Comparison

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader vs HackerReads

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

HackerReads

This app delivers curated tech and hacking news with AI-powered summaries. It offers a clean, distraction-free reading experience for developers and tech enthusiasts, ensuring you stay updated on important stories without the clutter.

Highlights
  • AI-powered summaries
  • Curated top tech stories
  • Clean, minimal design
  • Smart story tracking
  • Dark mode support
  • Lightweight and fast
Features
Read full description

HackerReads surfaces the most important stories in tech, hacking, and software — without the noise. Built for developers, security enthusiasts, and curious minds, HackerReads delivers a focused, no-frills reading experience — now enhanced with AI-powered summaries. Key Features: AI Summaries Quickly understand each story with concise AI-generated summaries. No need to visit external sites. Curated Top Stories Only the most relevant and widely discussed stories are included, ensuring signal over noise. Clean, Minimal Design A distraction-free interface built for fast scanning and in-depth reading. Smart Story Tracking Automatically checks for new top stories, so you stay updated effortlessly. Dark Mode Support Comfortable reading experience whether you're coding during the day or burning the midnight oil. Lightweight and Fast No ads, no clutter. Just performance and simplicity. Whether you're deep in code or on a short break, HackerReads makes it easy to stay up to date with what matters in the hacker and tech world.

Screenshots

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader4 screens
HackerReads4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HackerReads at none against HACK for Hacker News YC Reader's 6. HackerReads also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7). HACK for Hacker News YC Reader's advantage is ratings volume (1.6K vs 3) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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. HackerReads asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HackerReads holds the better App Store score, 5.0 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 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader ships an update every 3 days, HackerReads every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
HACK for Hacker News YC Reader versus HackerReads: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHACK for Hacker News YC ReaderHackerReads
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.6K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews93.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.6K — better3
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB20 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperPranoy ChowdhuryMahesh Adhikari

Customer experience

HACK for Hacker News YC Reader

All ratings1,580 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral2.5%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews197 reviews
Positive93.4%
Neutral2.5%
Negative4.1%

HackerReads

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

HackerReads

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 HackerReads free?
HackerReads is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or HackerReads?
HackerReads is rated higher. HACK for Hacker News YC Reader averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.6K ratings, while HackerReads averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or HackerReads have ads?
Neither HACK for Hacker News YC Reader nor HackerReads shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader or HackerReads?
HACK for Hacker News YC Reader ships an update every 3 days, and HackerReads every 5 days. Most recently, HACK for Hacker News YC Reader was updated on October 2, 2026 and HackerReads on June 1, 2026.

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