Comparison

HackerLine vs stdout.

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

Head to head
About

HackerLine

Features
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HackerLine is the ultimate Hacker News reader designed for speed, simplicity, and elegance. Blazing Fast: See the top stories instantly with Ultra-fast loading times. Modern, Elegant Design: Enjoy a sleek, intuitive interface built for smooth navigation. Bookmark Stories: Save your favorite articles for later. Dark Mode Support: Enjoy a beautiful reading experience, day or night.

About

stdout.

Features
Read full description

stdout. is a native iOS client for Hacker News, built from the ground up with SwiftUI. It goes far beyond content aggregation โ€” offering a rich, interactive experience designed around how you actually read. DUAL THEMES Switch between two handcrafted visual modes. Zen offers warm, editorial typography with Georgia serif headlines. Terminal transforms the app into a retro green-on-black CRT aesthetic, complete with monospaced type and animated scanlines. OFFLINE-FIRST WITH SWIFTDATA Stories and comments are cached locally so the app loads instantly on launch. When your connection drops, you keep reading seamlessly with a subtle offline indicator. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Add a Top Stories widget to your home screen in Small or Medium size. The widget updates every 30 minutes and matches your in-app theme. Tap any story to jump straight to it. NATIVE INTERACTIONS Long-press any story to save it to Favorites, share the link, or hide it from your feed. Pull-to-refresh and save actions are accompanied by haptic feedback for a tactile, responsive feel. IN-APP READING Story links open in a themed Safari View Controller with optional Reader Mode โ€” no context switching to external apps.

Screenshots

HackerLine4 screens
stdout.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: HackerLine at none against stdout.'s shown. On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
HackerLine versus stdout.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHackerLinestdout.
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyโ€”Every 4 days
AdsNo โ€” betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size1 MB5 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperChufeng HuangHanshuo Tan

In-app purchases

None

HackerLine

No in-app purchases

None

stdout.

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HackerLine free?
HackerLine is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is stdout. free?
stdout. is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HackerLine or stdout. have ads?
stdout. shows ads; HackerLine does not.

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