# Phind 36 Hacker News commenters recommended Phind and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (3 owners). **Verdict:** People recommend Phind for AI web search with verifiable links and detailed answers, though critics say its mini-apps break and answers have slipped. ## Why people recommend it - Strong web search in chat (2 comments): "they were the first ones that did web search in AI chat well enough to make AI actually into a useful daily tool" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46597946)) "Just ask Phind/Perplexity to explain the problem, give the solution and provide verifiable links one can check to validate." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46453040)) - Detailed, clear answers and troubleshooting (4 comments): "it came up with very detailed instructions and troubleshooting tips" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46139609)) "I wasn't able to make it do that, but the information was still there presented in a reasonable way!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140123)) "My attempt gave more reasonable results" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141076)) - Useful mini-apps and clean format (3 comments): "rough edges but overall love the format" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46139269)) "I got clean and focused answer to my query and an app." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46139873)) "This is so cool. These are shareable I guess?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46143855)) - Responsive, pleasant web app (2 comments): "the UX was generally great, and the webapp felt responsive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46204249)) "This is pretty cool. Congrats on the launch! ... I'm initially impressed!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146174)) ## What people warn about - Mini-apps and diagrams break or misfire (4 comments): "the interactivity/functionality didn't work and choice of visualization was poor for the domain" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140044)) "Some of the mini-apps actually feel useful, but others break in ways you wouldn't expect." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138533)) "it created an unrelated page" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137708)) - Answers weaker than rival models (4 comments): "Claude 4.5 Opus in Phind gave a better answer than Phind Fast here" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140502)) "I agree that this answer was a bit wacky." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138700)) "they swiched from gpt4 to phind-70b as driver behind their answers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46598649)) - Slow, buggy, error-prone interface (4 comments): "too slow man. come on. you make phind worse and worse. unusable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46197681)) "Now, it's much slower and has some kind of solution view that gets updated with every new message." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141489)) "Application error: a client-side exception has occurred while loading www.phind.com" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137802)) - Unclear purpose and weak moat (4 comments): "I just dont see a moat or any vertical direction" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138012)) "for most use cases, this will begin to feel gimmicky rather quickly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46138182)) "I don't understand what the "one-off app" is trying to achieve." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46140606)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Perplexity](https://hackerapproved.com/p/perplexity.md): 121 recommend - [Kagi Assistant](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kagi-assistant.md): 79 recommend - [Google AI Mode](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-ai-mode.md): 74 recommend - [Google AI summaries](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-ai-summaries.md): 13 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Phind", https://hackerapproved.com/p/phind/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).