# dotenv

6 Hacker News commenters recommended dotenv and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Developers recommend it for loading app settings from a .env file into environment variables, including in hosting and secrets setups. Critics say the operating system should handle this and that it only moves settings to another file.

## Why people recommend it

- Loads settings from .env files (2 comments): "That's something that python-dotenv enables. It can pull from environment, which you can wire up from k8s secrets or whatever is the case for your hosting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46801741)) "use python-dotenv to pull settings from environment / .env" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46795249))
- Convenient for base URL and port (1 comments): "If you're using it to put APP_BASE_URL or APP_PORT into your env, it's a very convenient one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49481247))
- Good for teaching newcomers (1 comments): "Teach them to use dotenv." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49480541))

## What people warn about

- Unnecessary, OS should handle this (2 comments): "we shouldn't need to download something like dotenv to address something the operating system should handle" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47630181)) "Dotenv is definitely something that should not exist." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337670))
- Forked and seen as declining (2 comments): "the entire reason for this fork is to not do that. Which is dumb." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49339091)) "I thought dotenv was on its way out!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47676768))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [fnox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fnox.md): 20 recommend
- [Infisical](https://hackerapproved.com/p/infisical.md): 17 recommend
- [enveil](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enveil.md): 13 recommend
- [dotenvx](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dotenvx.md): 10 recommend
- [Varlock](https://hackerapproved.com/p/varlock.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

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