# DigiKey

23 Hacker News commenters recommended DigiKey and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Online distributor of electronic parts, valued for parametric search, large inventory and authentic components. Common caveat: captcha challenges on its site and costly shipping for some buyers.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong parametric part search (4 comments): "the parametric searches on digikey, mouser, etc are pretty good for the standard components" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48889842)) "Digikey is also that good for electronics parametric shopping." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488334)) "Parts finding functionality of DigiKey is pretty darn good" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46681981))
- Authentic, vetted genuine parts (4 comments): "Counterfeits don't happen when you buy parts from reputable distributors (digikey, mouser, Newark, TTI, arrow, etc)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942827)) "at least with Digikey, you can feel like you actually get the real part vs. some low end clone knockoff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46955286)) "you still get really good vetting and high quality stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49122768))
- Fast shipping, including international (2 comments): "the parcel came around from the tiny village of Thief River Falls MN to rural Bavaria in less than 30 hours" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48891746)) "free shipping over 50eur and it'll arrive by DHL in less than 48hrs from the States" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46603418))
- Essential for hardware prototyping (2 comments): "It's hard to overstate how screwed hardware design and prototyping would be if companies like digi-key went under." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47387388)) "If we lost Digikey, Mouser, and AVNET, it would be catastrophic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47387579))

## What people warn about

- Frequent captcha and verification prompts (4 comments): "I can't use DigiKey without getting silent CF reCAPTCHA challenges for their CDN that break images in a non-obvious manner." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46401605)) "have opted to put everything behind bullshit captchas because of the DDoS (nee AI) bots" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496257)) "I keep getting their bullshit "press and hold" nonsense even while logged in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46159367))
- Costly parts and shipping (2 comments): "shipping from the big western parts suppliers (Digikey, Mouser, Segger) costs a lot of money" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49323592)) "It's easy to get the military round connectors from Digikey; it just isn't cheap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47567903))
- Slower service than before (2 comments): "DigiKey used to be a good place to get." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48887618)) "their services are much slower than they used to be" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49199828))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Mouser Electronics](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mouser.md): 18 recommend
- [LCSC Electronics](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lcsc.md): 10 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.digikey.com/)

## Cite as

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