# ImHex

24 Hacker News commenters recommended ImHex and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a feature-rich free hex editor with pattern templates for parsing binary and proprietary file formats. The most common caveats are that debugging pattern templates can be painful and that it is large for a hex editor.

## Why people recommend it

- Strong feature set for hex editing (4 comments): "ImHex is a great hex editor, lots of features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47688464)) "It really is by far the best hex editor I ever used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885684)) "it's by far the best hex editor out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48963460))
- Pattern language for parsing binary formats (4 comments): "I've had a lot of fun with Pattern Language lately" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47875385)) "I have never seen a language that mixes logic into definitions of data structures quite like that before." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549050)) "I've had a lot of luck with ImHex looking at various binary formats" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49543340))
- Built-in parsers and format patterns (3 comments): "Plus the built-in parsers for well known formats!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47876038)) "It really is by far the best hex editor I ever used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885684)) "is also a really nice Hex editor with tons of plugins (patterns, file support, etc.)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874234))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [010 Editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/010-editor.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

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