Lynx web browser
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 8 text browsers
A free, text-only web browser that renders text-heavy sites quickly on old or low-power machines and works well with scripts and piped text. Critics say many modern sites that need JavaScript no longer work in it.
A free, text-only web browser that renders text-heavy sites quickly on old or low-power machines and works well with scripts and piped text. Critics say many modern sites that need JavaScript no longer work in it.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 42
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 42 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast on any hardware
“It was fast, and barely had any compatibility issues because HTML that time was simpler.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Text-Based Web Browsers” “Lynx on today's hardware is extremely fast.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2026 in “Novellas with Groff” Renders text-heavy sites well
“Lynx renders websites remarkably well and keeps me away from the seedy stripmall the internet of today is”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “School cell phone bans and student achievement” “text based web browser. works surprisingly well on some sites like wikipedia”
Comment from 9 Nov 2025 in “Bumble Berry Pi – A Cheap DIY Raspberry Pi Handheld Cyberdeck” Scriptable from the command line
“but lynx -dump manages to get the text”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Who Killed Paulina Borsook's Career?” “`pandoc "$@ | lynx -stdin`”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: leaf – a terminal Markdown previewer with a GUI-like experience” Avoids the modern web's clutter
“Lynx renders websites remarkably well and keeps me away from the seedy stripmall the internet of today is”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “School cell phone bans and student achievement” “It's about as stripped-down as the web can get.”
Comment from 21 Apr 2026 in “WebUSB Extension for Firefox”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Breaks on JavaScript-heavy sites
“It was a great browser until websites become unusable.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “LT6502: A 6502-based homebrew laptop” “It's way better than the crusty old lynx and links on sites that need JS.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Lightpanda migrate DOM implementation to Zig” “Lynx and other tui browsers are not usable on today's web”
Comment from 23 May 2026 in “It's time to talk about my writerdeck” - Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “FBI tries to unmask owner of archive.is”
Too limiting for everyday browsing
“I can't imagine trying to use links/lynx”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Building an HTML-first site doubled our users overnight” “I would never go back to using lynx.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “P99 0 ms* autocomplete for 240M domain names” “I couldn't last longer than a week”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux”
Other text browsers people recommend
The four most recommended other text browsers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lynx web browserThis page | 42 | 10 | 81% | 12 | — | Approved |
| w3m | 19 | 1 | 95% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Links web browser | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Chawan terminal web browser | 12 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| EWW (Emacs Web Wowser) | 8 | 2 | 80% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Lynx on today's hardware is extremely fast.”
“But you are ripping of FL Studio completely (same names, same colors, same UI, even the logo...)”
“I have no idea what makes it different from any other freeware/open source DAW.”
“but lynx -dump manages to get the text”
“I'd rather use lynx on a folder of HTML files instead”
“I like rendering through a browser to gain seamless hyperlink support.”
“I would never go back to using lynx.”
“I'm happy with what lynx can do as a web browser for most things”
“Imagine Lynx, (E)Links(2), W3M on that. Which were perfectly usable then!1!!”
“It's called w3m (or lynx).”
“For those who love to work in terminal but somehow are dissapointed with Lynx.”
“it's a pretty cool product”
“lynx is a good example from past”
“I love lynx as much as anyone”
“I can't imagine trying to use links/lynx”
“intentional reading/browsing via lynx”
“Lynx and other tui browsers are not usable on today's web”
“fire up a text-based web browser (w3m, lynx, etc.)”
“Lynx is right here and is as usable as it's ever been”
“`pandoc "$@ | lynx -stdin`”
“It's about as stripped-down as the web can get.”
“I have had an hn alias to lynx gopher://hngopher.com”
“Disable Javascript or use Lynx, Links or Dillo to open the articles from your newsreader.”
“One tool I've found useful in low-power/low-bandwidth situations”
“Install lynx or links2 and you'll get the idea.”
“It was a great browser until websites become unusable.”
“I couldn't last longer than a week”
“I'm sure Lynx would be fine.”
“using lynx to browse the web”
“It was fast, and barely had any compatibility issues because HTML that time was simpler.”
“it's easier to open Lynx (which toot will do directly) for that on the server than copy+paste to and from a "real" browser”
“It's way better than the crusty old lynx and links on sites that need JS.”
“Lynx kind of worked (I used it!) but it was a poor substitute”
“If a website doesn't work on lynx it probably doesn't respect you either.”
“Better yet on a text based browser like Lynx or Offpunk”
“Lynx renders websites remarkably well and keeps me away from the seedy stripmall the internet of today is”
“Terminal emulators and lynx/elinks/links/w3c work, too.”
“text based web browser. works surprisingly well on some sites like wikipedia”
“enough websites have now broken it”
“You can already do this, since the 90s”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.