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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Anonymize HN – a Chrome extension to anonymize Hacker News users

I wrote a small Chrome extension that allows the user to replace all usernames on Hacker News with either the string `anonymous` or a deterministic hashed value.

Anonymize HN is a Chrome extension that replaces usernames on Hacker News with either the word "anonymous" or a consistent hashed identifier. Users can choose which anonymization method to apply while browsing the… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Anonymize HN – a Chrome extension to anonymize Hacker News users launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    (Unofficial) Login with HackerNews

    2022 · loginwithhn.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2HS
  3. 3

    Hey HN, I made this tool after I read a pretty interesting pg essay - http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html He talks about changing some HN usernames' colors to orange and then deciding to revert back So I thought it could be interesting to remove usernames entirely. This Chrome Extension just replaces HN usernames with question marks. I've enjoyed using it so far myself and I'm curious what you think about the concept?

    2022 · hackerwhos.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4US

    Author here. This site lets you put in a username and get the users with the most similar writing style to that user. It confirmed several users who I suspected were alts and after informally asking around has identified abandoned accounts of people I know from many years ago. I made this site mostly to show how easy this is and how it can erode online privacy. If some guy with a little bit of Python, and $8 to rent a decent dedicated server for a day can make this, imagine what a company with millions of dollars and a couple dozen PhD linguists could do. Here's Paul Graham:…

    2022 · stylometry.net · its alternatives →

  5. 5HN

    Hello everyone! This is a browser extension that attempts to enhance Hacker News user experience, while your data is kept secure, and private (never leaves the browser). Browsers have evolved significantly since doing a v1 back in 2010, which was one of the contributing factors, for attempting a complete re-take few months ago. Personally, I was surprised how useful it turned out to be when browsing around HN. On the linked page you can find install link(s) from web-browser stores, and demo video/screenshots of the features[1] What do you think ? [1] including, browsing content with…

    2023 · carina.app · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    HN is great for the links people share, but a big part of the value I get comes from reading the discussion around them. I realized I was always opening the article in one tab and the comments in another, constantly switching back and forth. I figured there was probably a simpler way, so I threw together this userscript to merge the two. 1. Clicking a link from Hacker News opens the article with a side panel containing the discussion. It doesn't require your credentials, is resizable, and is easy to tweak if you want to customize it. 2. If you land on an article that has previously been…

    Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7
  8. 8

    ✨ Hacker News, but refined — Interface tweaks and features to make the HN experience better - plibither8/refined-hacker-news

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9MH

    Hey HN! I just published https://meet.hn, a map to find hackers in your city. How it works? Demo of the signup process: https://x.com/meet_hn/status/1834918518904746329 1. Fill the form: username, city+country 2. Copy the text generated in the box below the form, and paste it in your HN description. 3. Click "Add me on the map" Optionnaly (it's recommended!) you can add links to your socials as well as some tags to showcase your interests. Why does it exist? I created this because, despite its harsh reputation on the internet, I love the HN community. I…

    2024 · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Favicons for HN. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

    2022 · gist.github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11
  12. 12

    Chrome extension that allows you to filter HN stories using a comma separated list - ShamariFeaster/chrome-extension-hn-filter

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    HN Notifier is a chrome extension that shows the number of unread comments to your HackerNews thread. One of the issues with HackerNews is that it is difficult to know when someone has replied to your post or comment, thus by missing an opportunity to continue the conversation. - meanands/hn-notifie

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14AD

    We (Nick, Dens, Denzell, Fede, Drew, Aaryan, and Daniel) have been building HN Discovery, a discovery-focused search engine for Hacker News, in our spare time for the past 6 months and are excited to show it! It adds the following features relative to the existing keyword search interface and preserves the existing ones: - no-JS version (hnnojs.trieve.ai) - site:{required_site} and site:{negated-site} filters - public analytics - LLM generated query suggestions based on random stories - recommendations - dense vector semantic search - SPLADE fulltext search - RAG AI chat - order by…

    2024 · hn.trieve.ai · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    A chrome extension that applies a stylesheet to Hacker News' frontpage. - guicoelho/hn-beautify

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Hacker News blocklist extension for Chrome. Contribute to morgante/hn_blocklist development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    humble-hn is a Chrome extension that hides the number of votes and comments of stories, and the karma of users on Hacker News. The objective of this extension is to remove the influence of these numbers on the perception of the content.

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Privacy-preserving Firefox extension linking to Hacker News discussion; built with Bloom filters and WebAssembly - jstrieb/hackernews-button

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    I've been working on and off on a Chrome Extension for Hacker News, the extension focusses on improved usability rather than design. I can almost guarantee that after a day you won't want to go back to regular Hacker News. Give it a try, features include: - Improved readability - Quick inline replies from comments page - Quick profiles with social network info when hovering over usernames - Filtering of stories based on terms and phrases / domain or user - Endless scrolling - Collapsible comment threads - Social sharing for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Buffer Forks, improvements and comments…

    2012 · chrome.google.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20HC
  21. 21FH

    Hi HN! I’ve been lurking for a while, but out of fear of being steamrolled by HN readers or maybe just natural introversion, I’ve always been too scared to post or comment. Which is why 1. this is my first real Hacker News submission 2. my friend Michael and I built "Fake" Hacker News, a place to post and see what AI-generated HN comments might say. Here’s a video of me using fakeHN to test this very submission: https://www.loom.com/share/4b9f4f9d7c77489a86baeb92ec55a1ed?... And an example of one of our generated posts:…

    2023 · fakehn.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    A beautiful, clean, modern web UI for Hacker News

    2022 · modernhn.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Chrome extension that injects a button to return to HN

    2021 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    Little chrome extension I made to collapse comments on HN, feel free to use it if you want.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →