# Acorn by Flying Meat

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Acorn by Flying Meat and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A small, capable macOS image editor that people use for quick edits and pixel-perfect work, bought as paid releases rather than free.

## Why people recommend it

- Small yet powerful image editor (2 comments): "Small yet powerful editors like Acorn and Camera Bag Pro has no practical competitors in their spaces." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177769)) "the excellent macOS image editor Acorn" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48447410))
- Simple enough for casual edits (3 comments): "For casual users and likely some pro users, there’s still Pixelmator Pro and Acorn." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796514)) "I gave up and bought acorn for Mac to make my basic little image." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48193315)) "do everything I need and float like a feather" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47249234))
- Fairly priced, regularly updated releases (2 comments): "Acorn is one of the very, very few remaining pieces of software where the update notification popping up makes me go "Oh nice, what's this then?"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48892646)) "always purchase the latest release of Acorn for around $20/yr" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46685824))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GIMP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gimp.md): 179 recommend
- [Adobe Photoshop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/adobe-photoshop.md): 152 recommend
- [Pinta](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pinta.md): 11 recommend
- [ArcBrush](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arcbrush.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Acorn by Flying Meat", https://hackerapproved.com/p/acorn/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).