Hacker ApprovedDepartments

Stage

Ranked 5 of 17 code review tools by recommenders

Developers recommend Stage for splitting large changes into guided chapters so reviewers focus on what matters. Critics say the paid plan is hard to justify.

Developers recommend Stage for splitting large changes into guided chapters so reviewers focus on what matters. Critics say the paid plan is hard to justify.

43 people gave an opinion

recommend it
32
criticize it
11
approval share
74%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 3 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: not recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: not recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 32 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 2.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
  • Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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

  • Guides reviewers through changes in chapters

    “CHAPTERS.md sounds like a good idea for when the auto-grouping doesn't match the actual structure of the work.”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “making the overall review experience as guided and obvious as possible for the human”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “we designed Stage with the intention of AI guiding the human, not replacing them”

    Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
  • Solves a major review bottleneck

    “if a tool can solve this instead of potentially adding more friction to other engineers I'm all for it”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “This is brilliant and really attacks the biggest bottleneck in my process.”

    Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “This would have been a game-changer in previous projects I've worked on.”

    Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”
  • Clear UX with navigation tour

    “Stage (op product) navigation tour is nice UX, about a day worth of work in addition to the incoming code tour.”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “Cool, simple demo that concisely shows the value.”

    Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”
  • Seen as best in its space

    “Stage was the best product in this space”

    Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Stop sending me PRs; a rant”

    “I can see this growing to replace github”

    Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Introducing Stage: Why it's time to build a better code review platform”

    “most human-centric so far”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Price is hard to justify

    “Y’all are a bit nuts if you want 50% more per month than Claude Pro for this.”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “US$30/mo is a big ask for home hobbyist use!”

    Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

    “No pricing page, you've lost my interest.”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
  • Not usable from the terminal

    “this is a browser experience that you trigger from the terminal”

    Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

    “If this tool was in the terminal I'd use it.”

    Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”
  • No clear moat against copying

    “Looks kind of neat like devon.ai review / reviewstack crossover. But as i tell every of the dozens projects trying to make a commercial review tool: i would rather spend a week vibe copying this than onboarding a tool i have to pay for”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “This is a really cool idea but where's the moat?”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
  • Adds little beyond commit organization

    “Isn't that what commits are for? I see no reason for adding this as an after-thought.”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

    “It doesn't seem to do much other than organize your commits within a PR”

    Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

Other code review tools people recommend

The four most recommended other code review tools, with 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.

Stage compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
GitHub Stacked PRs646350%3——
Gerrit601283%12—Approved
Graphite code review521676%9—Approved
CodeRabbit343252%11——
StageThis page321174%3——
See all 17 code review tools, ranked

What people said

40 of the 51 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“Stage was the best product in this space”

RecommendsComment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Stop sending me PRs; a rant”

“looks like an interesting start on that subject”

RecommendsComment from 11 May 2026 in “You Need AI That Reduces Maintenance Costs”

“I like the chapter concept.”

RecommendsComment from 10 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“your Stage tool and the hosted version are unusable compared to GitHub web”

MixedComment from 8 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“Oh damn, I'll be installing this after work for sure!”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“US$30/mo is a big ask for home hobbyist use!”

CriticizesComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“Cool, simple demo that concisely shows the value.”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“make it very easy to separate the important stuff from the unimportant stuff”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“this is a browser experience that you trigger from the terminal”

MixedComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“This would have been a game-changer in previous projects I've worked on.”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“If this tool was in the terminal I'd use it.”

MixedComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“Looks cool and will give it a try.”

RecommendsComment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”

“I can see this growing to replace github”

RecommendsComment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Introducing Stage: Why it's time to build a better code review platform”

“This is brilliant and really attacks the biggest bottleneck in my process.”

RecommendsComment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“we designed Stage with the intention of AI guiding the human, not replacing them”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“The "chapters" metaphor is exactly right”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“i enjoy the video and the project, kudos”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Haven't tried it yet, but it looks neat!”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Pretty neat, sick of trying to digest 100 Devin comments at once!”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“guiding the reviewer through reading code in the way that makes most sense”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“it lags a bit then doesn't actually proceed to the next chapter until I press again”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“No pricing page, you've lost my interest.”

CriticizesComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“There are users who simply just use the diff and integrated GitHub view/comment/approval-sync experience for local reviews of PRs.”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“not every team that wants better UX for complex work uses agents”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“suggestions will quickly turn into todo lists”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Your tool makes one thing (the code review) easier, while decreasing people's motivation to make well-mannered commits”

CriticizesComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Stage (op product) navigation tour is nice UX, about a day worth of work in addition to the incoming code tour.”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“using AI to guide human attention through the review process itself”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Looks kind of neat like devon.ai review / reviewstack crossover. But as i tell every of the dozens projects trying to make a commercial review tool: i would rather spend a week vibe copying this than onboarding a tool i have to pay for”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Y’all are a bit nuts if you want 50% more per month than Claude Pro for this.”

CriticizesComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“CHAPTERS.md sounds like a good idea for when the auto-grouping doesn't match the actual structure of the work.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“most human-centric so far”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“It doesn't seem to do much other than organize your commits within a PR”

CriticizesComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“making the overall review experience as guided and obvious as possible for the human”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“The framing of "humans back in control" resonates.”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“if a tool can solve this instead of potentially adding more friction to other engineers I'm all for it”

RecommendsComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“It's an interesting idea, but I feel like it's missing almost the most important thing; the context of the change itself.”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“This is a really cool idea but where's the moat?”

MixedComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“Isn't that what commits are for? I see no reason for adding this as an after-thought.”

CriticizesComment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

“I like the chapters thing, a lot of PRs I review should really be like 5 prs”

RecommendsComment from 16 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.