# Black

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

**Verdict:** Opinionated Python formatter that ends style debates with one consistent, stable layout. Common caveat: it sometimes collapses lines against intended formatting, hurting readability.

## Why people recommend it

- Consistent style ends review debates (4 comments): "it was surprising how much time we reclaimed from not having to review coding style" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49281974)) "I find the black/ruff formatting style in Python to be very consistent, which helps with git blame." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45809352)) "Consistency is key for readability" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898848))
- Stable, set-and-forget formatting (4 comments): "These tools are some of the most set it and forget it things around." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49058451)) "Black's been stable for the past 4+ years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49057990)) "Use black as format on save and you will never have a problem with that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48060149))
- Pairs well with Ruff (2 comments): "I use black/ruff on a lot of projects and it will only touch standard-y things like docstring spacing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50174318)) "Ruff/black support and enforce this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49061411))

## What people warn about

- Collapses lines against intended layout (3 comments): "always moving things back to one line, making them less readable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49061456)) "IMO it's insane to collapse lines when there are line comments" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49061214)) "it breaks intends of formatting more often than it helps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056927))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [gofmt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gofmt.md): 26 recommend
- [FracturedJson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fracturedjson.md): 18 recommend
- [Prettier](https://hackerapproved.com/p/prettier.md): 16 recommend
- [Oxfmt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oxfmt.md): 14 recommend
- [clang-format](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clang-format.md): 7 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Black", https://hackerapproved.com/p/black/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).