Comparison

Hacker News vs AI news for devs

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

Head to head
About

Hacker News

Access the latest tech, startup, and science news with a fast and customizable reader. Organize stories by topic, search quickly, and enjoy AI-powered summaries. This ad-free experience syncs across devices and prioritizes your privacy.

Highlights
  • Fast browsing of feeds and comments
  • iCloud sync for favorites and read status
  • Customizable story groups by topic
  • Lightning-fast search
  • AI-powered story summaries
  • Ad-free reading experience
  • Home screen widgets
Features
Read full description

The Ultimate Hacker News App! Dive into the latest startup, technology, programming, and science news with the ultimate app for browsing Y Combinator's Hacker News. Built for Speed and Customizability Designed from the ground up, this app offers a fast, seamless reading experience with extensive customizability. Optimized for iPhone and iPad Carefully crafted for both iPhone and iPad, the app is packed with features to enhance your reading experience: - Fast and Simple: Browse Hacker News feeds and threaded comments swiftly, ensuring you stay updated with everything happening. - Sync Across Devices: Favorite, read, or hide stories and keep your activity in sync across devices, thanks to iCloud. Your data stays private and secure. - Organize Your Way: Create custom groups to easily save stories by topic. Keep all your programming topics together, and all your science topics in one place, accessible on every device. - Lightning Fast Search: Quickly find any post, even those you mentioned to a friend days ago. - Highly Customizable: Choose between light and dark modes, select from eleven different color themes, and enjoy beautifully designed icons by Michael Flarup & Matthew Skiles. Customize your reading experience further by selecting your preferred browser, adjusting the appearance of read stories, and more. - AI-Powered Summaries: Get quick summaries of stories with AI powered by OpenAI. Perfect for when you only need the gist. - Ad-Free Reading: Skip the ads and read a clean, markdown-formatted version of articles. - Time-Saving Features: Know how long articles will take to read with time estimates. - Powerful Gestures: Use swipe gestures to quickly favorite, hide, and add stories to your groups. - iPad Keyboard Shortcuts: Easily manage favorites, hiding, and adding to groups with keyboard shortcuts. - Home Screen Widgets: Customize your Home Screen with widgets of all sizes, showing your favorite feeds and the latest stories at a glance. - Convenient Share Sheet Action: Open Hacker News links from any app with our share sheet action. Just tap “Open in Hacker News.” - Privacy Focused: No ads, no tracking, and no data storage. Your privacy is paramount. - Support the App: Keep the app alive with a tip or leave a review. Every bit helps! Enjoy the best Hacker News experience on your Apple devices today!

About

AI news for devs

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

Hacker News4 screens
AI news for devs4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AI news for devs at none against Hacker News's 4. AI news for devs also leads on review sentiment (98% vs 79%) and rating (4.9 vs 4.7). Hacker News's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (34 vs 11). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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 sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. AI news for devs asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AI news for devs holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 34 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Hacker News's written reviews are positive against 98% of AI news for devs's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hacker News ships an update every 5 days, AI news for devs weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Hacker News versus AI news for devs: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHacker NewsAI news for devs
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (34 ratings)4.9 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.2% of reviews98.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings34 — better11
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB148 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperSnap Web StudiosCandela Labs Private Limited

Customer experience

Hacker News

All ratings34 ratings
Positive91.2%
Neutral5.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral12.5%
Negative8.3%

AI news for devs

All ratings11 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive98.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative1.8%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Hacker News

One-time4
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
  • Large Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Extra Large Tip$19.99
None

AI news for devs

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hacker News free?
Hacker News is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AI news for devs free?
AI news for devs is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hacker News or AI news for devs?
AI news for devs is rated higher. Hacker News averages 4.7 out of 5 from 34 ratings, while AI news for devs averages 4.9 from 11 ratings.
Do Hacker News or AI news for devs have ads?
AI news for devs shows ads; Hacker News does not.
Which is updated more often, Hacker News or AI news for devs?
Hacker News ships an update every 5 days, and AI news for devs weekly. Most recently, Hacker News was updated on October 25, 2026 and AI news for devs on October 24, 2026.

Other comparisons