# Hacker News HN Reader - HACK — user reviews > 210 indexed App Store user reviews of Hacker News HN Reader by Pranoy Chowdhury, rated 4.66/5 from 1,601 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hacker-news-hn-reader-hack/id1464477788/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hacker-news-hn-reader-hack/id1464477788.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,359 · 4★ 103 · 3★ 42 · 2★ 25 · 1★ 71 ## Is Hacker News HN Reader safe? Hacker News HN Reader - HACK appears safe based on user ratings. The AppsHunter Safety Score for Hacker News HN Reader is 93 out of 100. This assessment is based on 1,601 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.7 out of 5. Of 1,600 App Store ratings, 91.4% point to a safe experience, 2.6% suggest some concerns, and 6.0% point to a risky experience. ## Is Hacker News HN Reader legit? Hacker News HN Reader - HACK appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Hacker News HN Reader is 100 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Newest reviews (18 of 210) ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-10-19, version 184* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ### 4/5 — iOS 27 bug, but great *2026-10-01* On iOS 27, scrolling up and down comments seems to cause some random "tremor" as if the UI is being caught by a comment header and springs back and forth up and down at like 5hz for 1 seconds. It gets quite annoying over time. **Developer response:** The latest update fixes it. Please give it a try and let me know. If the issue is fixed, please update your review. If it still persists, please email me at: pran@pranapps.com ### 5/5 — Easy *2026-09-22* Simple et efficace ### 5/5 — Fantastic *2026-09-19* Does everything you could want from a HN reader and is continuously maintained. Fast, customizable and no subscription! Highly recommended **Developer response:** Thank you!! ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-09-12, version 170* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ### 5/5 — you will not regret buying this app! *2026-09-05, version 165* Disclaimer: I do not know this developer, I have never been in his country, which is far away from mine. I can say the following: (1) this is a very useful app, if you do not consider your MacBookPro or whatever computer you have, so kind of wondorous toy bursting with surprises; in other words, if you know really nothing of programming, this is **not** for you. Otherwise, **very much so!** (2) the developer uses a business plan assuming general decency, both from the side of the developer community, and the user community; in the case of the present application, we are talking anyway of the intersection of the above two community. Decency cannot be assumed these days lightly, so exercising this (this time as a user), is a sane way to imagine other alternatives for the future, than always the worst. (consider the disclaimer above) Please, do support this developer, for our own common sake. **Developer response:** Thank you for the kind words and supporting me! :) ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-08-22, version 164* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ### 5/5 — Good but *2026-08-07, version 163* Can u guys pls add a tutorial and I need to get help but it kinda ez ### 5/5 — Solid App- across the board! *2026-07-26, version 163* This is my favorite app and is constantly improving. Great work, buddy! ### 5/5 — The best *2026-07-14* Love it! ### 5/5 — much more pleasant interaction *2026-07-06, version 156* I only wish it would sync read articles and comment branches between devices ### 5/5 — Best one for hacker news! *2026-06-25, version 156* This app is probably the best way to read hacker news! I like its clean interface, the facility in navigation and the customization options! The developer is also very attentive to the feedback provided! ### 5/5 — The best *2026-06-23, version 156* This is the best Hacker News reader there is. Smooth, powerful, and complete. ### 5/5 — Best so far *2026-06-20* No purchase needed, no ads. Probably will pay the $5 to support the dev, though, because this kind of functionality is rare for ios apps without either ads or in-app purchases. Quite the hidden gem. Lots of settings to choose from. I especially like being able to select the text of a comment to copy by long-pressing on a comment, and from there, there are a lot of options, including copying the text as a whole, or selecting a certain part of the text as it pops up with the options. Now will look for other apps made by this dev! Edit: decided to purchase, it’s worth it **Developer response:** Thank you for the kind feedback! Glad you are supporting me :) ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-06-19, version 156* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-05-27, version 154* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ### 5/5 — Amazing client for HN *2026-05-20, version 153* Best HN client out there. 10/10 ### 5/5 — Awesome app *2026-05-19, version 153* This is the best HN app I’ve found. The developer is super responsive, the app is very well designed, and even the non-premium app is very full featured. I of course recommend going premium to support amazing people like Pran! