Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. HN comments UI experiment launched in 2017; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   I built an interactive HN Simulator▲538

   Hey HN! Just for fun, I built an interactive Hacker News Simulator. You can submit text posts and links, just like the real HN. But on HN Simulator, all of the comments are generated by LLMs + generate instantly. The best way to use it (IMHO) is to submit a text post or a curl-able URL here: https://news.ysimulator.run/submit. You don't need an account to post. When you do that, various prompts will be built from a library of commenter archetypes, moods, and shapes. The AI commenters will actually respond to your text post and/or submitted link. I really wanted it to feel…

   Nov 2025 · news.ysimulator.run · its alternatives →

2. 2
   HN Search (Experimental)▲112

   A new experimental UI for Hacker News Search

   2015 · its alternatives →

3. 3HR
   HN Replies – Get notified of replies to your comments▲217

   2016 · hnreplies.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   HN Offline – HN client for reading comments▲6

   2020 · hn.byroni.us · its alternatives →

5. 5IR
   I ran sentiment analysis on Show HN comments and got the meanest ones▲78

   2018 · hn.walzr.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Lect.io▲60

   MOOCs contextualized comments for lectures.

   2014 · its alternatives →

7. 7MY
   Make your own HN in TextChannels / opinions?▲5

   2011 · textchannels.com · its alternatives →

8. 8AH
   A HN desktop app for reading links and comments next to each other▲54

   2016 · florian.github.io · its alternatives →

9. 9AP
   a portal to view HN Polls(prototype)▲5

   2013 · hn-polls.herokuapp.com · its alternatives →

10. 10BM
    BuzzHN – modern alternative of `Show HN`▲6

    2014 · buzzhn.com · its alternatives →

11. 11HR
    HN Recommended – a curated list of HN commenters' opinions▲7

    2020 · hnrecommended.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    An extension that shows you relevant HN comments when you browse▲5

    2020 · chrome.google.com · its alternatives →

13. 13EP
    Ever posted to HN, and received 0 feedback? Here's a solution.▲6

    2013 · hackerfeedback.barber.io · its alternatives →

14. 14HN
    HN Notifier Realtime(ish) Notifications for Comments on Your HN Posts▲6

    2020 · hacknotescenter.com · its alternatives →

15. 15SH
    Show HN▲9

    H

    2024 · labs.refuel.ai · its alternatives →

16. 16EF
    Emotions for HN▲5

    2019 · hn-emotions.appspot.com · its alternatives →

17. 17HS
    HN-Stats▲9

    2015 · newscombinator.com · its alternatives →

18. 18CC
    Caint.casa, a simple hosted comment system▲6

    2021 · caint.casa · its alternatives →

19. 19RO
    RAG on HN comments in 34 LOC▲6

    2024 · val.town · its alternatives →

20. 20MA
    Made a HN-themed Framer blog template for HN community▲5

    2023 · buildwithframer.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    I created a Chrome extension that reveals HN's hidden comment scores.▲5

    2011 · chrome.google.com · its alternatives →

22. 22TV
    Traverse, visually intuitive web commenting/discussion▲9

    2013 · 74.207.237.99 · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Moodily▲5

    Reinventing the moodboard

    2017 · its alternatives →

24. 24YA
    Yet another HN UI clone (sorry)▲6

    Inspired by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38037180, this is done sort of as a learning journey since I've never built an app from scratch using Next.js and tailwindcss before. This is done over 2 days so it's quite bare in terms of features i.e. read-only but I would still like to share this project. Let me know what you guys think and feel free to provide any feedback!

    2023 · hackernews-next-wilsonoh.vercel.app · its alternatives →

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 →