# McMaster-Carr

61 Hacker News commenters recommended McMaster-Carr and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend McMaster-Carr for its vast catalog, fast filtering and quick delivery. The common caveat: it suits people who already know what they need.

## Why people recommend it

- Excellent, uncluttered website design (9 comments): "It does a ton of pre-loading on hover and caching to make it feel like you're just navigating a static site." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248825)) "Imagine an alternate universe where Amazon has a similar interface. It would be the most amazing tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46031535)) "does the same thing behind the scenes and utterly destroys every "modern" webapp in existence today" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47033545))
- Huge catalog, easy part finding (6 comments): "I had to check what the gold standard McMaster-Carr does: their torque wrench drive size widget is sorted 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/2". Glorious." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46247775)) "Was always amazed the sheer amount of stuff in them, probably saved a few trees with their website." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46031756)) "It's often educational to browser McMaster just to get a feel for what standard parts even exist." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48740741))
- Consistently high-quality, vetted products (5 comments): "McMaster Carr is a good example of a company that has 90%+ of their stuff ironed out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47487958)) "they're still just as good at making quality products that their customers want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467403)) "from all reports their customers remain quite happy with them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47467093))
- Fast, reliable shipping and stock (3 comments): "Order from McMaster, and it almost invariably arrives within two days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550280)) "They will almost never go out of stock even during national crises." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46830527)) "I'll betcha McMaster-Carr doesn't sit on stuff while a clock runs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46213281))

## What people warn about

- Breaks browser back button (2 comments): "It wrecks the back button and they cannot be bothered to optimize for mobile in the slightest." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46041982)) "they kill the back button" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46035757))
- Costly or slow small-order shipping (2 comments): "If I buy a handful of bolts from McMaster or BoltDepot, I'm paying like $10 to ship" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090738)) "because the shipping is so slow" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50108704))

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=McMaster-Carr&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.mcmaster.com/)

## Cite as

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