A better Hacker News front end
I forked pajecawav's better-hn repo, which turned out to be an excellent foundation to build on. While the original implementation was clean and functional, it didn't quite capture the essence of Hackernews. More importantly, it was missing some features I considered essential for a truly viable alternative. After tinkering with it for a while, I think I've nailed it—at least for my own use case. If it works well for me, chances are others might find it useful too. So I figured, why not share it? Pretty straightforward: no ads, no tracking, no monetization schemes and no intention to do so.…
A better Hacker News front end launched on October 19, 2025 with 38 votes, #446 of 8,178 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
A Better Hacker News Front End is an alternative interface for browsing Hacker News, built by forking and improving an existing implementation. It adds missing features to create a more complete reading experience while maintaining a clean, functional design. The tool is ad-free, contains no tracking, and operates without monetization, running on free hosting. It is designed for Hacker News users seeking a simpler alternative interface.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Hacker News - News for hackers and tech enthusiasts
In the maker’s words, at launch
I forked pajecawav's better-hn repo, which turned out to be an excellent foundation to build on. While the original implementation was clean and functional, it didn't quite capture the essence of Hackernews. More importantly, it was missing some features I considered essential for a truly viable alternative. After…
Pricing, as stated on its site
Free — A free, open-source Hacker News frontend with no ads, tracking, or monetization schemes.
checked September 2026 · prices change
Does a similar job
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I made a modern web UI for Hacker News2022 · modernhn.com · ▲308Hey 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]…
I made a search engine for Hacker News2024 · hackernews.demo.vectara.com · ▲211I 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.
Slightly Better Hacker News – alternative web front end for HN2022 · sbhn.g1b.me · ▲12
Browser Extension to Refine the HN Experience2019 · github.com · ▲259✨ Hacker News, but refined — Interface tweaks and features to make the HN experience better - plibither8/refined-hacker-news
I was tired of opening 2 tabs for every HN link, so I made a userscriptJul 2026 · github.com · ▲433HN 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…
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Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part
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