HackerWeb vs HackerBook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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'
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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
HackerBook
Stay updated with the most popular discussions on Hacker News through a streamlined interface. This app makes it effortless to immerse yourself in the tech community's latest conversations.
- Trending topics showcase
- Streamlined interface
- Tech community buzz
- Effortless navigation
- Immersive tech discourse
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Stay in the loop with the top trending topics on Hacker News using our streamlined app. Our main interface showcases the hottest discussions, ensuring you are always updated with the tech community's buzz. Navigating the vast world of Hacker News has never been this effortless and efficient. Dive in and immerse yourself in the heart of tech discourse! Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: HackerBook at Free against HackerWeb's $2.99. HackerBook also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 86%). HackerWeb's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#41 vs unranked). On rating, ads and device support 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
HackerBook is free to download; HackerWeb costs $2.99 up front. HackerBook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. HackerWeb asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HackerWeb against 5.0 for HackerBook. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 3 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 86% of HackerWeb's written reviews are positive against 100% of HackerBook's.
HackerWeb ships an update every 5 months, HackerBook fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and August 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HackerWeb | HackerBook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (10 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 10 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Best chart rank | #41 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Chee Aun Lim | Tao Xu |
Customer experience
HackerWeb
HackerBook
In-app purchases
HackerWeb
No in-app purchases
HackerBook
- Exclusive News$2.991 Month
- Tips$0.99