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t open comments section *2026-11-08* Up until the latest version, when I opened an article from Home, it would take me to the comments section. Now it opens the linked article, with no way to read the comments. ### 1/5 — used to be good, toxic dev see last edit *2026-06-11* i bought it when it was flawless. now it crashes and freezes. im using the website now and its way better. you dont need an app. Edit: Still freezes occasionally when you scroll down the comments. It started when liquid glass was introduced. Edit: Hi Dev, thanks for your response. The app still freezes when you collapse comments. I can send you a screenshot of the freeze but the bug will obviously not be visible. Maybe try using your own app for a few days and you will encounter the bug. Edit: Still happening. Last Edit: I sent you the footage. You responded to my criticism 4 times without taking me seriously. You introduced a bug into your app and now you cannot accept that i found it. Really dishonest behavior. I used to use the app regularly, but now it's unusable. I didn't want to talk trash about your app. I just wanted the bug to be fixed. Your passive aggressiveness is really off putting. i won't check anymore if your next update fixed the bug. Edit: Now you are just lying. I will not respond to you anymore. I sent proof and you ignored it. It's your problem, not mine. **Developer response:** June 30th Edit: Hello, I listen to user feedback and personally respond to all reviews and emails I receive. My app has received 156 updates over 8 years and that's been possible because of user feedback to constantly improve it and fix bugs. I also personally use the app daily, often for many hours. And my friends use it too. So it's important for me to maintain it, fix bugs, add new features etc. So, there's no reason for me to say I didn't receive your email. I have genuinely not received it. I have checked my spam folder and nothing there either. Sometimes emails from unfamiliar domains or iCloud emails have trouble delivering, so maybe you sent it and it didn't get to me? Spam folder also has auto-delete after few days, so maybe that happened? This isn't your fault and I am sorry for both, the bug you faced as well as this frustrating troubleshooting process. Ultimately, we both want the same thing - your issue be fixed. One important thing I'd add that a bit over a week ago, another user reported a bug where when having the "full screen swipe to go back" setting was on, the app would intermittently stop responding to touches. I hadn't encountered that bug because I used to use the app with that setting off. That setting also used to be off by default, so most users probably had it off. So, I turned on that setting and tested it for a few days until I faced that issue too where the app randomly stopped responding to touches. Basically, when swiping back and then cancelling the swipe, an invisible zombie view would be left around on top of the app which would steal touch events from underlying content. So, I rewrote the entire code for the "full screen swipe to go back" feature and released update version 156 which I believe resolved it. Because that bug was so intermittent and hard to reproduce, me and my other user are still verifying it's resolved but we haven't faced it in the last week of use. So, I think it's gone now. I am not sure if your issue was the same as this and if you had that setting on or not. The App Store review doesn't give me much details about your device and environment and I don't use third part crashlytics for privacy reasons. Only thing the review shows is that your app version was 155. So, hope you try version 156 and let me know. So, if the bug persists after upgrading to version 156, I would really appreciate if you reach out to me via email again so I can fix the issue. Please send me: 1. Video recording 2. What device you are using 3. What iOS or macOS version. 4. Screenshot of the settings page in my app. 5. Any more details of the issue. You can reach me at: pran@pranapps.com If your issue is resolved, hope you update your review :) ### 1/5 — The worst iOS app *2026-03-25, version 150* The irony of being the worst iOS app while being targeted at developers. ### 1/5 — Hack me bro *2026-01-04, version 146* BRO I SAID MY PASS IN THE APP AND THEY HACKED ME ### 1/5 — Horrible *2023-03-10, version 94* Horrible people ### 1/5 — update broke everything *2022-10-01, version 87* the new update broke the home screen of the app. It says I’m in the home section but it’s a blank page with no feed. Terrible app. ### 1/5 — App is breaking too often *2022-09-29, version 86* Very unreliable. Often loads with a blank page or loads all the links as posted “just now” with no comments and no ability to open comments ### 1/5 — Can’t buy premium *2021-09-29* Doesn’t work, error message „ Purchase Failed: The operation couldn't be completed.(SKErrorDomain error O.)