Nmap
Ranked 5 of 8 network diagnostic tools by recommenders
Free network scanner people use to quickly map machines on a network and see what they run.
Free network scanner people use to quickly map machines on a network and see what they run.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not 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
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Quick network scanning and mapping
“a simple script to basically nmap your network provides the same functionality”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “The Dangers of SSL Certificates” “Rootless nmap scan of a /24 in under 10 seconds”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Whosthere: A LAN discovery tool with a modern TUI, written in Go”
Other network diagnostic tools people recommend
The four most recommended other network diagnostic tools, 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.
See all 8 network diagnostic tools, rankedWhat people said
7 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“nmap does (or certainly used to) have options to report the OS of a given machine”
“Throws ssl certificate error”
“They're all great on their own”
“Better than MGM's lineup nowadays.”
“I like nmap and use it often.”
“Rootless nmap scan of a /24 in under 10 seconds”
“a simple script to basically nmap your network provides the same functionality”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.