The best hacker news clients, according to hackers
11 hacker news clients were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 5 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended hacker news clients with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Filters to exclude AI or keywords
Alternative Hacker News reader with filters to exclude AI stories and a chronological comment view, faster and more readable. Caveat: you cannot comment or vote on the site.
Chronological order instead of upvotes
People use it as a chronological alternative front end for Hacker News, showing newest posts first so browsing by time is easier than by popularity.
Summaries help pick articles
People like its newspaper-style Hacker News front page, with summaries that help readers skip low-quality posts. Critics say the text is too small to read comfortably.
All 11 hacker news clients, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hacker News client for macOS | 26 | 5 | 84% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 2 | hcker.news | 18 | 4 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Tied 2 | hckrnews.com | 18 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 4 | The Front Page | 16 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Tied 4 | Hacker News, without AI | 16 | 6 | 73% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 6 | Octal (Hacker News iOS app) | 10 | 2 | 83% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 7 | Harmonic Hacker News app | 9 | 1 | 90% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | HackerNows | 9 | 2 | 82% | 1 | — | — |
| 9 | hnsansai | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 10 | Hacki | 6 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| 11 | Hacker Times HN Reader | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same hacker news client in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to hacker news clients that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.