BLIK
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 12 payment systems by recommenders
Polish instant payment system for paying in shops and sending money to friends by phone, valued for speed and convenience. The most common caveat is that it works mainly in Poland, so it is not a broad European alternative.
Polish instant payment system for paying in shops and sending money to friends by phone, valued for speed and convenience. The most common caveat is that it works mainly in Poland, so it is not a broad European alternative.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 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
Fast, convenient payments
“It is one of the most convenient payment systems out there”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decathlon Germany adds Wero payment option to decathlon.de website” “their payment was done in seconds”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” “while delivering a good user experience”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” Instant phone-to-phone money transfers
“BLIK rocks. In addition to being a payment system for goods and services it can be used for instant private money transfers between individuals.”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “Google Removes "Doki Doki Literature Club" from Google Play” “These instant phone-to-phone transfers are very popular, especially among young people who rarely use cash.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” “Want to send money to a friend? Instant mobile-friendly transfer.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” - Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Decathlon Germany adds Wero payment option to decathlon.de website”
Popular, trusted, long-running system
“It’s trusted, available for 10+y and generally a successful project.”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Getting ready to operate GNU Taler in Germany” “quite popular and handy BLIK system”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” Ahead of similar systems elsewhere
“BLIK from Poland was there earlier and is in many ways better”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “Blik is just on another level price- and feature-wise”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “European Alternatives”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing features and UX improvements
“without any of the UX improvements systems like Pix, UPI, blik have”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Why payment fees matter more than you think” “BLIK doesn't have that feature, which is why it's useless to me.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Why Sweden is abandoning its cashless society”
Other payment systems people recommend
The four most recommended other payment systems, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pix | 65 | 14 | 82% | 11 | — | Approved |
| UPI (Unified Payments Interface) | 58 | 12 | 83% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GNU Taler | 37 | 26 | 59% | 12 | — | — |
| x402 | 35 | 8 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| BLIKThis page | 20 | 6 | 77% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
22 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“A payment system that works in one out of 25 countries of EU isn't really a credible alternative”
“It’s trusted, available for 10+y and generally a successful project.”
“BLIK doesn't have that feature, which is why it's useless to me.”
“you can pay with Blik in basically every card terminal”
“So you don't deal with the issue of very long and error prone numbers to copy.”
“Blik is convenient for making transactions through phone calls.”
“QR codes are still less convenient when you're paying using the same mobile device you're using to generate the BLIK codes.”
“Which means that youngsters (or fraudsters ;)) have access to their guardians' money over the phone line.”
“It is one of the most convenient payment systems out there”
“it actually worked in my case, even though it was cumbersome”
“BLIK from Poland was there earlier and is in many ways better”
“BLIK rocks. In addition to being a payment system for goods and services it can be used for instant private money transfers between individuals.”
“approving every purchase from a merchant I trust, like Amazon, would be annoying”
“It's brilliant because then the seller gets nothing identifiable about you.”
“without any of the UX improvements systems like Pix, UPI, blik have”
“Not anonymous even for small amounts of money.”
“Want to send money to a friend? Instant mobile-friendly transfer.”
“while delivering a good user experience”
“their payment was done in seconds”
“quite popular and handy BLIK system”
“These instant phone-to-phone transfers are very popular, especially among young people who rarely use cash.”
“Blik is just on another level price- and feature-wise”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.