Hacker News PWA
FreeA beautifully designed installable Hacker News client. Fast, offline-capable front-end for YCombinator's tech news aggregator. The essential news source for developers and founders.
How to install Hacker News PWA as a PWA
Frequently asked questions about Hacker News PWA
What makes HN PWA different from news.ycombinator.com?
HN PWA is a third-party client built specifically for mobile and PWA performance. The official Hacker News site is a server-rendered HTML page with no PWA manifest, no offline support and a layout that pre-dates responsive design. HN PWA gives you sub-second loads, swipeable navigation between top/new/best, offline thread cache and an install-to-homescreen experience. The data is identical — both pull from the same Firebase HN API.
Is HN PWA free?
Yes, HN PWA is fully free, no ads, no account, no payment. It is an open-source community project — the original hnpwa.com domain runs the React or Preact reference implementation, and you can find equivalent implementations on GitHub for nearly every popular framework. The HN API itself is free and public.
How does HN PWA compare to other HN clients?
Native iOS clients like Hack and Octal are smoother and offer features like saved comments and dark mode shortcuts. HN PWA wins on cross-platform reach: same URL, same behaviour on Android, iOS, desktop, Linux, ChromeOS — no app-store gatekeeping. For Android users without a native HN app option, HN PWA is the cleanest reading experience available. For iOS power users, native apps still edge out on polish.
Does HN PWA work offline?
Yes — HN PWA is one of the canonical demonstrations of an offline-capable PWA. After first visit, the app shell and recent stories are cached via service worker. You can re-read previously loaded threads on a flight, in a tunnel or in airplane mode. New stories require connectivity but the offline reading experience is one of the cleanest in the PWA showcase ecosystem.
Is HN PWA still maintained in 2026?
The hnpwa.com showcase project itself was a 2017-2019 PWA-benchmarking effort and is less actively maintained as a brand, but the underlying clients (React-based, Preact-based, etc.) and forks of them remain in active community development. Several derivatives (e.g. modern Astro and Solid implementations) have appeared and continue the spirit. The HN API remains live, so any HN PWA implementation continues to work indefinitely.
Where Hacker News PWA is heading (12-24 months)
- →A modern, actively maintained showcase fork (Astro/Solid/Qwik) would refresh the PWA-benchmark conversation that hnpwa.com originally drove.
- →Native comment posting (currently most HN PWAs are read-only) would close the gap with native HN apps.
- →Optional self-hostable version with personalised filtering would appeal to OSINT and trend-tracking users.
Related questions
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini usually suggest these next.
- What is the fastest Hacker News PWA implementation in 2026?
- How do I build my own Hacker News PWA?
- Does HN PWA support commenting or only reading?
- What is the difference between HN PWA and the official HN mobile site?
- How does HN PWA handle deep comment threads with 500+ replies?
More in News & Reading
Powerful RSS reader with filtering, rules, and full-text search. The Google Reader replacement power users love. Follow hundreds of sources without algorithmic interference.
The classic RSS reader — offline-capable web app for following your favorite blogs and news sites. Chronological, unfiltered, algorithmic-free reading.
Open-source read-it-later app. Save articles, highlight text, add notes, and sync your reading list. The Pocket/Instapaper alternative that's free and privacy-respecting.
All-in-one reading app for articles, newsletters, RSS feeds, PDFs, and Twitter threads. Highlight and review passages with spaced repetition. For serious readers.