# Wokwi

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Wokwi and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for simulating circuits and running integration tests without physical hardware, speeding up projects. Caveat: it is not like real hardware and carries a monthly cost.

## Why people recommend it

- Simulates hardware without physical devices (2 comments): "Being able to do integration tests without the physical device itself is an absolute game changer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48793010)) "You can try wokwi for simulating your circuit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47059784))

## What people warn about

- Paid subscription or licensing (3 comments): "without dedicated test runners hooked up to hardware or licensing for Wokwi" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46009415)) "Wokwi is SaaS emulator with a monthly cost" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50139022)) "They want you to pay and that’s limiting." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137063))
- Not like real hardware (1 comments): "it's fun ... but it's NOT like the actual hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545029))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Velxio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/velxio-2-0.md): 21 recommend
- [Esp32sim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/esp32sim.md): 11 recommend
- [Simantic](https://hackerapproved.com/p/simantic.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://wokwi.com/)

## Cite as

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