# w3m

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/w3m/

12 people recommended w3m in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Text-based web browser people use for quick lookups, HTML email and non-JavaScript pages; it lacks JavaScript support, so many modern sites break.

Summary written by Claude from 18 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 17 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Renders tables and HTML email well (2 comments in the sample): "it does a pretty good job especially with tables, which are still used a lot in HTML email." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219369)) "I can run all html through w3m and still have nicely rendered emails" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46218135))
- Surprisingly usable on the web (2 comments in the sample): "was able to have a reasonably pleasant time on the web" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49170148)) "It unwieldy but surprisingly usable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46802539))
- Quick lookups without opening a browser (2 comments in the sample): "w3m is still the goat for quick lookups when you dont want to open a browser" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47797103)) "things work well enough to quench my thirst" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46780597))

## What people warn about

- Breaks on JavaScript-dependent sites (2 comments in the sample): "w3m also works but I want to be able to browser with full w3m images support but most sites just break on needing JavaScript" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47787755)) "Later they also blocked other non-JS browsers like links or w3m" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45827338))
- Rough and unwieldy around the edges (1 comment in the sample): "are… rough… definitely not of the quality we're seeing elsewhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45831761))

## Other text browsers people recommend

- [Lynx web browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lynx/): 34 recommend, 8 mixed, 8 criticize
- [Links web browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/links/): 14 recommend, 3 mixed, 3 criticize
- [Chawan terminal web browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chawan/): 12 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [Browsh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/browsh/): 7 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 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, "w3m", https://hackerapproved.com/p/w3m/ (12 recommend, 5 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

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