“ with iPhone XS latest iOS 15, wlan or sim **Developer response:** Can you email me at pran@pranapps.com with what App Store country you are using as well as whether you are behind a proxy or vpn? ### 1/5 — Awful *2021-02-08* To use dark mode you should buy premium, seriously? In 2021? **Developer response:** My app gives dark mode for free on a per launch basis. So as long as you don’t force quit the app, dark mode should continue working. And even after a force quit and launch, you can simply switch is on again. This way I am able to provide all features for free including important features like commenting and voting and making new posts. If you have questions, you can email me at pran@pranapps.com ### 3/5 — La version française ! *2025-10-12* Il faut une version fR **Developer response:** Thank you for the feedback. I will work on localizing the app to French language. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — A great app and great support! *2026-11-11* I’ve been using HACK for years, never had to look elsewhere after finding this one. Lots of settings so you can customize the UI too! Recently, there was an unintentional bug that popped up due to something that changed on HN’s side. Pram, the developer was quick to respond and got the patch out quickly. Loved his dedication and effort to keep this app top notch. ### 5/5 — Best way to read HN *2026-11-10* Dev, quick note, everything is showing as [deleted] in mine and also only the Chronological view shows the comment/likes for each article and allows you to read the comments where every otherview (Trending, Home, etc) has suddenly caused clicking them to open in Browser with no way to just go to the thread and comments I believe this is a bug **Developer response:** This was a bug few days ago due to changes in the HN website. Please update to the latest app version 188 which fixes it. If your issue is resolved, please update your review. If you still have issue, email me at: pran@pranapps.com ### 5/5 — Dev is S Tier *2026-11-09* Plain and simple, this guys is insane. Insanely good, answers to all feature requests, etc. App itself is solid, just like hn crowd ***** November 2026 update, app forgot how to show comments lol ***** Nov 9, 2026 All good now ***** **Developer response:** Nov 10 edit: glad the update fixed the bug! Nov 8: Comments not showing was due to a change to the hacker news website. I released a fix late last night. Please update to version 187 for the fix. If it helps, hope you update your review. Feel free to email me if you have any problems: pran@pranapps.com ### 5/5 — Practically perfect *2026-11-08* It has the best UX of any socal media app on my phone. A great way to keep up to date with tech. ### 5/5 — Best HN reader! *2026-11-08* I’ve been a happy user of this app for years, it’s easily the best, fully featured, most native, and most customizable HN client. Also the creator is SUPER responsive to feedback and bugs and gets things fixed very quickly. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Better than the actual website *2026-11-08* I usually just default to using the mobile website for most places - but for hacker news, Hack is actually just better across the board. It’s fast, it’s organized, it’s convenient. You can tell there’s been a lot of love put into it. ### 5/5 — Great app, but please stop the begging! *2026-11-08* The app is great, but why are you still nagging me to buy you a tip when I already purchased the life-time version for 15,00 EUR? Please stop the begging! **Developer response:** Hi, the tips option was originally added per user request. The reason was that the one-time purchase gives the features for life. However, many users also believe in supporting regular updates via small tips. Many times, I receive emails from users requesting certain features and I try to add them quickly. Users appreciate my personalized email replies, my responsiveness to adding and discussing features, and support me via tips. The app also has a monthly server cost for delivering push notifications and favicon images and annual developer membership fees. Most apps would use subscriptions or ads to pay for these monthly costs. I understand most users don't like subscriptions or ads, so I don't use those. Instead, I have the tips option hoping some users would throw in a few extra dollars to help me pay for that. The prompt asking for tips only shows when the app has a significant update. You can use the "Don't show what's new" button to disable that popup which prompts for tips. Hope this answers your query. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions: pran@pranapps.com ### 5/5 — Excellent HN experience *2026-11-08* Honestly my preferred way to browse the site. Well worth the price to upgrade too. Super usable, very feature rich, and very responsive developer. **Developer response:** Thank you! ### 5/5 — Best way to read HN *2026-11-08* I've used Hack for years and it's still my favorite way to read Hacker News. Everything is customizable, so it fits how I read. I recently requested a feature and the developer replied, built it, and followed up to tell me when it shipped. That kind of responsiveness is rare. Highly recommend. **Developer response:** Thank you for the kind words and supporting me! ### 5/5 — Great app, stop the begging! *2026-11-01* The app is great, but why are you still nagging me to buy you a tip when I already purchased the life-time version for 15,00 EUR? Please stop the begging! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-11-13.*