McMaster-Carr
Hacker ApprovedOnline industrial supplier in Tools & making
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.
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.
66 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 61
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 92%
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: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 61 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 12 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
Excellent, uncluttered website design
“It does a ton of pre-loading on hover and caching to make it feel like you're just navigating a static site.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Home Depot GitHub token exposed for a year, granted access to internal systems” “Imagine an alternate universe where Amazon has a similar interface. It would be the most amazing tool.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)” “does the same thing behind the scenes and utterly destroys every "modern" webapp in existence today”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “JavaScript-heavy approaches are not compatible with long-term performance goals” - Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)”
- Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)”
- Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)”
- Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “The End of Rationing”
- Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “The End of Rationing”
- Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “AMD acquires Taalas to boost inference performance by etching models in silicon”
Huge catalog, easy part finding
“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.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Home Depot GitHub token exposed for a year, granted access to internal systems” “Was always amazed the sheer amount of stuff in them, probably saved a few trees with their website.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)” “It's often educational to browser McMaster just to get a feel for what standard parts even exist.”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “I Build a 10 Inch Mini Rack from Aluminium Extrusions” - Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “OpenJev”
- Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Parametric CAD in Rust”
- Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Launch HN: Phind 3 (YC S22) – Every answer is a mini-app”
Consistently high-quality, vetted products
“McMaster Carr is a good example of a company that has 90%+ of their stuff ironed out”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website” “they're still just as good at making quality products that their customers want”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” “from all reports their customers remain quite happy with them”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” - Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “The End of Rationing”
- Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick”
Fast, reliable shipping and stock
“Order from McMaster, and it almost invariably arrives within two days”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Logistics Is Dying; Or – Dude, Where's My Mail?” “They will almost never go out of stock even during national crises.”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Best Gas Masks” “I'll betcha McMaster-Carr doesn't sit on stuff while a clock runs.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Kroger acknowledges that its bet on robotics went too far”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Breaks browser back button
“It wrecks the back button and they cannot be bothered to optimize for mobile in the slightest.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)” “they kill the back button”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of (2022)” Costly or slow small-order shipping
“If I buy a handful of bolts from McMaster or BoltDepot, I'm paying like $10 to ship”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “How Amazon pushes up prices all across the Internet” “because the shipping is so slow”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “How Amazon pushes up prices all across the Internet”
What people said
40 of the 71 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've bought a few dozen things from McMaster. For very competent people who know precisely what they want it is good”
“They sell reliability, not race to the bottom capitalism.”
“Their website is infinitely better than Amazons.”
“Their website is infinitely better than Amazons”
“because the shipping is so slow”
“If I buy a handful of bolts from McMaster or BoltDepot, I'm paying like $10 to ship”
“an organization that quickly surfaced the part you wanted and often taught you taxonomy”
“Everything is an instance of a category class with madatory properties.”
“I'm inspired by this website. It's incredible.”
“you still get really good vetting and high quality stuff”
“It's often educational to browser McMaster just to get a feel for what standard parts even exist.”
“it can afford to take full advantage of its efficient catalog nature”
“more akin to McMaster, Fastenall or some of the nicer supply house web portals”
“You were thinking of McMaster-Carr, but Digikey is also that good for electronics parametric shopping.”
“McMaster Carr is a good example of a company that has 90%+ of their stuff ironed out”
“they're still just as good at making quality products that their customers want”
“from all reports their customers remain quite happy with them”
“I'm so happy to have seen their web site that I want to do business with them”
“does the same thing behind the scenes and utterly destroys every "modern" webapp in existence today”
“They will almost never go out of stock even during national crises.”
“They are a great listing of everything you might ever want to buy”
“Order from McMaster, and it almost invariably arrives within two days”
“Even more impressive is that it's something like 20 years old, and was basically the way it is now 20 years ago.”
“It does a ton of pre-loading on hover and caching to make it feel like you're just navigating a static site.”
“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.”
“I'll betcha McMaster-Carr doesn't sit on stuff while a clock runs.”
“might be the most appealing pitch for online grocery delivery I've ever heard”
“I know I can always trust McMaster Carr's filter controls”
“Anyone who makes physical stuff probably goes on their website multiple times per day. I currently have 17 different McMaster tabs open.”
“It wrecks the back button and they cannot be bothered to optimize for mobile in the slightest.”
“I remember seeing this last time the McMaster site went around and it's great.”
“they kill the back button”
“A goal-oriented (vs browsing) app wont have whitespace or infinite scroll.”
“This makes great business sense, since you can fit-test any part and know you're getting the right one before ordering.”
“Lovely. If only the rest of the web looked like this.”
“McMaster is, bar none, the single best e commerce website I've ever used”
“Was always amazed the sheer amount of stuff in them, probably saved a few trees with their website.”
“Imagine an alternate universe where Amazon has a similar interface. It would be the most amazing tool.”
“they download directly as files, not wrapped in a zip that you have to mess around with”
“they have CAD files for almost all of their products which - in combination with a 3D printer - can come in very handy”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.