# CyberChef

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/cyberchef/

6 people recommended CyberChef in Hacker News comments and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 7 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A free, comprehensive tool for encoding, decoding and transforming data, with steps that can be chained into pipelines. People say it is versatile enough for web developers as well as security work.

Summary written by Claude from 7 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 5 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Versatile, useful for debugging and development (2 comments in the sample): "CyberChef is very versatile – perfectly fine for web devs too." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944498)) "Very useful when you are debugging a custom encoder." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46086768))
- Comprehensive, well-established toolset (1 comment in the sample): "This is easily one of the most comprehensive tools I have ever seen anyone build" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46511859))

## What people recommend instead

- [dbt](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dbt/): 12 recommend, 4 mixed, 5 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "CyberChef", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cyberchef/ (6 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.