HN Reader vs hn
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HN Reader
Access Hacker News articles and comments offline with background refresh and a convenient Today widget. Save articles to Safari Reading List for later viewing. Open source and developed in Swift.
- Offline reading
- Today widget integration
- Background refresh
- Save to Safari Reading List
- Read comments
- Open source
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HN Reader is made for iOS 8 and entirely developed in Swift. Never miss a news again, HN Reader feature a useful today widget which is refreshed every time you pull down the notification center. You can quickly read the latest titles and open Safari from there. Apart from that, HN Reader fully works offline, the news feed is refreshed in background using the iOS background refresh feature and provide some solid caching mechanisms. You can also save the article to the Safari Reading List with a simple cell swipe. The Safari Reading List is a powerful tool because each article added is saved for offline reading. In the future you'll be able to automatically send latest articles to the Safari Reading List. Like any good Hacker News client HN Reader let you read the comments for any item. It works on both iPhone & iPad with the same set of features. At the moment HN Reader doesn't allow you to login with your Hacker News account, it's a read-only app. But this feature alongside some others will be added soon! The applications is also totally open source, so if you want to add some features or speedup the development of some others, you can! The goal when I decided to begin the development of HN Reader was to create a new application from nothing entirely in Swift tailored for iOS 8. With the less amount of code possible. In future updates I want to stay true to this statement.
hn
Stay updated with tech news and articles through a clean, simple, and distraction-free reading experience. Focus on content without clutter, ads, or pop-ups.
- Clean and simple interface
- Easy navigation
- Distraction-free reader mode
- Ad-free experience
- Focus on content
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The hn app is the perfect way to stay up-to-date with all your favorite tech news and articles on Hacker News. Our app features a clean and simple interface that's easy to navigate, so you can focus on the content that matters most to you. With our reader mode, you can enjoy a distraction-free reading experience that's easy on the eyes. No more cluttered pages, ads or annoying pop-ups. Just pure, unadulterated content that's a pleasure to read. Experience the ultimate in simplicity and functionality with the hn app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: hn at 5.0 against HN Reader's 1.8. hn also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). HN Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
hn holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 2 respectively.
HN Reader ships an update every 2 months, hn weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HN Reader | hn |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.8 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 46.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Thomas Ricouard | Victor Aguilar |
Customer experience
HN Reader
hn
In-app purchases
HN Reader
No in-app purchases
hn
No in-app purchases







