# XCancel 115 Hacker News commenters recommended XCancel and 40 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A lightweight, ad-free way to read X posts without an account by swapping the domain in a link, though rate limits, captchas and growing breakage make it unreliable. ## Why people recommend it - Read X without an account (8 comments): "changing the x.com or twitter.com in a twitter link to xcancel.com usually works to view tweets without an account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464010)) "I always use xcancel instead of X. I don't have a twitter account and I don't want to sign in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49696721)) "you don't have to sign into X, and you're also denying X some user data and engagement metrics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704285)) - Easy URL swap or redirect (8 comments): "changing the x.com or twitter.com in a twitter link to xcancel.com usually works to view tweets without an account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48464010)) "You can add this as a bookmark in your browser, and just click it to toggle between x.com and xcancel.com" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46525382)) "You should be able to suffix the x domain with "cancel" to view the content through a proxy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027310)) - Lightweight, clean, no ads (4 comments): "it will display the actual content only. Without ads and without other user-alienating features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49711073)) "it's very lightweight. There is an anti-SPAM redirect but no huge JS bundles, just basic HTML." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247929)) "xcancel does not have a login barrier, nor all the popup messages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49193446)) - Avoids supporting or feeding X (5 comments): "you don't have to sign into X, and you're also denying X some user data and engagement metrics" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49704285)) "I donated to xcancel because id rather support that than pay for Twitter blue or whatever." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49442188)) "it allows me to read but protects me from giving in to the temptation of wasting time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49449711)) ## What people warn about - Rate limits, captchas, bot checks (5 comments): "lately I get more and more captcha-crap, only to be put to its main site, not the URL i meant to visit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337489)) "I can only make a few searches on the xcancel website itself before it tells me I'm rate limited" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49438365)) "constantly giving you an error message if you tried more than 2 or 3 searches at a time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49440671)) - Still indirectly engages with X (8 comments): "XCancel is a nice QOL but sends the message that using Twitter is fine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49706257)) "Standing outside and looking through the Nazi Bar's window is still pretty much hanging out at the Nazi Bar." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49700814)) "I would assume that if you were using nitter or xcancel it's because you did not want to support X." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446381)) - Increasingly broken or shut down (4 comments): "especially when they don't work with XCancel which seems to be happening more frequently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48132245)) "I had to rely on nitter and xcancel for that... Now that no longer works either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49446906)) "I cannot click on posts. I cannot read replies. I cannot open images." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708242)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Nitter](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nitter.md): 81 recommend - [Redlib](https://hackerapproved.com/p/redlib.md): 33 recommend - [Invidious](https://hackerapproved.com/p/invidious.md): 28 recommend - [Kittygram](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kittygram.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://xcancel.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "XCancel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/xcancel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).