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%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- 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” - Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
- Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
- Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
- Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
- Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Show HN: Stage CLI – a tool to make reading your AI generated changes easier”
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” - Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Stage – Putting humans back in control of code review”
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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Stacked PRs | 64 | 63 | 50% | 3 | — | — |
| Gerrit | 60 | 12 | 83% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Graphite code review | 52 | 16 | 76% | 9 | — | Approved |
| CodeRabbit | 34 | 32 | 52% | 11 | — | — |
| StageThis page | 32 | 11 | 74% | 3 | — | — |
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”
“looks like an interesting start on that subject”
“I like the chapter concept.”
“your Stage tool and the hosted version are unusable compared to GitHub web”
“Oh damn, I'll be installing this after work for sure!”
“US$30/mo is a big ask for home hobbyist use!”
“Cool, simple demo that concisely shows the value.”
“make it very easy to separate the important stuff from the unimportant stuff”
“this is a browser experience that you trigger from the terminal”
“This would have been a game-changer in previous projects I've worked on.”
“If this tool was in the terminal I'd use it.”
“Looks cool and will give it a try.”
“I can see this growing to replace github”
“This is brilliant and really attacks the biggest bottleneck in my process.”
“we designed Stage with the intention of AI guiding the human, not replacing them”
“The "chapters" metaphor is exactly right”
“i enjoy the video and the project, kudos”
“Haven't tried it yet, but it looks neat!”
“Pretty neat, sick of trying to digest 100 Devin comments at once!”
“guiding the reviewer through reading code in the way that makes most sense”
“it lags a bit then doesn't actually proceed to the next chapter until I press again”
“No pricing page, you've lost my interest.”
“There are users who simply just use the diff and integrated GitHub view/comment/approval-sync experience for local reviews of PRs.”
“not every team that wants better UX for complex work uses agents”
“suggestions will quickly turn into todo lists”
“Your tool makes one thing (the code review) easier, while decreasing people's motivation to make well-mannered commits”
“Stage (op product) navigation tour is nice UX, about a day worth of work in addition to the incoming code tour.”
“using AI to guide human attention through the review process itself”
“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”
“Y’all are a bit nuts if you want 50% more per month than Claude Pro for this.”
“CHAPTERS.md sounds like a good idea for when the auto-grouping doesn't match the actual structure of the work.”
“most human-centric so far”
“It doesn't seem to do much other than organize your commits within a PR”
“making the overall review experience as guided and obvious as possible for the human”
“The framing of "humans back in control" resonates.”
“if a tool can solve this instead of potentially adding more friction to other engineers I'm all for it”
“It's an interesting idea, but I feel like it's missing almost the most important thing; the context of the change itself.”
“This is a really cool idea but where's the moat?”
“Isn't that what commits are for? I see no reason for adding this as an after-thought.”
“I like the chapters thing, a lot of PRs I review should really be like 5 prs”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.