Comparison

Hacker News HN Reader vs NetNewsWire

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

Head to head
About

Hacker News HN Reader

This app provides a beautiful and efficient way to read tech, startup, and STEM news from Hacker News. It offers features like push notifications, threaded comments, and powerful search capabilities, all without ads or subscriptions.

Highlights
  • Ad-free and subscription-free reading
  • Push notifications for replies
  • Nested threaded comments
  • Powerful search with Algolia API
  • Customizable appearance (dark mode, fonts)
  • Submit posts and comments
  • Article archiving options
Features
Read full description

HACK for YC's Hacker News (HN) is the most beautiful & easy way to read about the latest tech, startup, coding, developer, & STEM news. - No Ads. No subscriptions. - Login or Register your Hacker News account - PUSH NOTIFICATIONS for HN 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

NetNewsWire

This app aggregates articles from your favorite blogs and news sites, offering a faster and more organized way to consume content. It provides control over your news feed, eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or rely on social media algorithms. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with customizable features and syncing capabilities.

Highlights
  • Direct feed downloading
  • iCloud and third-party syncing
  • Customizable article themes
  • Reader view
  • Starred articles
  • Smart feeds
  • Home screen widgets
Currently charting
Read full description

It’s like podcasts, but for reading. NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. It shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read. It’s fast, stable, and accessible. If you’ve been going from site to site in your browser looking for new articles to read — or counting on the unreliable algorithms of corporate social media — let NetNewsWire bring you the news you want. It’s easy and fun. And it puts you, not billionaires, in control of your news. Features: * Direct feed downloading * Syncing via iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, BazQux, Inoreader, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, and FreshRSS * Multiple accounts * Custom article themes * Reader view * Share sheet * Starred articles * All Unread and Today smart feeds * Folders * Importing and exporting OPML feed lists * Background refreshing * Searching * Hiding read articles * Timeline customization * Keyboard shortcuts * Context menus * Home screen widgets for today, unread, and starred articles * Share extension

Screenshots

Hacker News HN Reader4 screens
NetNewsWire4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NetNewsWire at none against Hacker News HN Reader's 6. NetNewsWire also leads on chart position (#96 vs unranked). Hacker News HN Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (93% vs 84%). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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 HN Reader sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. NetNewsWire asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Hacker News HN Reader against 4.7 for NetNewsWire. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1.6K and 891 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 93% of Hacker News HN Reader's written reviews are positive against 84% of NetNewsWire's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hacker News HN Reader ships an update every 3 days, NetNewsWire monthly. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Hacker News HN Reader versus NetNewsWire: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHacker News HN ReaderNetNewsWire
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.6K ratings)4.7 (891 ratings) — better
Positive reviews93.3% of reviews — better83.9% of reviews
Number of ratings1.6K — better891
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank—#96 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB27 MB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperPranoy ChowdhuryBrent Simmons

Customer experience

Hacker News HN Reader

All ratings1,600 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews210 reviews
Positive93.3%
Neutral2.4%
Negative4.3%

NetNewsWire

All ratings887 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral2.4%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews330 reviews
Positive83.9%
Neutral7.9%
Negative8.2%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Hacker News HN Reader

One-time6
  • Nice Tip$3.99
  • Kind Tip$6.99
  • Generous Tip$9.99
Show 3 more
  • Amazing Tip$12.99
  • Hack Premium$17.99
  • Godzilla Tip$19.99
None

NetNewsWire

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hacker News HN Reader free?
Hacker News HN Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NetNewsWire free?
NetNewsWire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hacker News HN Reader or NetNewsWire?
NetNewsWire is rated higher. Hacker News HN Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while NetNewsWire averages 4.7 from 891 ratings.
Do Hacker News HN Reader or NetNewsWire have ads?
Neither Hacker News HN Reader nor NetNewsWire shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hacker News HN Reader or NetNewsWire?
Hacker News HN Reader ships an update every 3 days, and NetNewsWire monthly. Most recently, Hacker News HN Reader was updated on November 13, 2026 and NetNewsWire on November 13, 2026.

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