WKWebView
Shares rank 6 of 9 browser engines by recommenders
Apple's built-in web view, recommended for speeding development and staying productive with few drawbacks. Critics say it offers little customization and has bugs that can't be worked around.
Apple's built-in web view, recommended for speeding development and staying productive with few drawbacks. Critics say it offers little customization and has bugs that can't be worked around.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 46%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Speeds up development and saves time
“Going with WebView allows you to spend your time on other things that matter more.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Thoughts on Webview vs. React Native for mobile app?” “the webview was such an accelerant on productivity and with so few drawbacks”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Rune 1.3: adds TypeScript, a Helix editor, Kitty graphics and OSC-7501” Reliable with few drawbacks
“the webview was such an accelerant on productivity and with so few drawbacks”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Rune 1.3: adds TypeScript, a Helix editor, Kitty graphics and OSC-7501” “It never happened when using a wkwebview.”
Comment from 17 May 2026 in “Native all the way, until you need text”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unfixable bugs with no workaround
“I eventually found a few unfixable bugs with existing WebView2 and WKWebView that I could not work around”
Comment from 10 May 2026 on Hacker News “It's the WebKit-embedded-in-native gap that breaks.”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “New accessibility features powered by Apple Intelligence” Little customization, needs workarounds
“You better hope WkWebView's default behavior works for you, because you don't get to customize it”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Apple's App Tracking Transparency treated its own apps better than rivals” “Just to get around stuff that should have been baked in.”
Comment from 7 Feb 2026 in “WebView performance significantly slower than PWA”
Other browser engines people recommend
The four most recommended other browser engines, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servo browser engine | 81 | 32 | 72% | 12 | — | Approved |
| WebKit | 33 | 33 | 50% | 12 | — | — |
| Blitz | 14 | 5 | 74% | 10 | — | Approved |
| One Agent One Browser | 12 | 4 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| WKWebViewThis page | 6 | 7 | 46% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the webview was such an accelerant on productivity and with so few drawbacks”
“You better hope WkWebView's default behavior works for you, because you don't get to customize it”
“the webview was the biggest memory line in the app”
“I have recently been building Common Lisp UIs with webview”
“It's the WebKit-embedded-in-native gap that breaks.”
“It's still going to be faster than creating and moving around a bunch of NSViews”
“It never happened when using a wkwebview.”
“WKWebView is the control to use”
“I eventually found a few unfixable bugs with existing WebView2 and WKWebView that I could not work around”
“Just to get around stuff that should have been baked in.”
“explained the reasons android webview sucks ass”
“google violate humans rights, revealing developer personal home addresses to whole internet”
“Going with WebView allows you to spend your time on other things that matter more.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.