Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Hacker News VS Indie Hackers

Compare Hacker News VS Indie Hackers and see what are their differences

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.

Indie Hackers logo Indie Hackers

Connect with fellow entrepreneurs, developers, and bootstrappers who are sharing the strategies and revenue numbers behind their companies.
  • Hacker News Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23
  • Indie Hackers Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11

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.

Indie Hackers features and specs

  • Community Support
    Indie Hackers offers a robust community of like-minded entrepreneurs, where members can share experiences, seek advice, and collaborate on projects.
  • Real-World Case Studies
    The platform provides access to a variety of case studies and success stories from other indie hackers, offering inspiration and practical insights.
  • Networking Opportunities
    Indie Hackers facilitates networking, enabling users to connect with potential partners, mentors, and customers.
  • Free Resources
    The platform offers a wealth of free resources including articles, podcast episodes, and interviews which can be incredibly valuable for learning and growth.
  • Encourages Transparency
    Many members openly share revenue numbers, growth metrics, and challenges, fostering an environment of transparency that can be very educational.

Possible disadvantages of Indie Hackers

  • Can Be Overwhelming
    The large volume of content, discussions, and advice can sometimes be overwhelming, making it difficult to find relevant information quickly.
  • Quality Variability
    User-generated content varies in quality, which means some advice might not be as reliable or applicable as others.
  • Echo Chamber Effect
    The community can sometimes create an echo chamber, where certain business strategies or philosophies are repeatedly reinforced without critical examination.
  • Competitive Nature
    The open sharing of success and revenue metrics may lead to a competitive environment that can be discouraging for some users.
  • Potential for Misinformation
    Since the community is self-regulated, there's the potential for misinformation to be spread, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Hacker News videos

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Indie Hackers videos

Is Y Combinator worth it for an Indie Hacker? | Indie Hackers Worldwide

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hacker News and Indie Hackers)
Social Networks
83 83%
17% 17
Startup Community
0 0%
100% 100
Social News
100 100%
0% 0
Startups
38 38%
62% 62

User comments

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Reviews

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

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

Indie Hackers Reviews

Software Launch Platforms: Leading Product Hunt Alternatives
Indie Hackers is an online community where developers, makers, and entrepreneurs can share their experiences and learn from one another. It's not only a place to showcase side projects but also a platform that offers knowledge and inspiration to help build successful products.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hacker News should be more popular than Indie Hackers. It has been mentiond 611 times since March 2021. 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.

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
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Indie Hackers mentions (76)

  • How to Make Money From Coding: A Beginner-Friendly Practical Guide
    Indie Hackers: Community of independent SaaS founders sharing experiences. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • keeping the momentum going:
    - make use of sites like this and indiehackers.com, etc... To hear from other people in a similar situation. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Why does this subreddit have such low engagement?
    But as far as I know, indiehackers.com and X with #indiehackers or #buildinpublic hashtag. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Need advice, product graveyard – how about my new idea
    Just a personal website is a good place for that. But there are things like https://indiepa.ge/ or your personal profile on indiehackers.com - even though it may not be so much for "graveyard purpose". Source: over 1 year ago
  • Community for Solo founders
    I am a Solo founder and looking forward to meet like minded people. Most of the time I turn to indiehackers.com for inspiration but have found very few Indians on it who have made it big as a solo founder. So I was wondering if there is any other forum where Solo founders meet and discuss / share their challenges / learnings to help each other. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Hacker News and Indie Hackers, you can also consider the following products

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.

Product Hunt - A website that lets users share and discover new products

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

WIP.co - Work in progress. We are a community of makers who help each other ship product.

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

Makerlog - Makerlog is the dead-simple task log that helps you stay productive and ship faster.