# Violentmonkey

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Violentmonkey and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source userscript manager that people choose over Tampermonkey because it is open source and more lightweight.

## Why people recommend it

- Open source, unlike Tampermonkey (3 comments): "Thanks for the recommendation - didn't realize there was a FOSS equivalent." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47705708)) "They should have vetted ViolentMonkey instead of TamperMonkey" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49307532)) "use Violentmonkey instead of Tampermonkey because open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704601))
- Runs existing Tampermonkey scripts unchanged (2 comments): "Violentmonkey is what I meant. That's my script from when I was previously using tampermonkey but it works identically in VM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48833110)) "This UserJS worked for me with Violentmonkey" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48448752))
- Trusted alongside uBlock Origin (2 comments): "like uMatrix, uBlock Origin, or Violentmonkey, in Chrome by passing command line flags" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48153691)) "I just stopped using third party extensions, except for 2 (violentmonkey, ublock)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46287351))
- Custom scripts for sites and redirects (2 comments): "I've setup a Violentmonkey script to automatically redirect me to r.naa.gg" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50303916)) "That's what development tools are for. Or Greasemonkey/Violentmonkey." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296454))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Tampermonkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tampermonkey.md): 16 recommend
- [Greasemonkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/greasemonkey.md): 16 recommend
- [Refined GitHub](https://hackerapproved.com/p/refined-github.md): 6 recommend
- [WebUSB Extension for Firefox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/webusb-extension-for-firefox.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Violentmonkey", https://hackerapproved.com/p/violentmonkey/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).