# units

8 Hacker News commenters recommended units and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free command-line unit converter that people recommend for quick conversions in the terminal, with a wide range of built-in units.

## Why people recommend it

- Quick conversions from the terminal (2 comments): "The output format is weird. I recommend `units --one-line` (or `units -1` for short)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46826236)) "Python or units[1] is always a better choice if I'm near a computer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46850343))
- Free, well-liked command-line tool (2 comments): "Units is a cool piece of software, but I have since switched to qalculate." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46823967)) "GNU units work well enough for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141899))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [fzf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fzf.md): 78 recommend
- [jq](https://hackerapproved.com/p/jq.md): 75 recommend
- [grep](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grep.md): 65 recommend
- [Atuin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atuin.md): 63 recommend
- [GitHub CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-cli.md): 49 recommend

## Cite as

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