Acorn by Flying Meat
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 11 image editors by recommenders
A small, capable macOS image editor that people use for quick edits and pixel-perfect work, bought as paid releases rather than free.
A small, capable macOS image editor that people use for quick edits and pixel-perfect work, bought as paid releases rather than free.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 12 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Small yet powerful image editor
“Small yet powerful editors like Acorn and Camera Bag Pro has no practical competitors in their spaces.”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Where Are the Vibecoded Photoshops?” “the excellent macOS image editor Acorn”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 on Hacker News Simple enough for casual edits
“For casual users and likely some pro users, there’s still Pixelmator Pro and Acorn.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Affinity enshittification: How Canva's "Four Pledges" aged like milk” “I gave up and bought acorn for Mac to make my basic little image.”
Comment from 19 May 2026 in “Photo GIMP – A Patch for GIMP 3 for Photoshop Users” “do everything I need and float like a feather”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces MacBook Neo” Fairly priced, regularly updated releases
“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?"”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “An Infuriating Goodbye to Photoshop” “always purchase the latest release of Acorn for around $20/yr”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results”
Other image editors people recommend
The four most recommended other image editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIMP | 179 | 216 | 45% | 13 | 20 yrs17 owners | — |
| Adobe Photoshop | 152 | 187 | 45% | 12 | 25 yrs22 owners | — |
| Moss pixel canvas | 46 | 6 | 88% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Paint.NET | 30 | 8 | 79% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Acorn by Flying MeatThis page | 12 | 1 | 92% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
13 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“They also have radicle/acorn bring pretty much a Laravel setup with WP bolted on.”
“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?"”
“I now use Acorn for things where pixel-perfect editing matters”
“the excellent macOS image editor Acorn”
“I gave up and bought acorn for Mac to make my basic little image.”
“Small yet powerful editors like Acorn and Camera Bag Pro has no practical competitors in their spaces.”
“do everything I need and float like a feather”
“A straightforward and simple AI agent framework.”
“always purchase the latest release of Acorn for around $20/yr”
“which acorn does tell you”
“their website simply refused to deliver the video and their tech support was completely unhelpful.”
“it's flexible enough that you can extend the syntax of JS however you like”
“For casual users and likely some pro users, there’s still Pixelmator Pro and Acorn.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.