Comparison

HN Reader vs Z Combinator for Hacker News

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Offline reading
  • Today widget integration
  • Background refresh
  • Save to Safari Reading List
  • Read comments
  • Open source
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Z Combinator for Hacker News

An open-source client for browsing Hacker News. It offers a straightforward way to access news and discussions from the popular tech community.

Highlights
  • Hacker News client
  • Open source
  • News aggregation
  • Discussion access
Features
Read full description

Just another open source Hacker News client.

Screenshots

HN Reader4 screens
Z Combinator for Hacker News4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Z Combinator for Hacker News at 3.7 against HN Reader's 1.8. Z Combinator for Hacker News also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). HN Reader's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Z Combinator for Hacker News holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 47% of HN Reader's written reviews are positive against 50% of Z Combinator for Hacker News's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HN Reader ships an update every 2 months, Z Combinator for Hacker News every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
HN Reader versus Z Combinator for Hacker News: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHN ReaderZ Combinator for Hacker News
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.8 (5 ratings)3.7 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.7% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB6 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperThomas RicouardJiaqi Feng

Customer experience

HN Reader

All ratings5 ratings
Positive20.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative80.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive46.7%
Neutral6.7%
Negative46.7%

Z Combinator for Hacker News

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

None

HN Reader

No in-app purchases

None

Z Combinator for Hacker News

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HN Reader free?
HN Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Z Combinator for Hacker News free?
Z Combinator for Hacker News is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HN Reader or Z Combinator for Hacker News?
Z Combinator for Hacker News is rated higher. HN Reader averages 1.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Z Combinator for Hacker News averages 3.7 from 3 ratings.
Do HN Reader or Z Combinator for Hacker News have ads?
Neither HN Reader nor Z Combinator for Hacker News shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HN Reader or Z Combinator for Hacker News?
HN Reader ships an update every 2 months, and Z Combinator for Hacker News every 3 weeks. Most recently, HN Reader was updated on November 6, 2026 and Z Combinator for Hacker News on November 3, 2026.

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