Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

DEV.to VS Hacker News

Compare DEV.to VS Hacker News and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

DEV.to logo DEV.to

Where software engineers connect, build their resumes, and grow.

Hacker News logo Hacker News

Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by Paul Graham's investment fund and startup incubator, Y Combinator.
  • DEV.to Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Hacker News Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

DEV.to features and specs

  • Community Engagement
    DEV.to offers an active and supportive community of developers where users can share knowledge, seek advice, and collaborate on projects. This fosters a sense of belonging and continuous learning.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform provides a straightforward and user-friendly interface, making it easy for users to publish content, engage with other posts, and navigate through various resources.
  • Content Diversity
    DEV.to features a wide range of topics related to software development, from beginner tutorials to advanced technical articles. This diversity makes it a valuable resource for developers at all skill levels.
  • Open Source and Transparency
    DEV.to is built on open-source software, which promotes transparency and allows users to contribute to the platform’s development. This aligns with the core values of many developers.
  • Cross-Posting Capabilities
    Users can easily cross-post articles from their personal blogs or other platforms, increasing their content’s reach and visibility without significant additional effort.

Possible disadvantages of DEV.to

  • Content Quality Variation
    Given its open nature, the quality of content on DEV.to can be inconsistent. Users may need to sift through a mix of high-quality and less useful posts to find valuable information.
  • Platform-Specific Features
    Some features and optimizations are tailored specifically for the DEV.to platform, which might not translate well if the content is shared elsewhere.
  • Limited Advanced Customization
    While the platform is user-friendly, it offers limited customization options for articles and personal profiles compared to more robust blogging platforms.
  • Visibility Challenges
    With a large user base, it can be challenging for new users or less popular posts to gain traction and visibility unless they are highly engaging or promoted.
  • Distraction Potential
    The platform's social features, such as discussions and notifications, can sometimes be distracting, potentially impacting productivity for users who are easily sidetracked.

Hacker News features and specs

  • Quality Content
    Hacker News focuses on high-quality, tech-centric content which is often insightful and valuable for those in the tech industry.
  • Community
    The community consists largely of professionals and enthusiasts in tech, providing a knowledgeable and skilled user base for discussions.
  • Upvote System
    The upvote system helps in promoting the most relevant and useful posts, ensuring users see content that is often vetted by the community.
  • Minimalist Design
    The simple, text-based design minimizes distractions and focuses on content and discussions without unnecessary clutter.
  • Diverse Topics
    While mainly focused on technology, Hacker News also covers a variety of subjects including entrepreneurship, science, and more.

Possible disadvantages of Hacker News

  • Echo Chamber Effect
    Given its focused and like-minded community, there is a risk of homogeneous opinions and lack of diverse viewpoints.
  • Moderation Issues
    The manual moderation can sometimes be inconsistent, leading to frustrations around which posts or comments get removed or promoted.
  • Signal-to-Noise Ratio
    Despite the upvote system, some low-quality or irrelevant content can still surface, diluting the overall information quality.
  • Niche Audience
    Its strong focus on tech topics can alienate those who are not as tech-savvy or interested, limiting broader appeal.
  • Limited Features
    The platform offers very basic functionality compared to other modern forums, which might deter users who prefer more advanced features.

DEV.to videos

Ben Halpern founder of Dev.To & The Practical Dev

Hacker News videos

No Hacker News videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to DEV.to and Hacker News)
CMS
100 100%
0% 0
Social Networks
0 0%
100% 100
Blogging
100 100%
0% 0
Social News
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using DEV.to and Hacker News. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare DEV.to and Hacker News

DEV.to Reviews

  1. It is a nice mini-blog, it's for free and such but

    As a mini-blog, it is a nice alternative for Medium to publish and share information about programming.

    However, the community and the organization are biased toward social justice (and they are open to it). You can read its Code of Conduct, it is so vague and politically leads (I prefer a term of service because it defines fair rules for everybody). So it alienates developers that we don't care about politics in pro of people that want to talk about any other topic such as sexuality, how women are unprivileged, and such. It even mandates to use inclusive language. Good grief.

    My main complaint is the quality of the community. It is not StackOverflow (so we don't want to ask for an answer here), and most of the top topics are clickbait, such as "how to become a rockstar developer in ... days", "100 tips to become a better programmer" (and it doesn't even talk about programming).

    Technically this "mini blog" site allows us to use markdown, and it is okay. However, the whole experience is really basic. Even the template is ugly.

