text.npr.org
Hacker ApprovedRanked 4 of 16 news outlets by recommenders
People recommend this text-only NPR news site because its pages load instantly, stay lightweight, and show the news with no clutter, endless scrolling, or dynamic elements.
People recommend this text-only NPR news site because its pages load instantly, stay lightweight, and show the news with no clutter, endless scrolling, or dynamic elements.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 96%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 23 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Fast, lightweight, static pages
“it displays instantly, scrolling with no lag, stuttering, or dynamic loading of page elements”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Hackers expose the identities of more than 40k DHS employees” “I prefer sites like text.npr.org and solar.lowtechmagazine.com because they're static”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How many hours a day do you genuinely spend using AI?” “very lightweight, especially when compared to a typical news site”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “A small collection of text-only websites” No endless scroll or clutter
“they are fast, give you the exact thing you are looking for without any other noise”
Comment from 16 Mar 2026 in “The 49MB Web Page” “And no doom scrolling. There is a bottom of the page and no Next Page button.”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “Hackers expose the identities of more than 40k DHS employees” Good for reading on Kindle
“I really enjoy using text.npr.org from my Kindle”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “A small collection of text-only websites” “another, much appreciated accessible option”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “CNN Lite” Preferred over other text-only news sites
“It’s hard to beat https://lite.cnn.com and https://text.npr.org”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “The 49MB Web Page” “did you try text.npr.org or lite.cnn.com”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN:Why do websites today refuse to work on EDGE/2G?”
Other news outlets people recommend
The four most recommended other news outlets, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNN Lite | 34 | 54 | 39% | 12 | — | — |
| The Guardian | 33 | 44 | 43% | 12 | — | — |
| Ars Technica | 32 | 62 | 34% | 9 | 16 yrs6 owners | — |
| text.npr.orgThis page | 23 | 1 | 96% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Forty.News | 19 | 7 | 73% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It is pretty much the only news I will look at.”
“This is such an refined way of viewing the news”
“And no doom scrolling. There is a bottom of the page and no Next Page button.”
“I wish more of the web were like this.”
“it displays instantly, scrolling with no lag, stuttering, or dynamic loading of page elements”
“did you try text.npr.org or lite.cnn.com”
“I honestly find the latter superior especially now that they’ve added a couple more lines of CSS to it.”
“another, much appreciated accessible option”
“I don't see that big of a difference than the default NPR website articles”
“I prefer sites like text.npr.org and solar.lowtechmagazine.com because they're static”
“For US-centric news, I really like the text only”
“they are fast, give you the exact thing you are looking for without any other noise”
“It’s hard to beat https://lite.cnn.com and https://text.npr.org”
“I really enjoy using text.npr.org from my Kindle”
“very lightweight, especially when compared to a typical news site”
“Wow, this is great. It's like Hacker News/Old Reddit for news.”
“there are many which offer all three”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.