Comparison

HN Reader vs Native Reader 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

Native Reader for Hacker News

Explore Hacker News with advanced filtering and customizable text sizes. Share articles easily and hide unwanted stories with a swipe. Enjoy an ad-free reading experience with dark mode options.

Highlights
  • Filter stories by Rank, Points, or Comments
  • Responsive text sizes
  • Share articles to social platforms
  • Swipe to hide stories
  • Ad-free reading
  • Dark mode
Features
Read full description

Experience Hacker News like never before with our new app! Take full advantage of your iOS device to: * Explore the Top 100 Hacker News stories in innovative ways: filter by Rank, Points, or Comments. * Enjoy fully responsive text sizes that cater to your reading comfort. * Share the articles that resonate with you across all your favorite social platforms. * Quickly hide stories from your feed with a simple swipe to the left! * Immerse yourself in ad-free reading with built-in reader mode. * Switch to dark mode for comfortable reading day or night.

Screenshots

HN Reader4 screens
Native Reader for Hacker News3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Native Reader for Hacker News at 4.2 against HN Reader's 1.8. Native Reader for Hacker News also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). HN Reader's advantage is review sentiment (47% vs 20%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 16.4). 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

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

Native Reader for Hacker News holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 47% of HN Reader's written reviews are positive against 20% of Native Reader for Hacker News's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HN Reader ships an update every 2 months, Native Reader for Hacker News every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
HN Reader versus Native Reader for Hacker News: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHN ReaderNative Reader for Hacker News
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.8 (5 ratings)4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.7% of reviews — better20.0% of reviews
Number of ratings55
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB5 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperThomas RicouardCristian Monterroza

Customer experience

HN Reader

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

Native Reader for Hacker News

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative80.0%

In-app purchases

None

HN Reader

No in-app purchases

None

Native Reader for Hacker News

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HN Reader free?
HN Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Native Reader for Hacker News free?
Native Reader for Hacker News is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HN Reader or Native Reader for Hacker News?
Native Reader for Hacker News is rated higher. HN Reader averages 1.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Native Reader for Hacker News averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do HN Reader or Native Reader for Hacker News have ads?
Neither HN Reader nor Native Reader for Hacker News shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HN Reader or Native Reader for Hacker News?
HN Reader ships an update every 2 months, and Native Reader for Hacker News every 2 days. Most recently, HN Reader was updated on September 19, 2026 and Native Reader for Hacker News on October 3, 2026.

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