# SpeedCrunch

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/speedcrunch-1-1/

10 people recommended SpeedCrunch in Hacker News comments, 3 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 3 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

8 of the 10 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “SpeedCrunch 1.1”.

**Verdict:** A fast, keyboard-driven desktop calculator that people use for scratchpad equations, bit operations and radix conversion, with a clean, free design.

Summary written by Claude from 17 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Keyboard-driven scratchpad for quick equations (2 comments in the sample): "always my go-to for quick scratchpad for equations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50227001)) "Speedcrunch might finally beat out opening a terminal w/ the R interpreter for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228865))
- Strong bit shift and bit visualization (2 comments in the sample): "I use speed crunch almost every day mostly to see bits and bit shift operations visually." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50226084)) "This is the most useful calculator.. bit shifts..radix conversations.." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50225787))
- Used daily by regular users (2 comments in the sample): "usually I just use Speedcrunch on my computer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46835491)) "Huge fan of SpeedCrunch!!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228876))

## What people warn about

- Input lag and slow startup in new version (2 comments in the sample): "there's now marked input lag that never existed in the original version" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50227880)) "It's also much slower to start now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50239732))
- Bugs and missing functions (2 comments in the sample): "this app has plenty of bugs / missing issues just like everything else" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228541)) "to bad all functions dealing with prims are missing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50233221))
- Disliked new icon and redesign (2 comments in the sample): "I'm also not a fan of the old one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50233783)) "not a fan of the new icon tbh" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50229388))

## Other calculator apps people recommend

- [Free42 by Thomas Okken](https://hackerapproved.com/p/free42/): 7 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Qalculate](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qalculate/): 7 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Windows Calculator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-calculator/): 5 recommend, 3 mixed, 32 criticize
- [Math Notepad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/math-notepad/): 5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SpeedCrunch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/speedcrunch-1-1/ (10 recommend, 3 mixed, 7 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.