The best online magazines, according to hackers
15 online magazines were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 2 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The two most recommended online magazines with the badge. Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
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All 15 online 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 | The Economist | 87 | 75 | 54% | 12 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| 2 | New York Times subscription | 68 | 190 | 26% | 12 | 10 yrs8 owners | — |
| 3 | LWN.net subscription | 53 | 14 | 79% | 11 | 22 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| 4 | Quanta Magazine | 36 | 20 | 64% | 11 | — | — |
| 5 | Apple News | 29 | 83 | 26% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Wall Street Journal | 21 | 28 | 43% | 12 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | The Atlantic magazine subscription | 21 | 23 | 48% | 9 | — | — |
| 8 | Low-tech Magazine | 15 | 1 | 94% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 9 | Wired magazine | 11 | 22 | 33% | 8 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Bloomberg subscription | 11 | 18 | 38% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | Strong Towns | 8 | 3 | 73% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 11 | Washington Post subscription | 8 | 54 | 13% | 5 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| 13 | Works in Progress magazine | 7 | 2 | 78% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 14 | IEEE Spectrum | 6 | 3 | 67% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 14 | Scientific American magazine | 6 | 20 | 23% | 4 | — | — |
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 online magazine in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to online 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.