Comparison

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader vs DevBytes

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

Head to head
About

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader

This app offers a beautiful and intuitive way to read tech, startup, and STEM news from Hacker News. It provides advanced features like push notifications, threaded comments, and powerful search, with extensive customization options for a personalized reading experience.

Highlights
  • Ad-free and subscription-free reading
  • Push notifications for replies
  • Nested threaded comments with collapse
  • Swipe to upvote and favorite
  • Submit new posts and drafts
  • Powerful Algolia-powered search
  • Customizable themes, fonts, and layout
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 I am a small indie developer and need your help keep the lights on. I offer an ad and analytics free and beautiful app for the absolute best experience for my users. 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. You can also leave a review on the App Store as that really helps me get the word out. Thank you for choosing HACK. If you have a programming job or have feedback, contact me at: pran@pranapps.com

About

DevBytes

Consolidate coding, tech, and AI news into a single, distraction-free feed. Access bite-sized updates, in-depth articles, interactive tutorials, and coding challenges. Features an AI sidekick for code explanation and debugging.

Highlights
  • Bite-sized tech news snippets
  • In-depth articles on senior dev topics
  • Interactive demos and tutorials
  • Coding challenges with solutions
  • AI sidekick for code explanation
  • Distraction-free learning space
Read full description

Fun fact: Developers don’t actually spend all day coding. Half their time is lost juggling 17 browser tabs, one endlessly active chat thread, and a mysterious temp123.py file they barely remember creating. Add Reddit, YouTube tutorials, Medium articles, GitHub repos, Slack threads, and a dozen other random tabs into the mix, and what you get is NOT productivity. It is digital gymnastics. Meet DevBytes, the app that can fix it all Instead of juggling 10 different apps just to stay updated, DevBytes brings everything you need in one clean, fast, and distraction-free space. No clutter. No ads. Just the essentials that make you a sharper, smarter developer. DevBytes can keep you plugged in without the overwhelm, in just 5-7 minutes a day. Here’s what you will get with DevBytes: Lightning-fast updates Quick coding news/updates without the endless scroll. New frameworks, trending GitHub repos, AI breakthroughs: All in minutes. Content that matters Deep dives that make you think like a senior dev. Think system design, architecture patterns, scalability: The stuff that does not fit in a tweet. Learning by doing Tutorials and demos you can actually follow. Watch, learn, and code along. Because sometimes reading is not enough, and Stack Overflow is not a teacher. Skill sharpening Coding challenges that train your brain, not your patience. Real problems, step-by-step solutions, and none of that copy-paste-and-hope-it-works memorization. DevBot Your AI coding sidekick. It explains snippets, debugs, and improves your productivity. Like ChatGPT, but customized for you! Who uses DevBytes? Professional developers: Stay ahead of fast-moving frameworks, libraries, and best practices without wasting hours. Freelancers and Indie hackers: Focus on building and shipping, not hunting down updates. Open-source contributors: Track trending repos, discover useful projects, and sharpen your skills for real-world contributions. Tech enthusiasts: Even if you are not coding full-time, DevBytes keeps you plugged into the innovations shaping the industry. Another fun fact: The average dev spends more time Googling error messages than writing actual code. DevBytes cannot fix all your bugs, but it can make sure the time you spend is productive, smart, and actually useful. We built DevBytes because we were tired of scattered platforms, endless tabs, and ad-heavy feeds that slow you down. Developers deserve a tool that respects their time, their focus, and their love for learning. Great developers are not born knowing everything. They know where to learn efficiently, how to stay ahead, and how to keep improving without burning out. DevBytes is that place. One app. Everything you need. Zero nonsense.

Screenshots

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader4 screens
DevBytes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DevBytes at none against HACK for Hacker News YC Reader's 6. DevBytes also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.7). HACK for Hacker News YC Reader's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 10). On price and review sentiment 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. HACK for Hacker News YC Reader sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. DevBytes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

DevBytes holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HACK for Hacker News YC Reader has 1.6K ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of HACK for Hacker News YC Reader's written reviews are positive against 98% of DevBytes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader ships an update every 3 days, DevBytes weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
HACK for Hacker News YC Reader versus DevBytes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHACK for Hacker News YC ReaderDevBytes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.6K ratings)4.9 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews93.4% of reviews98.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.6K — better10
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB147 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperPranoy ChowdhuryCandela Labs Private Limited

Customer experience

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader

All ratings1,574 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral2.5%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews196 reviews
Positive93.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.1%

DevBytes

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive98.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.8%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader

One-time6
  • Nice Tip$3.99
  • Kind Tip$6.99
  • Generous Tip$9.99
Show 3 more
  • Amazing Tip$12.99
  • Hack Premium$14.99
  • Godzilla Tip$19.99
None

DevBytes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HACK for Hacker News YC Reader free?
HACK for Hacker News YC Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DevBytes free?
DevBytes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or DevBytes?
DevBytes is rated higher. HACK for Hacker News YC Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while DevBytes averages 4.9 from 10 ratings.
Do HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or DevBytes have ads?
DevBytes shows ads; HACK for Hacker News YC Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or DevBytes?
HACK for Hacker News YC Reader ships an update every 3 days, and DevBytes weekly. Most recently, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader was updated on September 24, 2026 and DevBytes on September 21, 2026.

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