# Apple Account

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Apple Account and 52 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 20 years (4 owners).

**Verdict:** People recommend it for syncing clipboard, passwords and notes across Apple devices and for keeping separate accounts per app. The common caveat is that accounts can be locked with little recourse.

## Why people recommend it

- Syncs across iPhone, Mac and desktop (2 comments): "An Apple account together with an iPhone and MacBook let's you share clipboard, passwords, notes etc., a no brainer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47544723)) "The close and zero-effort integration and syncing with iOS is pretty key to my desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47440927))
- Age verification handled well (2 comments): "I was pleasantly surprised by the age verification." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47519440)) "I feel that Apple has coped with this pretty well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48611391))

## What people warn about

- Accounts locked with little recourse (7 comments): "account integrity check pointing is stochastic and more aggressive so at any time there are people being locked out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46255458)) "individuals and companies "begging" (their words not mine) Apple to reconsider a decision regarding their account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47596836)) "Apple and Google both reserve the right to deny accounts to people without any legal appeal at worst." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47164783))
- Mandatory account to buy or download (4 comments): "By shrugging it off as "not great", you're also dooming every citizen to have to comply with whatever whimsical terms of service Google and Apple have." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648243)) "There is no meaningful way to exist in society today without an Apple or Google account, and that's actually insane." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46313666)) "I hate that I need to create an Apple account (with email and phone verification) just to be able download the sdk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700073))
- Dependence on companies' whims (3 comments): "If it requires a Google or Apple account, then it also requires those companies never cease an account, either." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651653)) "made me much more cautious about relying too heavily on the whims of our private megacorp gatekeepers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46264550)) "Apple and Google in particular are now too heavily associated with a government hostile to the EU" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919211))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Google account](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-account.md): 18 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://appleid.apple.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apple Account", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-account/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).