BOINC
Ranked 3 of 3 distributed computing clients by recommenders
A well-established, mature platform that lets people donate idle computer time to scientific distributed computing projects, at no cost.
A well-established, mature platform that lets people donate idle computer time to scientific distributed computing projects, at no cost.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Mature, established distributed computing platform
“BOINC is well-established as the platform for distributed computation”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “It took a year to ship WebAssembly in Anubis” “BOINC setup which has been around for ages and mature”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Open Source AI Must Win”
Other distributed computing clients people recommend
The two most recommended other distributed computing clients, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SETI@home | 16 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Folding@home | 15 | 1 | 94% | 7 | — | Approved |
| BOINCThis page | 8 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
11 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a bit difficult and confusing to set up when I was 10 or so”
“BOINC isn't really built for "small tasks", afaik.”
“BOINC is well-established as the platform for distributed computation”
“i wish there was more boinc”
“BOINC setup which has been around for ages and mature”
“If you are looking for a good list of these types of projects”
“BOINC was a buggy piece of shit”
“I started never finishing a unit for credit under BOINC”
“Modern BOINC projects are awesome”
“I generally run BOINC during the winter in place of a space heater”
“a distributed computing system that probably has led to scientific advances in other fields”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.