# Netlify Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/netlify/ 29 people recommended Netlify in Hacker News comments, 6 had mixed feelings and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 27 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for easy static hosting with GitHub hookup, drag-and-drop deploys and a generous free tier; the most common caveat is that free credits run out fast and bills can surprise. Summary written by Claude from 51 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 47 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Generous free tier for small sites (6 comments in the sample): "a static hosting service with a generous free tier like CloudFlare Pages/Workers, Netlify, Firebase Hosting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48979666)) "For low-volume static sites (which all of mine are) this is free, fast, and convenient." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49393582)) "Netlify and vercel have a generous free tier, I never paid a dime." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49574678)) - Drag-and-drop deploys (4 comments in the sample): "I can just updated the index.html in the "website" folder on my desktop and literally drag it to Netlify to update it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48839869)) "good free option for non techies since you can just drag a directory to deploy it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013166)) "you can just drag a folder that contains your website and it's up immediately" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46615363)) - Simple GitHub integration and previews (2 comments in the sample): "All of my static sites that I've built lately have been done on Netlify…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128610)) "Netlify giving me previews of the PR's changes for me to see before merging" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48535280)) - Simple for static sites (2 comments in the sample): "Services like netlify make it pretty simple" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45868199)) "makes hosting static stuff super easy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128661)) ## What people warn about - Surprise bills and high costs (5 comments in the sample): "no "oh shit" moment when you suddenly exceed it and owe real $$$ (looking at you, Netlify" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46875051)) "I still remember that guy who got a $100k Netlify bill for his free plan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48963515)) "Vercel and Netlify charge 10,000x for a pretty UI and not much else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46034962)) - Free credits run out fast (3 comments in the sample): "This was okay with Netlify as a connector, but I quickly ate through the free credits." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48639992)) "Netlify's free tier used to not have credits, but then they added it, and it makes the platform less accessible to users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46269854)) "I got frustrated hitting the free tier limits on Netlify" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841151)) - Sites banned or blocked (2 comments in the sample): "they banned one of my sites without even telling me for an unsubstantiated trademark complaint" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50138620)) "they'll block your IP address from the entire netlify.app IP range" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48874139)) - Weak beyond basic static sites (1 comment in the sample): "the likes of Vercel and Netlify barely offer anything else on their free tiers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47332271)) ## Other static site hosts people recommend - [Vercel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vercel/): 77 recommend, 43 mixed, 218 criticize - [GitHub Pages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-pages/): 70 recommend, 13 mixed, 24 criticize - [Cloudflare Pages](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-pages/): 64 recommend, 7 mixed, 15 criticize - [Cloudflare Drop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-drop/): 17 recommend, 2 mixed, 20 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.netlify.com/) ## 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, "Netlify", https://hackerapproved.com/p/netlify/ (29 recommend, 6 mixed, 18 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.