# Seek by iNaturalist

20 Hacker News commenters recommended Seek by iNaturalist and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, casual app for identifying plants and animals from photos, good for kids. Critics say it shows a nature-disturbance prompt at every start.

## Why people recommend it

- Good plant and insect identification (4 comments): "I regularly use their seek app to identify plants and insects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642071)) "Use seek to identify plants/animals" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49777261)) "I have found great value in assistive tools Merlin and Seek/iNaturalist for bird and plant identification." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49200119))
- Easy and approachable for casual users (4 comments): "more approachable and has more 'fun' elements" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47041724)) "It works so well for our very simple needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550790)) "Seek is great for more casual users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46551397))
- Useful for helping research data (3 comments): "Seek offers essentially all the same value to researchers while also streamlining the experience for users." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46554025)) "it's streamlined for those of us who want to help researchers with data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556445)) "Seek does this for accessing identification data" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550562))
- Educational and fun for kids (2 comments): "it's intended for kids and is a bit more educational." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47376983)) "more approachable and has more 'fun' elements" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47041724))

## What people warn about

- Nature-disturbance prompt at every start (3 comments): ">Seek throws up a „please don‘t disturb nature“ modal at every single start that you need to click away." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47630048)) "Seek is annoying, because it throws up some kind of „please don‘t disturb nature“ dialog box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550584)) "Seek throws up a „please don‘t disturb nature“ modal at every single start" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47629814))
- Weak plant and insect identification (3 comments): "I've been pretty disappointed in the seeks applications ability to identify vegetation or insects." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47629983)) "Seek, on the other hand, is happy to make up identifications itself." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47046674)) "it failed to identify all of them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46555332))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Merlin Bird ID](https://hackerapproved.com/p/merlin-bird-id.md): 43 recommend
- [Wildex](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wildex.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Seek by iNaturalist", https://hackerapproved.com/p/seek/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).