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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

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24 alternatives to I made an open source iOS HN reader

Hi all, i made an iOS HN reader, so i can read HN nicely on my iphone while pushing my daughter on the swing (she likes going on the swing for a good hour on saturdays... go figure). Anyway i figured i'd open source it and show it here: http://splinter.com.au/hacker-news-reader https://github.com/chrishulbert/HackerNewsReader And its on the app store if you couldn't be bothered firing up xcode: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacker-news-reader/id457519010?ls=1&mt=8 Anyway, hopefully someone out there can learn something looking at the code. There seems to be a dearth of example code /…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. I made an open source iOS HN reader launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1EM

    Yesterday I decided I wanted to experiment with different ways of reading HN. After considering a few options, I settled on a Mac app and spent a couple of hours planning/sketching on paper. This morning I fired up Xcode and spent 4 hours hacking away and I must say I'm liking how it's looking. Since the project is in its very early stages, I though that it could be a very good time to get some feedback. I've posted a few screenshots at http://imgur.com/a/rCbVN and uploaded a binary at http://abra.rm-fr.net/~fiam/HackerNews.zip If you have some free time, give a try and let me know what you…

    2011 · imgur.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    A new simple and fast HN Reader for iOS

    2015 · its alternatives →

  3. 3HN

    Since I got an iPad I was looking for a better Hacker News reading experience than the one you can get using the web version. On the iPhone I use the ihackernews.com web app (and soon going to try news.yc). It's decent for the iPhone, but it doesn't scale good on the iPad. To my surprise, when I checked there was no decent iPad app for HN (i.e. lacking ability to comment or vote, no readability support and more). I anyway wanted to give a try to iPad development, and was looking for an interesting project to work on. Making HN reader app seemed as a good candidate. Over the last weekend I…

    2011 · bit.ly · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    I actually started it June 2011 to learn iOS, launched it in September, and have been steadily adding features and making improvements. It's something I use every day and I hope other people find it useful. Enjoy!

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    I read HN on my phone every day and never really settled on a reader, so I wrote my own and finally tidied it up enough to put out there. It's plain SwiftUI with no third-party dependencies. A few things I spent the most time on: Comments are parsed and drawn as native text instead of being dumped into a web view. Links, italics, quotes and code blocks behave like the rest of the OS, text selection works, and threads collapse instantly. The whole comment tree comes back from the Algolia API in a single request, which felt a lot nicer than walking the Firebase API node by node. Accessibility.…

    Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    I thought building something that I would use while learning iOS SDK was a good idea so I built HN Browser. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hn-browser/id578535095?ls=1&mt=8 HN Browser is a simple app which lets you to read articles and comments on Hacker News. (no voting and writing comment yet) For the logo, I reached out to Joel Glovier(http://joelglovier.com) for his previous work on Hacker News logo(http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4731140) and he kindly granted the use of his work. It was really fun experience to collaborate and build a mobile app using iOS SDK. (although…

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Hey HN! I'm excited to share a tool I've been working on - a native Hacker News reader built with Rust and egui. Here's a screenshot: https://github.com/haojiang99/hacker_news_reader/blob/main/s.... As a daily HN reader, I've always struggled with keeping track of interesting posts I want to read later. Browser tabs pile up, bookmarks get forgotten, and I lose track of what I've already read. I needed a way to: 1. Browse HN efficiently (across all sections - hot, new, show, ask, jobs, best) 2. Quickly mark posts as "todo" for later reading 3. Mark posts as…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8MF

    I finally released my first iOS app following the excellent tips give on https://designcode.io/.I have open sourced the app https://github.com/NikantVohra/HackerNewsClient-iOS. I know there are lots of Hacker News Clients on App Store but I made this app just to learn something new and not with the motive of competing with anyone.I would love to get the feedback of the HN community on this app. The App store link for the app is https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hn-app/id983203003?ls=1&mt=8.

