Comparison

HackerWeb vs Hackery

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HackerWeb

A clean and readable client for Hacker News, designed with iOS guidelines in mind. It offers intuitive navigation for stories and comments, automatic dark mode, and code syntax highlighting.

Highlights
  • Dual Web and Comments tabs
  • Revolutionary comments thread UI
  • Automatic Dark mode
  • Smart indentations and formatting
  • Automatic syntax highlighting for code blocks
  • Upvoting and replying
  • Comment's 'Thread view'
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

HackerWeb is a super-clean Hacker News app built for maximum readability and has a lean set of features to optimize the reading experience. It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it feels native and blends well with the operating system. It has a simple set of features that are usually invisible: - Dual Web and Comments tabs for easy switching between the story’s web page and the list of comments - Revolutionary comments thread UI for easy navigation, with smart collapsing to prevent being overwhelmed by too many comments - Automatic Dark mode, respecting the system’s appearance settings. - Smart indentations and formatting for comments, complementing the existing limited formatting from Hacker News. - Automatic syntax highlighting for code blocks in comments, with best-effort programming language detection. - Allow interactions like upvoting and replying, which opens up web view with login information and sessions stored in itself, instead of the app. - Comment’s “Thread view” to list all parent comments of a comment, on a flat list, for easy reading instead of manually drilling down the nested comments. - “Share as Image” for comments, which allows sharing of a specific comment, optionally including the parent comments and/or story, as an image. HackerWeb is an unofficial Hacker News client, built with React Native and Expo. This is a passion side project for learning and experimenting ideas. Since 2012. Open-sourced: https://github.com/cheeaun/hackerweb-native-2

About

Hackery

This app offers a clean and distraction-free way to read Hacker News stories. It prioritizes content visibility with large headlines and integrates with Safari's Reader Mode for an optimal reading experience on iPhone and iPad.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free reading experience
  • Large, bold headlines
  • Safari Reader Mode integration
  • iPad and split-screen support
  • Clean and simple interface
Features
Read full description

A clean, fast Hacker News client for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. Stay in the Loop Browse the latest Hacker News stories in a clean, card-based layout. See scores, comment counts, and authors instantly. Tap any story to read in Safari's reader mode. Never Lose a Story Swipe to save stories for later. Your bookmarks sync across all your devices via iCloud, so you never lose track of what you want to read. Follow the Conversation Follow conversations with nested, threaded comments. Links are tappable and underlined. Discussions load in pages so the app stays fast, even on long threads. Keep It Civil On-device comment moderation powered by Apple Intelligence lets you filter out noise and focus on quality discussions. Adjust the sensitivity to your comfort level. Easy on the Eyes Easy on the eyes, day or night. Hackery follows your system appearance with a carefully crafted dark theme. https://hackery.timshim.com

Screenshots

HackerWeb2 screens
Hackery1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: HackerWeb at 86% against Hackery's 0%. HackerWeb also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Hackery's advantage is price (Free vs $2.99). On ratings volume, update cadence, ads and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Hackery is free to download; HackerWeb costs $2.99 up front. Hackery sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. HackerWeb asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HackerWeb holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 4 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 86% of HackerWeb's written reviews are positive against 0% of Hackery's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and July 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
HackerWeb versus Hackery: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHackerWebHackery
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (10 ratings) — better3.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings10 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank#39 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB4 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperChee Aun LimTim Shim

Customer experience

HackerWeb

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%

Hackery

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral66.7%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

HackerWeb

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Hackery

One-time1
  • Buy me a coffee$4.99

Questions

Is HackerWeb free?
HackerWeb costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Hackery free?
Hackery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HackerWeb or Hackery?
HackerWeb is rated higher. HackerWeb averages 5.0 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Hackery averages 3.0 from 4 ratings.
Do HackerWeb or Hackery have ads?
Neither HackerWeb nor Hackery shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HackerWeb or Hackery?
HackerWeb ships an update every 5 months, and Hackery every 5 months. Most recently, HackerWeb was updated on September 10, 2026 and Hackery on July 13, 2026.

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