Comparison

Flamingo Reader vs HackerWeb

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

Head to head
About

Flamingo Reader

Features
Read full description

Flamingo is a minimalist reader for Hacker News. You can check the sources of this app on Github : https://github.com/kirualex/Flamingo Contributors : - Alexis Creuzot - David Bonnet

About

HackerWeb

A clean and readable client for Hacker News, designed with iOS guidelines in mind. It offers intuitive navigation for stories and comments, automatic dark mode, and code syntax highlighting.

Highlights
  • Dual Web and Comments tabs
  • Revolutionary comments thread UI
  • Automatic Dark mode
  • Smart indentations and formatting
  • Automatic syntax highlighting for code blocks
  • Upvoting and replying
  • Comment's 'Thread view'
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

HackerWeb is a super-clean Hacker News app built for maximum readability and has a lean set of features to optimize the reading experience. It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it feels native and blends well with the operating system. It has a simple set of features that are usually invisible: - Dual Web and Comments tabs for easy switching between the story’s web page and the list of comments - Revolutionary comments thread UI for easy navigation, with smart collapsing to prevent being overwhelmed by too many comments - Automatic Dark mode, respecting the system’s appearance settings. - Smart indentations and formatting for comments, complementing the existing limited formatting from Hacker News. - Automatic syntax highlighting for code blocks in comments, with best-effort programming language detection. - Allow interactions like upvoting and replying, which opens up web view with login information and sessions stored in itself, instead of the app. - Comment’s “Thread view” to list all parent comments of a comment, on a flat list, for easy reading instead of manually drilling down the nested comments. - “Share as Image” for comments, which allows sharing of a specific comment, optionally including the parent comments and/or story, as an image. HackerWeb is an unofficial Hacker News client, built with React Native and Expo. This is a passion side project for learning and experimenting ideas. Since 2012. Open-sourced: https://github.com/cheeaun/hackerweb-native-2

Screenshots

Flamingo Reader3 screens
HackerWeb2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Flamingo Reader at Free against HackerWeb's $2.99. Flamingo Reader also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). HackerWeb's advantage is update cadence (every 5 months vs every 17 months) and chart position (#39 vs unranked). On 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

Flamingo Reader is free to download; HackerWeb costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flamingo Reader ships an update every 17 months, HackerWeb every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on August 15, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Flamingo Reader versus HackerWeb: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlamingo ReaderHackerWeb
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating—5.0 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—85.7% of reviews
Number of ratings—10 — better
Update frequencyEvery 17 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
Best chart rank—#39 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB29 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperAlexis CreuzotChee Aun Lim

In-app purchases

None

Flamingo Reader

No in-app purchases

None

HackerWeb

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Flamingo Reader free?
Flamingo Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HackerWeb free?
HackerWeb costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Flamingo Reader or HackerWeb have ads?
Neither Flamingo Reader nor HackerWeb shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Flamingo Reader or HackerWeb?
Flamingo Reader ships an update every 17 months, and HackerWeb every 5 months. Most recently, Flamingo Reader was updated on August 15, 2026 and HackerWeb on September 10, 2026.

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