XDA Developers
Ranked 3 of 3 tech news sites by recommenders
People recommend it for Android modding information, device guides and a forum where much mobile software gets built. Critics say articles are uneven and increasingly read like AI-generated filler.
People recommend it for Android modding information, device guides and a forum where much mobile software gets built. Critics say articles are uneven and increasingly read like AI-generated filler.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 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
Deep Android modding and device guides
“a whole freakin lot of mobile code is essentially just a couple random dudes on XDA making something work”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Fedora is now the default Linux recommendation, and Ubuntu did this to itself” “Here is a good place to get started with your Moto X.”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “GrapheneOS is the only Android OS providing full security patches” “plenty of Android modding information”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Verizon starts requiring 365 days of paid service before it will unlock phones” Specialist forum knowledge on device care
“specialist forums are still thriving (audio/video stuff, XDA-developers”
Comment from 18 Dec 2025 in “A16z-backed Doublespeed hacked, revealing what its AI-generated accounts promote” “they have a lot of forum posts about what is safe to remove”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Using an old Android phone as a music player”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
AI-generated or low-quality slop content
“the same quasi-correct tech article slop that seems to go around all the big blogs”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “a good chunk of the ones I read definitely have the slop half baked vibe to them”
Comment from 13 May 2026 in “Linux gaming is faster because Windows APIs are becoming Linux kernel features” “Too much of the content now feels like AI-generated slop”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “30 years of CPUs at Tom's Hardware – looking back on three decades of processors”
Other tech news sites people recommend
The two most recommended other tech news sites, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoronix | 14 | 9 | 61% | 9 | — | — |
| The Register | 13 | 9 | 59% | 9 | — | — |
| XDA DevelopersThis page | 7 | 7 | 50% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Their staff seem to make a lot of basic technical errors”
“they have a lot of forum posts about what is safe to remove”
“Too much of the content now feels like AI-generated slop”
“xda is older than github and has a lot of institutional inertia”
“That's the website that really got me into software engineering.”
“a good chunk of the ones I read definitely have the slop half baked vibe to them”
“the same quasi-correct tech article slop that seems to go around all the big blogs”
“a whole freakin lot of mobile code is essentially just a couple random dudes on XDA making something work”
“talking to noobs who are not able to enable ntsync by themselves”
“plenty of Android modding information”
“specialist forums are still thriving (audio/video stuff, XDA-developers”
“Here is a good place to get started with your Moto X.”
“the quality of their articles is uneven and they trend towards click bait headlines”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.