shift toward static types

Gleam reached version 1.0 on March 4, 2024, providing backward compatibility for production systems through semantic versioning. The language maintains a small surface area to ensure code stays easy to read and understand. It runs on the Erlang virtual machine, the platform that powers WhatsApp, and it also targets JavaScript runtimes. In the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Gleam appeared as the second most admired language, where 70 percent of users reported wanting to continue working with it. While Elixir provides a dynamic type system for the BEAM, Gleam offers strong static analysis and compile-time guarantees. Because the Gleam build tool can compile Elixir dependencies and supports a specific syntax that enables importing external functions, engineering teams can mix Elixir and Gleam code without needing to commit to a massive and complete system rewrite. The 2024 developer survey showed that Gleam developers overwhelmingly come from ecosystems other than Erlang and Elixir. Only 1.1% of developer respondents reported doing extensive development work in the language over the past year. Gleam follows the line of strong statically-typed languages like OCaml and Elm. Its concurrency system can run millions of tasks concurrently and scale easily thanks to immutable data and a garbage collector that never stops the world.

Backend logic versus frontend constraints

Engineering teams choosing between Elixir and Elm often find that Gleam provides a middle ground for backend services. Elm offers unmatched refactoring because the compiler identifies every error when types change, yet it remains a frontend-focused language. Large Elm codebases can struggle with slow compilation or high memory usage, a problem that once forced developers to move compilation to the browser to bypass server-side limits. In contrast, Gleam uses the BEAM to handle millions of concurrent tasks through an actor model. Gleam also uses immutable data structures implemented with structural sharing to ensure efficient operation. If you evaluate these tools, consider how Gleam acts as a bridge between the flexibility of Elixir and the strictness of Elm. While Elm developers rely on ports to communicate with JavaScript, Gleam provides direct integration with JavaScript code when compiling for that runtime. Elm developers also face slow bug fixing because the language addresses issues in batches, which increases the risk of encountering bugs that linger in production. One developer noted that while Gleam gathers the best ideas from Rust and Go, it remains a highly productive language.

Implementation in production environments

Strand, a London-based marketing agency, uses Gleam to ensure its business-critical financial management system remains reliable and maintainable. The company chose Gleam because it provides reliability and access to the existing BEAM library ecosystem. While the Gleam ecosystem continues to grow, the language core team focuses on expanding its reach. The Lustre web framework remains in active development, and the community continues to build out new libraries. Even though Gleam provides stability, the standard library version is currently at v0.69.0. The language includes the compiler, the package manager, the LSP, and the CLI to prevent decision paralysis. In 2025, Thoughtworks added Gleam to its Technology Radar in the Assess ring for languages worth exploring. Most new Gleam users do not have a background in Erlang or Elixir, which helps expand the user base. The developer behind Nestful rewrote their project in Gleam because of its clarity and ease of use. The community remains active, and developers find the language easy to learn. Can the core team of four maintain this momentum without a larger corporate benefactor?