The best magazines, according to hackers
11 magazines were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 4 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended magazines with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Taught programming and computing concepts
Recommended for wide, deep computing coverage that taught readers programming; back issues are free online. Critics say later issues were thick with ads.
Old-school zine spirit like BYTE
Free, freely licensed zine of technical hacker articles and retro-style art that readers compare to old BYTE and Dr. Dobb's. Critics find some article titles clickbait-like.
Quality long-form and investigative journalism
Recommended for long-form journalism, investigative reporting and fiction, reasonably priced with little advertising. Common caveat: many pieces are long, drawn out and pretentious.
All 11 magazines, 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 | Byte magazine | 49 | 4 | 92% | 8 | 40 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| 2 | Paged Out | 46 | 7 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| 3 | The New Yorker | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 4 | Dr. Dobb's Journal | 14 | 1 | 93% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 5 | Delayed Gratification magazine | 11 | 3 | 79% | 2 | — | — |
| 6 | Tmp.0ut Volume 5 | 9 | 3 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | 2600: The Hacker Quarterly | 8 | 3 | 73% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | PoC||GTFOby Alchemistowl | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| 9 | London Review of Books | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| 10 | The New Yorker Archive | 6 | 2 | 75% | 1 | — | — |
| 11 | MAKE magazine | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
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 magazine in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to magazines 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.