The Boost C++ Libraries are open source, peer-reviewed, portable and free

Created by experts to be reliable, skillfully-designed, and well-tested.

Boost Mission

development of high quality, expert reviewed, legally unencumbered, open-source libraries,
inspiring standard enhancements, and
advancing and disseminating software development best practices.

It does this by fostering community engagement, nurturing leaders, providing necessary financial/legal support, and making directional decisions in the event of Boost community deadlock.

Equally important to our mission is the guidance provided by our shared values. These are transparency, inclusivity, consensus-building, federated authorship, and community-driven leadership.

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Total Downloads

165+

Individual Libraries

Why Use Boost? In a word, Productivity. Use of high-quality libraries like Boost speeds initial development, results in fewer bugs, reduces reinvention-of-the-wheel, and cuts long-term maintenance costs. And since Boost libraries tend to become de facto or de jure standards, many programmers are already familiar with them.

Testimonials

"When you're building software that needs to operate flawlessly with the limited flight pass opportunities of the International Space Station, you need libraries you can trust and that allow you to move quickly. Boost gave us exactly that: production-grade networking and serialization with a license that met NASA's requirements. It let us focus on the engineering instead of reinventing the wheel."

— Prof. Sven G. Bilén, The Pennsylvania State University

What I really liked about Boost was that the libraries are peer-reviewed, raising expectations about quality and security. And I don't think I encountered a single bug in any of the Boost libraries I used. My thanks to the developers!

- Oleg Trott, PHD
Creator, AutoDoc Vina

schedule of events

All Events

April 2026

April 15, 2026: Boost 1.91.0 closed
Release closed for all changes
April 22, 2026: Boost 1.91.0 release
Release posted for download.

June 2026

June 24, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 closed for new libraries and breaking changes
Release branch is closed for new libraries and breaking changes to existing libraries. Still open for bug fixes and other routine changes to all libraries without release manager review.

July 2026

July 1, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 closed for major changes
Release closed for major code changes. Still open for serious problem fixes and docs changes without release manager review.
July 8, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 closed for beta
Release closed for all changes
July 15, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 beta
Beta posted for download.
July 16, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 open for bug fixes
Release open for bug fixes and documentation updates. Other changes by permission of a release manager.

August 2026

Aug. 5, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 closed
Release closed for all changes
Aug. 12, 2026: Boost 1.92.0 release
Release posted for download.

October 2026

Oct. 21, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 closed for new libraries and breaking changes
Release branch is closed for new libraries and breaking changes to existing libraries. Still open for bug fixes and other routine changes to all libraries without release manager review.
Oct. 28, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 closed for major changes
Release closed for major code changes. Still open for serious problem fixes and docs changes without release manager review.

November 2026

Nov. 4, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 closed for beta
Release closed for all changes
Nov. 11, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 beta
Beta posted for download.
Nov. 12, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 open for bug fixes
Release open for bug fixes and documentation updates. Other changes by permission of a release manager.

December 2026

Dec. 2, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 closed
Release closed for all changes
Dec. 9, 2026: Boost 1.93.0 release
Release posted for download.

library spotlight

All Libraries

In Place Factory, Typed In Place Factory

Generic in-place construction of contained objects with a variadic argument-list.

Fernando Cacciola

Author