    🏁 Competitors: Medium
    👍 Pros:    Free
    👎 Cons:    Social justice|Basic features|Quality of content

Best Forums for Developers to Join in 2025
The 'dev.to' forum is a great place for developers to find answers, share their knowledge, and learn from others. It's a place for people to talk about their projects, ask questions, and get feedback.
Source: www.notchup.com
Top 10 Developer Communities You Should Explore
One of Dev.to’s unique features is its focus on the human side of coding. Developers often share their personal stories, career journeys, and lessons learned, creating a sense of camaraderie within the community. The platform also encourages content creators by providing a clean and user-friendly interface for writing and sharing articles.
Source: www.qodo.ai

Hacker News Reviews

Best Forums for Developers to Join in 2025
Hacker News is a great place to learn how to code. You'll find many interesting articles about new projects in the open-source community. You can also see what's happening with your favorite programming language or framework daily.
Source: www.notchup.com
Make sure to list your SaaS on these marketplaces to get users
I would highly recommend if you have a SaaS, try to list it here as news this will surely get a good amount of traffic to your SaaS. Hacker News is simple and is maintained by Ycombinator which is a gold mine for startups to get started.
Source: medium.com
15 Best Reddit Alternatives in 2024: Find Your New Online Community
Hacker News, run by Y Combinator, is a popular platform for technology enthusiasts and entrepreneurs.
Great Products for Finding Startup Jobs
Hacker News—Not a job board, per se, but the HN Who’s Hiring post at the start of every month has dozens of engineering-focused job posts. HN also regularly pushes select YC jobs to the front page.
Source: medium.com
18 Best Sites for Finding a Startup Job
Hacker News has a job board that lists jobs exclusively at various startups. Obviously, as Hackers News is associated with Y Combinator, most of the listed startup jobs are at companies that have gone through the accelerator’s program.
Source: tech.co

Social recommendations and mentions

Hacker News might be a bit more popular than DEV.to. We know about 611 links to it since March 2021 and only 495 links to DEV.to. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

DEV.to mentions (495)

  • Are you Junior… or Jedi Master? Why your first dev job feels like chasing a myth
    Dev Community where thousands of juniors and seniors share, rant, and mentor. - Source: dev.to / about 3 hours ago
  • Exploring the Power of AI in Our Everyday Lives
    As AI continues to evolve, so does the need for developers and tech professionals to stay updated. This is where online communities come in—and one such community is dev.to. Dev.to is a platform where developers share ideas, tutorials, and insights on the latest in tech, including artificial intelligence. Whether you're new to AI or an experienced engineer, dev.to offers a space to explore hands-on projects,... - Source: dev.to / about 22 hours ago
  • Modular Monoliths vs Microservices: Reclaiming Scalable Simplicity
    👉 Follow me here on Dev.to, or reach out through educationgate.org to chat about your architecture, team scaling, or next big project. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • Building a Finance Dashboard with Vue & Node.js — A Modular Approach
    👉 Drop a comment, follow me here on DEV.to, or connect via educationgate.org — let’s build smarter, scalable apps together. - Source: dev.to / 13 days ago
  • Build a Strapi 5 Plugin with Medium & Dev.to APIs — Part 1
    // ... Other codes /** * Publish Post to Dev.to */ Async publishPostToDevTo(post: any) { try { // destructuring the post object const { title, content, canonicalUrl, tags, banner } = post.blog; // get the blog tags const blogTags = tags.map((tag) => tag.blogTag); // payload to be sent to dev.to const devToPayload = { article: { title, body_markdown: content, ... - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
View more

Hacker News mentions (611)

  • Tell HN: \/active and showdead might lead to a more informative HN experience
    If you go on https://news.ycombinator.com/active instead of the default https://news.ycombinator.com page, the results are very different. In my experience, much more interesting content. Here is a quick list of submissions that are currently on the top 10 of /active that are not on the default front page at all. [“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar... - Source: Hacker News / 16 days ago
  • Unveiling MongoDB SSPL 1.0: A Deep Dive into Open Source Fairness and Innovation
    In the coming years, expect more community-led projects to adopt innovative funding models that complement licenses like MongoDB SSPL 1.0. By harnessing platforms such as GitHub Sponsors and new initiatives discussed on Hacker News, the open source community may:. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Elastic License: A Comprehensive Exploration of Fair Code Licensing and Open Source Sustainability
    This post offers an in-depth exploration of the Elastic License, an innovative model that bridges the gap between open collaboration and fair compensation for developers. We review its background, core concepts, real-world applications, challenges, and its future outlook in the evolving ecosystem of open source and fair code licenses. Drawing insights from the Original Article and other authoritative sources such... - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Unveiling Common Public Attribution License 1.0: A Comprehensive Overview and Future Trends
    Discussions on forums such as Stack Overflow Q&A and Hacker News provide ample examples where the lack of integrated compensation mechanisms has led to disputes or legal ambiguities. In such contexts, additional measures—like supplementary contributor license agreements (CLAs) or blockchain-based logging—are often recommended to address enforcement challenges. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • Save search results to a text file
    I open https://news.ycombinator.com/ in my android phone. On this page, at the bottom there is a text box for input search. How do I capy and paste the search result to a text file with URLs, because on the search result page, I can't select all as we can do on the PC or is there any way to save the result. - Source: Hacker News / 26 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing DEV.to and Hacker News, you can also consider the following products

WordPress - WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

Reddit - Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. Get a constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics, memes, and videos just for you.

Medium - Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

License-Token.com - Monetize your source code while still keeping it open.

Hashnode - A friendly and inclusive Q&A network for coders

Lobsters - Lobsters is a technology-focused link-aggregation site.