# Monosketch

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

18 people recommended Monosketch in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 12 months, in 2 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

17 of the 18 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Monosketch”.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source tool for drawing diagrams as plain text, valued for being simple, easy to use and useful for prototyping. Critics say it still lacks some features and polish.

Summary written by Claude from 19 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple and easy to use (2 comments in the sample): "It's easy to use and the diagrams export well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004881)) "Simple and self-explanatory." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002513))
- Preferred over draw.io and Excalidraw (2 comments in the sample): "This is really cool. Better than draw.io and excalidraw" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002353)) "This one is probably the best I've seen so far." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005764))
- Useful for prototyping and projects (2 comments in the sample): "it's been useful for me in early stages of UI prototyping" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47002749)) "Already see a use for this in one of my projects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005866))
- Diagrams live as plain text (1 comment in the sample): "The best part is that we can add diagrams directly inside the source code." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47005826))

## Other diagram tools people recommend

- [Mermaid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mermaid/): 72 recommend, 16 mixed, 42 criticize
- [Excalidraw](https://hackerapproved.com/p/excalidraw/): 41 recommend, 7 mixed, 8 criticize
- [SQL to ER diagram tool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free-sql-to-er-diagram-tool/): 23 recommend, 4 mixed, 1 criticize
- [D2 diagram language](https://hackerapproved.com/p/d2/): 15 recommend, 5 mixed, 6 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, "Monosketch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/monosketch/ (18 recommend, 5 mixed, 4 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

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