    2015 · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    I create a free HackerNews reader App for iPhone/iPod touch. I have worked really hard 2 months. You can vote / reply the news. I appreciate any feedback, any reviews to me. Thanks very very much. You can download it from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernews+-free/id490595576?mt=8 You can download it from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernews+-free/id490595576?mt=8

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

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

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Alerts, AI summaries, and easy search for Hacker News

    2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Hello HN, I'm thrilled to announce the launch of my first app, Hazumi, a Hacker News reader, available for free on iOS! I’ve been lurking on HN for around 2 years while working on this project seeing people post amazing HN reader apps of their own. I’ve always figured Hazumi wasn’t good enough yet to post here but if I wait around until I’m ready, I’ll probably never share so here goes… Hazumi is a modern Hacker News app for your pocket with some intentional limitations. Stories are displayed on a simple colourful card, with images, that condenses all the information you need at a glance.…

    2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13
    hn.▲78

    Yet another client to browse Hacker News

    2016 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I love HN but always felt the search with algolia is okay but does have some limitations. Since I work at Vectara I decided to try and create a better search for HN. It's based on data from roughly the last 6 months of HN stories and comments. Would love to hear feedback and how useful this is relative to the existing search.

    2024 · hackernews.demo.vectara.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15AM

    There are many like it but this one is mine: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pivit/id705715915?mt=8 Seriously, though, this Hacker News reader is better than what's out there, or I wouldn't have spent time on it. How? Most importantly, it utilizes the background refresh APIs, so content is always up to date. Pull to refresh is there, but you probably won't need it. The more addicted you are, the more often it updates. So if you check every few hours, you'll always get the current front page. Complementing this, it helps you see not only what you've read but what…

    2013 · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    This is probably the first Hacker News client on AppStore that uses the newly introduced official Firebase HN API. One of the cool features of the new API are updates pushed in real time. There’s...

    2014 · hnclient.weebly.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hey HN folks, Last week I released the first public version of 120 HN — a fully native Hacker News client for macOS. This week, I'm excited to share version 0.2.1 with some essential updates: The app now remembers window size, position, and sidebar state between sessions Improved AI summaries: more concise, relevant with link back to the comments, easier to read with short paragraph form. Minor tweaks to navigation and layout for a smoother experience Sneak peek: local LLM support is coming in the next release. As always, the app is free to use. Any suggestions or comments would be…

    2025 · 120.dev · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    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 →

  19. 19

    The iPhone version of News/YC, a Hacker News reader and interactive iOS application. - bennyguitar/News-YC---iPhone

    2013 · github.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20HN

    I made a Hacker News reader for iOS with React Native and Redux. It was mostly for me to learn more about React Native, but I'm really happy with the result. Let me know what you think! I'm hoping to add a lot more features, the first being a settings page with some color settings and dark mode. App: https://appsto.re/us/czg7hb.i Code: https://github.com/seanyesmunt/hackernews

    2017 · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Native mobile experience forged for Hacker News. Journey through stories, delve into comments, vote, post and more.

    Jul 2026 · hackernows.app · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hello Hacker Newsers, I have made an iOS Universal app for Hacker News. You can download it from: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hackernode/id473882597 (Clickable link in comments) Please do check it out when you get time.I have worked really hard to make it happen. It works on iPod Touch,iPhone and iPad (armv6,armv7). The iPhone interface is designed like the old Facebook for iPhone and the iPad interface is designed like Twitter for iPad. I will really appreciate any critical feedback or a nice review in the app store in case you like it :) Thanks.

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Download HACK for Hacker News YC Reader by Pranoy Chowdhury on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more apps like HACK for Hacker…

    2020 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    As an avid HN user I wanted to have a simple widget showing me the top links shared on here, I also wanted to experiment for the first time with WidgetKit, this is what I came up with. HNWidgets is open source and offers a simple widget in three different sizes (medium, large, extra-large). You can choose between different HN lists to fetch links from and how frequently the widget should refresh its content. It's currently being rolled out on the App Store so the link in the README might still not work for some people. Hope you find it useful!

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

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