Comparison

Hacker News Tech Reader vs NewsBudz

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

Head to head
About

Hacker News Tech Reader

This app offers a beautiful and intuitive way to read the latest tech, startup, and STEM news from Hacker News. It features customizable reading options, push notifications, and advanced search capabilities, all without ads or subscriptions.

Highlights
  • Ad-free and subscription-free experience
  • Push notifications for replies
  • Nested comment threads
  • Advanced search with filters
  • Customizable fonts and themes
  • Article sharing and archiving
  • Support for multiple browsers
Features
Read full description

HACK for YC's Hacker News is the most beautiful and easy way to read about the latest tech, startup and STEM news. - No Ads. No subscriptions. - Login or Register your Hacker News account - PUSH NOTIFICATIONS for Hacker News replies to comment or post - Supported on iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Setting to block AI posts on HN. - Comments are presented in nested threads - Tap a comment to collapse that thread - Swipe left or right on stories and comments to upvote and favorite - Ability to submit new posts including drafts - Long press a story, link or comment to share - iPad supports split view - On iPads, you can drag a story / comment / story's image (link) to open it in safari in split view. This is useful for when you are viewing the app in split view / multitasking and like opening the link / story / comment in a browser side by side. - Landscape and Portrait support - 3D touch for peek, pop support - Home screen 3D touch shortcuts - Hide posts from the feed - Tap the bottom button to scroll to the next root comment in the thread. Long press it to go to the previous one - All known hacker news endpoints - News, front page, Ask HN, Show HN, Show HN Newest, classic, active, best stories, best comments, new stories, new comments, noob stories, noob comments, jobs, over 100-500 points - Submit posts, reply, comment using your HN account - Browse top 100 leader accounts - Browse stories from a specific site, user or date - Search in comments and usernames! Search is case and diacritic insensitive and ignores punctuations. Search uses an CONTAINS, OR operation if multiple words are typed. - Can select / highlight the comment/post title text for lookup/copy/translate etc iOS native operations. - Powerful search (powered by Algolia API) - use @date to sort by date, #story to filter for stories, #comments to filter for comments, #author_username to filter by user etc. These tags can be separated by commas. Refer to https://hn.algolia.com/api for more tags. - Dark mode - both pure black and gray mode - Low contrast text mode to make the text not be pure white - Many color choices & color picker for customization - App icons in variety of colours for light and dark mode - Font choices - Ability to change font sizes, padding etc to make the layout as compact as you like! - Threaded comments with color bar to maintain visual orientation - Articles open in Safari view with setting to automatically open in "readability" mode - Tap the domain in a story to see all stories from that site - Tap the username in a story or comment to go to the user profile - Browse your submitted stories and comments, favorited stories and comments, upvoted stories and comments - Archive: View an archive of the post website. archive.is, archive.org & google cache. - Share comment as image - Articles can be opened in built in safari or 3rd party browsers. Supports Brave, Firefox, Firefox Focus, Orion, Opera Touch, Dolphin, DuckDuckGo, iCab Mobile, Microsoft Edge and Chrome. Go to settings > Disable the "Use in-app Safari" setting > tap that row to change the default browser. All stories and comments are via Algolia API and Hacker News API: https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/api https://github.com/HackerNews/API Profile picture robots lovingly delivered by Robohash.org There are ongoing costs of developing and maintaining HACK. I am a small indie developer and need your help keep the lights on. I offer a beautiful app for the absolute best user-experience. I don't use intrusive ads, trackers, third-party analytics, subscriptions, or other nonsense. I need to run my own server for caching high quality favicons shown in the app plus for push notifications for replies to hacker news posts. If you can afford it, please support me by purchasing the one-time-only in-app-purchase or giving me a tip. No subscriptions. It's a small and fair amount which helps cover development costs of future updates. Contact me at: pran@pranapps.com

About

NewsBudz

Stay informed with the latest cannabis and medical marijuana news. This app aggregates trending headlines and developments from over 35 sources, covering adult use, recreational, and medical applications.

Highlights
  • Aggregates news from 35+ sources
  • Covers adult use and recreational news
  • Features medical marijuana developments
  • Easy-to-read format
  • Trending headlines and developments
Features
Read full description

NewsBudz delivers the top cannabis and medical marijuana news in one easy to read app. NewsBudz is the premier marijuana and medical cannabis news aggregator combining trending news from over 35 different sources to keep you uplifted and informed. The latest news headlines, trends and developments around adult use, recreational and medical marijuana are all baked in. Learn all about the latest uses and treatments available from natures greatest gift to humanity.

Screenshots

Hacker News Tech Reader4 screens
NewsBudz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Hacker News Tech Reader at none against NewsBudz's shown. Hacker News Tech Reader also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 26 months) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). NewsBudz's advantage is iOS requirement (12.1 vs 15.0). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

Both are free to download. Hacker News Tech Reader sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and NewsBudz sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Hacker News Tech Reader against 4.7 for NewsBudz. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hacker News Tech Reader has 1.6K ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of Hacker News Tech Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of NewsBudz's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hacker News Tech Reader ships an update every 3 days, NewsBudz every 26 months. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Hacker News Tech Reader versus NewsBudz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHacker News Tech ReaderNewsBudz
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.6K ratings) — better4.7 (29 ratings)
Positive reviews93.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.6K — better29
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 26 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB25 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperPranoy ChowdhuryGlassWave LLC

Customer experience

Hacker News Tech Reader

All ratings1,589 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews200 reviews
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.0%

NewsBudz

All ratings28 ratings
Positive89.3%
Neutral7.1%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Hacker News Tech Reader

One-time6
  • Nice Tip$3.99
  • Kind Tip$6.99
  • Generous Tip$9.99
Show 3 more
  • Hack Premium$12.99
  • Amazing Tip$12.99
  • Godzilla Tip$19.99
3 purchases

NewsBudz

One-time3
  • Kind Tip$4.99
  • Generous Tip$14.99
  • Amazing Tip$42.99

Questions

Is Hacker News Tech Reader free?
Hacker News Tech Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NewsBudz free?
NewsBudz is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hacker News Tech Reader or NewsBudz?
Hacker News Tech Reader is rated higher. Hacker News Tech Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while NewsBudz averages 4.7 from 29 ratings.
Do Hacker News Tech Reader or NewsBudz have ads?
NewsBudz shows ads; Hacker News Tech Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, Hacker News Tech Reader or NewsBudz?
Hacker News Tech Reader ships an update every 3 days, and NewsBudz every 26 months. Most recently, Hacker News Tech Reader was updated on November 3, 2026 and NewsBudz on November 3, 2026.

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