Comparison

Hacker Reader vs HackerFlow

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

Head to head
About

Hacker Reader

A native iOS client for Hacker News offering a streamlined reading experience with home screen widgets, community interaction, and a beautiful, dark-mode-friendly design. Securely log in to upvote, comment, and bookmark stories.

Highlights
  • Browse all story categories
  • Upvote stories and comments
  • Secure login with HN account
  • Post comments and replies
  • Bookmark stories
  • Home screen widgets
  • Dark mode support
Features
Read full description

Hacker Reader is a calm, native Hacker News client. Clean white cards in Light Mode, warm charcoal in Dark Mode, serif story pages, comment threads that are easy to follow, and widgets that keep the top stories on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. On iPad, the list and the story sit side by side. BROWSE THE STORY FEEDS • Top Stories - what's ranking on HN right now • Best Stories - the highest-voted stories • New Stories - recently submitted content • Ask HN - questions and discussions from the community • Show HN - projects, products and creations shared by users • Jobs - openings at YC companies • Past front pages - any day's front page, from the feed menu • Switch feeds from the menu in the header, with infinite scrolling and pull to refresh • Numbered cards show the site's icon and domain, points, comments, author and age, plus a thumbnail when the page has one • Stories you have opened are dimmed, and a badge shows how many new comments arrived since • Long-press a card to peek at the story, upvote, bookmark, share, hide it, or mute its site READ AND FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION • Story pages open with a serif headline, a large link preview and the byline • Ask HN and Show HN posts are labeled, with their full text • Articles open in an in-app browser • Nested comments with quiet orange depth rails • Tap a comment's header to collapse its thread and see how many replies are hidden • Jump between top-level comments, or collapse every thread • Comments newer than your last visit are marked • Choose a text size in Settings • The original poster is marked OP INTERACT WITH THE COMMUNITY Sign in with your Hacker News account to: • Upvote stories with a tap on the points, or from the long-press menu • Post comments and replies • Delete your recent comments • Submit a story from your profile • Flag stories (HN karma rules apply) No account is needed to browse, bookmark stories for later, hide stories, mute keywords and sites, or block users you'd rather not see. PROFILES AND SEARCH • Tap a username in a thread or on a story page to see their karma, member-since date, bio and recent stories and comments • Tap a comment in someone's submissions to jump to it in the thread • Once you sign in, the Profile tab shows your own karma and submissions • Search stories or comments, by relevance or newest, with a date range, a minimum score, and author:name HOME SCREEN AND LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS • Small shows the top story, Medium the top 2, Large the top 7 • A Lock Screen widget with the top 3 headlines • Points, comments and age at a glance on the Home Screen • Widgets refresh on their own when stories go stale, even with the app closed • Light, dark and tinted Home Screens are supported • Tap a story to open it in the app A WARM, NATIVE DESIGN • Clean white cards in Light Mode, warm charcoal in Dark Mode, never pure black • Follows your system, or pick Light or Dark in Settings • Solid reading surfaces with orange accents that match the app icon • On iPad and other wide windows, a fixed list beside the open story, and lines that stay a comfortable width • Native iOS tabs, menus and toolbars, SF Symbols and subtle haptics • Link previews with Open Graph images PRIVACY & SECURITY • Sign in with a native form: your password goes straight to Hacker News over HTTPS and is never stored in the app • Your session is kept in the iOS Keychain • Bookmarks, hidden stories, blocked users, mutes and reading history are stored on your device • Open source - read the code on GitHub Hacker Reader is designed and built by an indie developer who loves Hacker News and wanted a calmer way to read it. It's built with React Native, Expo and SwiftUI. Questions or feedback? Open an issue on GitHub, find me on X at @danielcspaiva, or reach out via the support URL. Not affiliated with Y Combinator or Hacker News. Built using the official HN API (https://github.com/HackerNews/API) and Algolia's HN Search API.

About

HackerFlow

Features
Read full description

Ready to explore the internet’s most interesting ideas? Welcome to HackerFlow. From emerging technologies and ambitious startups to programming, science, thoughtful essays, Hacker News is where curious people share what they are building, reading, and thinking about. What you’ll find in HackerFlow: ■ Stories worth discovering: Explore technology news, research, essays, personal projects, unexpected websites, and ideas you might not encounter anywhere else. ■ Show HN: Discover apps, experiments, and open source projects shared directly by the people building them. ■ Ask HN: Read questions, practical advice, personal experiences, and recommendations from a knowledgeable community. ■ Conversations made clearer: HackerFlow’s comment design makes it easier to see who is replying to whom and follow different branches of a conversation. ■ Bookmarrk stories and comments: Found something interesting but don’t have time to read it? Bookmark it and return whenever you’re ready. ■ Never lost a story: Your history helps you find stories you previously visited, even when you can no longer remember their titles. Browse Hacker News, follow the discussion, and save what matters with HackerFlow. HackerFlow is an independent, unofficial client for Hacker News and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Y Combinator.

Screenshots

Hacker Reader4 screens
HackerFlow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: HackerFlow at every 4 days against Hacker Reader's every 2 months. Hacker Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hacker Reader ships an update every 2 months, HackerFlow every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Hacker Reader versus HackerFlow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHacker ReaderHackerFlow
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB9 MB
Age rating+917+
DeveloperDaniel Capistrano Sarinho PaivaLev Lekush

In-app purchases

None

Hacker Reader

No in-app purchases

None

HackerFlow

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hacker Reader free?
Hacker Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HackerFlow free?
HackerFlow is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hacker Reader or HackerFlow have ads?
Neither Hacker Reader nor HackerFlow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hacker Reader or HackerFlow?
Hacker Reader ships an update every 2 months, and HackerFlow every 4 days. Most recently, Hacker Reader was updated on October 9, 2026 and HackerFlow on October 16, 2026.

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