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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Hacker News desktop application in Kotlin/Swing

A Kotlin/Swing desktop application front-end for Hacker News - westoncb/HNDesktop

This is a desktop application for browsing Hacker News, built using Kotlin and Swing. It provides a native interface for accessing the popular news aggregation site on Windows, Mac, or Linux. The application is open… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Hacker News desktop application in Kotlin/Swing launched in 2017; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1AH

    This app and widget and related code is free to use for anyone. This was a side project to learn Android, Kotlin and the many libraries that came along with it. Screenshots in the Google Play link above. app code: https://github.com/ddxv/hackernews-app backend api: https://github.com/ddxv/hackernews-api There are many Hacker News apps, but this one focused on two features: - Widgets: This app supports dynamic widgets using Compose Glance. The widgets can be themed and set up with one of the three main categories: "New", "Top" and "Best". - Themes: Both…

    2023 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Hacker News Delivered to Desktop :dancers:. Contribute to owenthereal/hacker-menu development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    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 →

  4. 4

    macOS HackerNews client that aims to be a Mac-assed Mac app. Written in Swift + AppKit. - goranmoomin/HackerNews

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Hey HN! I built a native macOS desktop client for Hacker News and I'm open-sourcing it under the MIT license. GitHub: https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News Download (signed & notarized DMG, macOS 14.0+): https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News/releases Screenshots: https://github.com/IronsideXXVI/Hacker-News#screenshots I spend a lot of time reading HN — I wanted something that felt like a proper Mac app: a sidebar for browsing stories, an integrated reader for articles, and comment threading — all in one window.…

    Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    Focus on the really fresh and unread news in Hacker News.

    2017 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

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

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Hey HN, I made this free browser extension that modernizes the Hacker News design. I previously launched Modern for Wikipedia [1] here back in December, and it seemed like the obvious next choice to build one for HN too! So I've taken what I learned from building that, and have spent all my spare time this year building Modern for HN. I realize this won't be for everyone, but it was a fun project to work on, and I'm really happy with the result so far. Hope you like it too! Lots more planned for future updates, and suggestions welcome :) [1]…

    2022 · modernhn.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    HackerWeb▲189

    A simply readable Hacker News app

    2017 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10HN
  11. 11

    Hi folks, I've built an alternative Hacker News front page. It is inspired by and meant to be a replacement for hckrnews.com. I built this because HN is woefully underfeatured, but most sites that try to improve it seem to assume that the visual design is the problem. hcker.news tries to maintain HN's familiarity while adding useful enhancements. There are three primary views: - Timeline View: Browse top stories by votes or comments grouped by day, week, or month (e.g., top 20 per day, top 100 per week). - Aggregate View: See top stories by votes or comments over custom time ranges. - Front…

    2025 · hcker.news · its alternatives →

  12. 12AH
  13. 13

    Easiest way to know what's trending on Hacker News.

    2019 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    A beautiful, clean, modern web UI for Hacker News

    2022 · modernhn.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    :information_source: HackerTray is a minimalist Hacker News app for Linux - captn3m0/hackertray

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16ST
  17. 17

    We at Emerge Tools (YC W21) recently released open source Hacker News apps for both iOS and Android. The apps use the latest SwiftUI and Compose frameworks and are entirely native. Our goal is to help dogfood our products, but more importantly our team just enjoys reading HN every day and wanted an app to hack on and call our own. :) We are still missing some features but should otherwise be pretty solid. And open to any contributions. iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-by-emerge/id674092... Android:…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    I wrote this small client to read hackernews from my favorite editor. It's currently using an external HTTP API [0] but I'm working on my own proxy [1]. I'd love to actually scrape and cache all the info I need using lisp. However, my time constraints are keeping me away of that goal. I could definitely use some help here! :) I'm also planning to add support for comments and posting new things. Any feedback is highly appreciated! Thank you! [0] http://api.ihackernews.com/ [1] https://github.com/clarete/rhn

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Alerts, AI summaries, and easy search for Hacker News

    2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    :boom: Progressive Hacker News client built with Angular - housseindjirdeh/angular2-hn

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    HackerNews reader powered by Algolia's API

    2020 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    A Hacker News Reader in Vanilla JavaScript. Contribute to k2052/vanilla-hn development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    HN Deck: An alternate way to browse Hacker News

    2020 · hndeck.sagunshrestha.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    It's been 2 years since the initial release [here](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36102610). The initial version was a very basic prototype which was not available anywhere beyond the GitHub repo. You had to install it as a userscript or load the extension manually. Since then, it remained simple but better, new features include: - Improved accuracy by also using comments to help gauge the topic of discussion and the right keywords. - Published as plugin for more browsers: Chrome, Firefox (including android), and more recently Microsoft Edge. - Support for narrow screens…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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