# Marker by Datalab

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/marker/

5 people recommended Marker by Datalab in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Converts PDFs and scans to Markdown with strong OCR accuracy and handling of many edge cases. Its most common caveat is that it is very slow.

Summary written by Claude from 6 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Best OCR results overall (2 comments in the sample): "By far the best OCR system, IME. The amount of annoying little edge cases they know about and cover for you is dizzying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50107277)) "marker (with --force-ocr) gives me the best results" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48644377))

## What people warn about

- Very slow processing (1 comment in the sample): "Docling and Marker work pretty well but are very slow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47569939))

## Other PDF tools people recommend

- [qpdf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qpdf/): 8 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [PaperPilot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/paperpilot/): 7 recommend, 1 mixed, 7 criticize
- [Stirling PDF](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stirling-pdf/): 5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Marker by Datalab", https://hackerapproved.com/p/marker/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.