Comparison

HackerWeb vs HackerWatch

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

HackerWatch

Stay updated with the Hacker News community directly from your wrist. Browse top stories, read comments, and view original articles with this Apple Watch companion app. Easily share interesting content with others.

Highlights
  • Browse top stories
  • Read comments
  • View original articles
  • Share content
  • Apple Watch companion
Features
Read full description

Attention Hacker News readers! Introducing HackerWatch - the ultimate Apple Watch companion for staying connected to the Hacker News community. Quickly browse top stories, read comments, and view original articles - all from your wrist! Found something share-worthy? Easily send it to your fellow tech enthusiasts. Best of all, HackerWatch is completely FREE! Download now and never miss a beat in the world of tech.

Screenshots

HackerWeb2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: HackerWatch at Free against HackerWeb's $2.99. HackerWatch also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 86%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). HackerWeb's advantage is chart position (#40 vs unranked) and ratings volume (10 vs 3). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

HackerWatch is free to download; HackerWeb costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HackerWeb against 5.0 for HackerWatch. 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 HackerWatch's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HackerWeb ships an update every 5 months, HackerWatch every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
HackerWeb versus HackerWatch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHackerWebHackerWatch
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (10 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews85.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#40 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS26.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size29 MB2 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperChee Aun LimDakota Kim

Customer experience

HackerWeb

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

HackerWatch

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

HackerWeb

No in-app purchases

None

HackerWatch

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HackerWeb free?
HackerWeb costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is HackerWatch free?
HackerWatch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HackerWeb or HackerWatch?
HackerWeb and HackerWatch are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 10 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do HackerWeb or HackerWatch have ads?
Neither HackerWeb nor HackerWatch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HackerWeb or HackerWatch?
HackerWeb ships an update every 5 months, and HackerWatch every 7 months. Most recently, HackerWeb was updated on October 26, 2026 and HackerWatch on October 9, 2026.

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