# Berkeley Mono

27 Hacker News commenters recommended Berkeley Mono and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Developers who use it for coding and terminals praise its sharpness and customization; critics mainly point to its high price.

## Why people recommend it

- Customizer lets users tweak glyphs (3 comments): "I really enjoy the customizer that comes with it, I use the font on all my terminal/IDE environments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47576151)) "It's so good. Perfect even. And they have a really neat customization tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47578911)) "their "compiler" lets you get a dashed one _very_ easily" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49200141))
- Excellent for coding and terminals (4 comments): "Berkeley Mono is an excellent font. Highly recommended if you still code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192109)) "reminds me a lot of Berkeley Mono, which is an incredible terminal font" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50162391)) "It also works really well for programming." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46382308))
- Users switch and never go back (4 comments): "I switched to it everywhere in a week or so, and never looked back" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50088769)) "Berkeley Mono ruined everything else for me. It's so, so good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50088790)) "I was unable to find anything that comes close to it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47576181))
- Sharp rendering, especially on high-PPI displays (2 comments): "Berkeley for high-PPI displays is at 450 rather than 500 and looks better for it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50091528)) "It does look pretty sharp." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48187080))

## What people warn about

- High price for a font (2 comments): "225 bucks for a font though is bonkers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50088950)) "its italic is just not up to it (and particularly not to the price)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50088996))
- Narrow, blocky letterforms (2 comments): "the font is a narrow font with low spacing between characters" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292212)) "too blocky for my personal taste" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50091466))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Iosevka](https://hackerapproved.com/p/iosevka.md): 108 recommend
- [Nordwand Mono](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nordwand-mono.md): 40 recommend
- [Myna](https://hackerapproved.com/p/myna-typeface.md): 29 recommend
- [JetBrains Mono](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jetbrains-mono.md): 23 recommend
- [MonoLisa v3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/monolisa-v3.md): 23 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Berkeley Mono", https://hackerapproved.com/p/berkeley-mono/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).