Notable users include Python, Haskell, Dalvik, F-Script, PyPy, PyObjC, RubyCocoa, JRuby, Rubinius, MacRuby, gcj, GNU Smalltalk, IcedTea, Cycript, Pawn, Java Native Access, Common Lisp (via CFFI), Racket,[3] Embeddable Common Lisp and Mozilla.

[4] On Mac OS X, libffi is commonly used with BridgeSupport, which provides programming language neutral descriptions of framework interfaces, and Nu which binds direct Objective-C access from Lisp.

libffi, originally developed by Anthony Green, was inspired by the Gencall library from Silicon Graphics.

Anthony Green refined the idea and extended it to other architectures and calling conventions and open sourcing libffi.

The libffi library is useful in building a bridge between interpreted and natively compiled code.