Shadertoy
Hacker ApprovedShader editor in Developer tools
Free browser site for writing and sharing GLSL fragment shaders, praised as a goldmine for learning graphics. Critics call it a confusing abuse of what shaders were meant for.
Free browser site for writing and sharing GLSL fragment shaders, praised as a goldmine for learning graphics. Critics call it a confusing abuse of what shaders were meant for.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 93%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 14 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Good for learning graphics
“Your Youtube videos (not to mention shadertoy) sparked an interest in graphics I never knew I had.”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “2D Signed Distance Functions” “is a goldmine for learning shaders”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “A series of tricks and techniques I learned doing tiny GLSL demos” Easy to get started with
“ShaderToy makes it easy by taking care of everything except the GLSL”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0” “the most popular and easiest to get started with”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Shaders: How to draw high fidelity graphics with just x and y coordinates” Inspiring demos to tinker with
“The code was really interesting to read and tinker with!”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “Naturally Occurring Quasicrystals” “A single-GLSL graphics demo is always inspiring.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Go Away Python” “You can do some pretty impressive things”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Shaders: How to draw high fidelity graphics with just x and y coordinates”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Confusing misuse of shader purpose
“ShaderToy is fun and awesome, but it's fundamentally a confusing abuse of what shaders were intended for”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Shaders: How to draw high fidelity graphics with just x and y coordinates” Not what most people use
“ShaderToy and TouchDesigner and Comfy are neat toys, but they're not what the majority of people will use.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “Three kinds of AI products work” Procedural audio underused
“Shadertoy even has procedural audio but it doesn't get used enough.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “How to Synthesize a House Loop”
What people recommend instead
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShadertoyThis page | 14 | 1 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Shader Lab | 8 | 5 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“ShaderToy makes it easy by taking care of everything except the GLSL”
“animg.app shadertoy.com and glsl.app are working fine at the same time.”
“The code was really interesting to read and tinker with!”
“giving this knowledge a stage to play out in that way”
“Runs in the browser, are all fragment shaders and without a size limit afaik, but they tend to be small-ish”
“A single-GLSL graphics demo is always inspiring.”
“Your Youtube videos (not to mention shadertoy) sparked an interest in graphics I never knew I had.”
“Shadertoy is about as good as it gets, and that's not a compliment.”
“is a goldmine for learning shaders”
“Shadertoy even has procedural audio but it doesn't get used enough.”
“ShaderToy is fun and awesome, but it's fundamentally a confusing abuse of what shaders were intended for”
“the most popular and easiest to get started with”
“You can do some pretty impressive things”
“ShaderToy and TouchDesigner and Comfy are neat toys, but they're not what the majority of people will use.”
“it's stayed free and true to its purpose for 12y now”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.