# O'Reilly subscription

24 Hacker News commenters recommended O'Reilly subscription and 16 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 11.75 years (3 owners).

**Verdict:** People recommend it for skimming several books on a topic before choosing one, plus labs and videos. Critics find the app clunky and say buying single books is cheaper.

## Why people recommend it

- Good value for the price (5 comments): "I think it is worth that, but I don't think I'd pay much more." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46196029)) "I find the $500 to be a pretty clear win as far as value goes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46197327)) "it was pretty well worth it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46208164))
- Free or discounted via libraries or ACM (4 comments): "I feel like this is a little known secret (discount via ACM) that more folks should know about." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195270)) "free access to academic libraries, IEEE, ACM, O'Reilly, etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177988)) "lets people access Everything from O'Reilly for Free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47879488))
- Compare several books on a topic (2 comments): "The main advantage of the subscription to me is being able to evaluate several books on a topic to pick the one that is the best fit for what I need." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195417)) "I'm also on a $200/year plan and for me too the fact that I can skim multiple books on a single topic before settling on one is well worth the money." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46197734))

## What people warn about

- Clunky app and interface (4 comments): "I couldn't work without it, although LLMs are becoming a good substitute for some subjects. The mobile app is a roach motel though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198181)) "the app is pretty kludgey and it's way more locked down than other publishers who will give you chapter PDFs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46197501)) "Doesn't fix the UI issues but does at least shift the ROI calculus." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195001))
- Often cheaper to buy books (3 comments): "I cancelled my O'Reilly subscription because it's cheaper for me to buy the books from the publisher." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48276828)) "it would be far more cost–effective to simple let us request hard copies of whatever books we wanted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46194715)) "It's far more cost effective to buy individual books than paying for the subscription" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198362))
- Dislikes subscription-only access model (2 comments): "I've become fundamentally opposed to DRM on media and subscription-only access is the ultimate DRM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46195565)) "Final nail in the coffin was when O'Reilly decided to aggressively push their subscription model." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48275303))
- Not used enough to justify (2 comments): "I cancelled my O'Reilly sub because I didn't read enough to make it worth the price" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48276827)) "realized I cannot make full use of it recently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46201327))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Bookshop.org](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bookshop-org.md): 15 recommend
- [Kobo Store](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kobo-store.md): 11 recommend
- [AbeBooks](https://hackerapproved.com/p/abebooks.md): 8 recommend
- [ebooks.com](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ebooks-com.md): 6 recommend
- [Humble Bundle Linux the Good Stuff Bundle](https://hackerapproved.com/p/humble-bundle-linux-the-good-stuff-bundle.md): 3 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.oreilly.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "O'Reilly subscription", https://hackerapproved.com/p/o-reilly-subscription/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).