The best reference documentations, according to hackers
7 reference documentations were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
Top pick
The most recommended reference documentation with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Best technical reference for web
People recommend it as a trustworthy, approachable reference for web standards, covering CSS, SVG, Wasm and web APIs, with examples and fast corrections.
All 7 reference documentations, 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 | Stack Overflow | 235 | 499 | 32% | 12 | 15 yrs39 owners | — |
| 2 | MDN Web Docs | 27 | 6 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| 3 | HTTP Cats | 20 | 1 | 95% | 1 | 10 yrs3 owners | — |
| 4 | Unicode symbol reference page | 8 | 17 | 32% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | Can I Use | 5 | 3 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | Ralf Brown's Interrupt List | 5 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | FileFormat.Info | 5 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
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 reference documentation in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to reference documentations that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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