Nix with Home Manager
Ranked 4 of 4 dotfile managers by recommenders
People recommend it for managing dotfiles and dev configuration declaratively, and say it is useful day to day and works well over years of use.
People recommend it for managing dotfiles and dev configuration declaratively, and say it is useful day to day and works well over years of use.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Shared config across many hosts
“my flake contains 8 other NixOS hosts with common home-manager config”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “NixOS 26.05 Released” Enough as a dotfile manager
“other dotfile managers including Nix with Home Manager will suffice. I do, so they won't.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Migrating from GNU Stow to Chezmoi” Useful in everyday use
“genuinely useful in my day to day, and I can’t recommend it enough”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Home Maker: Declare Your Dev Tools in a Makefile” Used for years without issues
“I've used this set up for 3 or 4 years now and love it.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “NixOS 26.05 Released”
Other dotfile managers people recommend
The three most recommended other dotfile managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Manager | 31 | 15 | 67% | 12 | — | Approved |
| chezmoi | 21 | 6 | 78% | 7 | — | Approved |
| GNU Stow | 14 | 5 | 74% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Nix with Home ManagerThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“my flake contains 8 other NixOS hosts with common home-manager config”
“I've used this set up for 3 or 4 years now and love it.”
“other dotfile managers including Nix with Home Manager will suffice. I do, so they won't.”
“genuinely useful in my day to day, and I can’t recommend it enough”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.