# Dat

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Dat and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend Dat for peer-to-peer data sync because of its strong NAT traversal, which removes the need for relays, and its track record in apps. Critics say the ecosystem has slowed since Paul Frazee left.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong NAT traversal, no relays needed (2 comments): "dat or the hyper stack is industry leading in terms of nat traversal - nothing comes close" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50008108)) "you dont need relays if you use dat" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50008206))
- Battle-tested with many real apps (2 comments): "battle tested because it has plenty of apps with lots of users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50004151)) "its a mature battle tested ecosystem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50004128))
- Go-to choice for P2P apps (2 comments): "Use something like Pears / Holepunch / Hypercore / Dat" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46054506)) "But DAT is where its at if you want that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46203070))

## What people warn about

- Ecosystem activity stalled after Paul Frazee left (1 comments): "a lot of the most exciting stuff in the dat ecosystem stopped when Paul Frazee left" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50006456))

## Cite as

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