# Minetest

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Minetest and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source Minecraft-like sandbox that people use for shared building on private servers and play through many downloadable subgames.

## Why people recommend it

- Private servers for shared building (2 comments): "I host a docker container with a minetest instance that we can all build in together." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870218)) "Parents should help to set kids their own private Minetest servers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904457))
- Many free subgames to play (2 comments): "has tons of games downloadable from a single click ingame" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48633223)) "Minetest+tons of subgames such as Glitch, Nodecore..." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47666575))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Minecraft](https://hackerapproved.com/p/minecraft.md): 222 recommend
- [Luanti](https://hackerapproved.com/p/luanti.md): 23 recommend
- [No Man's Sky Cosmos](https://hackerapproved.com/p/no-man-s-sky-cosmos.md): 22 recommend
- [Voxile](https://hackerapproved.com/p/voxile.md): 16 recommend
- [Terraria](https://hackerapproved.com/p/terraria.md): 14 recommend

## Cite as

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