# Nitter 81 Hacker News commenters recommended Nitter and 36 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free open-source reader that shows X posts without a login, lighter and faster than the site. Caveat: instances often go down and may breach X's terms. ## Why people recommend it - Lighter, faster, cleaner than X (8 comments): "On Nitter, which is fast-loading and streamlined, it is trivial to ctrl-click on a bunch of commenter accounts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49624138)) "it is at least 10 times faster than the lethargic drugged ground sloth that is the X site" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49518581)) "way lighter than using Twitter and gets the job done if you want to check few accounts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438147)) - Read posts without logging in (4 comments): "At least Xitter has Nitter proxies after they went full Javascript - which is also great since it allows accessing content that's often behind a registration wall." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768709)) "Being able to access it without giving them your personal information and without jumping through hoops is a good thing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042338)) "Used nitter all the time just to send a clip to friends without making them log in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49451564)) - Avoids X's user tracking (4 comments): "Being able to access it without giving them your personal information and without jumping through hoops is a good thing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042338)) "Nitter permitted perusing of twitter (x-cremente) without being tracked by whoever has the keys to the backdoors" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49439408)) "it provided a lighter, cleaner interface, because it avoided Twitter's user tracking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49695378)) - Open source, self-hostable (4 comments): "Hosting a nitter instance on a Rpi or a phone behind tailscale is trivial in the post-llm age" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49712587)) "Nitter already won since It's open source. Anyone can just fork it and/or self-host it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042593)) "I use libredirect to redirect to my own instances of Nitter, Redlib and Invidious" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46525326)) ## What people warn about - Instances go down, links break (4 comments): "I had to rely on nitter and xcancel for that... Now that no longer works either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446906)) "I've used other Nitter instances before and they either had their RSS feeds disabled or were particularly unstable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49577045)) "What doesn't work is posting a link to a specific Nitter instance with the expectation that that link will persist" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49583375)) - Legal risk, violates X terms (4 comments): "Nitter has no right to to use accounts to scrape and republish information that X has chosen to gate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50047580)) "You should be aware that linking to X content (whatever mechanism you use) supports it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446381)) "X needs revenue to continue to bypassing it illegal and should not be done." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50042433)) - Keeps X relevant, supports platform (4 comments): "You should be aware that linking to X content (whatever mechanism you use) supports it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446381)) "Continuing to read things on it, even through Nitter, is in the interests of Twitter/X" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580123)) "All those instances keep the service relevant giving it more reach than necessary." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49575411)) - Seen as pointless or cloning (3 comments): "It seems like Nitter loses its original value proposition once it's no longer a one-to-many proxy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49491225)) "What's the point of such a service? It sounds like performative nonsense." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49441707)) "These are not clients but clones . They are cloning all the content ." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49442205)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [XCancel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xcancel.md): 115 recommend - [Redlib](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redlib.md): 33 recommend - [Invidious](https://hackerapproved.com/p/invidious.md): 28 recommend - [Kittygram](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kittygram.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Nitter", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nitter/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).