The Canon

The highest-ranked Show HN of each year, by points within its year.

AI

2025

Gemini Pro 3 HN front page 2035 (future Hacker News front page)

Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now

Mixed3,346 points965 comments

Hardware

2025

Byran's open-source laptop

An open-source laptop from scratch

Loved3,237 points323 comments

Hardware

2026

I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s

Loved2,935 points359 comments

Consumer and social

2024

ytch

If YouTube had actual channels

Loved2,741 points514 comments

Hardware

2019

2019

A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time

Loved2,690 points210 comments

Creative

2026

Fugleramme

An e-ink frame that hears birds and draws them as 1800s illustrations

Loved2,391 points267 comments

Infrastructure

2021

Redbean

Single-file distributable web server

Mixed1,998 points249 comments

Consumer and social

2023

Non.io

A Reddit-like platform Ive been working on for the last 4 years

Mixed1,943 points590 comments

Games

2022

Dog Bunny Puzzle

I may have created a new type of puzzle

Mixed1,859 points464 comments

Learning and science

2022

Giza Project guided tour of the Great Pyramid interior

I 3D scanned the interior of the Great Pyramid at Giza

Mixed1,752 points280 comments

Learning and science

2026

Elevators

Interactive article simulating and comparing elevator dispatch algorithms

Curious1,680 points415 comments

Learning and science

2016

Web Design in 4 minutes

Debated1,624 points152 comments

Productivity

2020

TypeLit

A site where you practice typing by retyping entire novels

Mixed1,589 points378 comments

Games

2025

Ballionaire

I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

Loved1,581 points356 comments

Other

2025

Jmail

Google Suite for Epstein files

Curious1,557 points363 comments

Creative

2025

I'm an airline pilot

I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

Loved1,539 points197 comments

Games

2017

Airmash

Multiplayer Missile Warfare HTML5 Game

Mixed1,535 points304 comments

Consumer and social

2023

Beeper Mini

iMessage client for Android

Mixed1,521 points874 comments

Dev tools

2026

Homebrew 6.0.0

17 in September.

Mixed1,481 points363 comments

Finance and crypto

2021

GamestonkTerminal

Can’t afford Bloomberg Terminal? No prob, I built the next best thing

Mixed1,422 points289 comments

AI

2023

Phind

GPT-4-powered web searches for developers

Debated1,401 points414 comments

Web and SaaS

2020

Buy For Life

A Rotten Tomatoes-style platform for durable products

Mixed1,392 points398 comments

Dev tools

2012

Meteor

A realtime JavaScript framework

Debated1,386 points322 comments

Productivity

2022

Obsidian Canvas

An infinite space for your ideas

Mixed1,380 points387 comments

Learning and science

2021

hacker-recommended-books

40k HN comments mentioning books, extracted using deep learning

Mixed1,359 points273 comments

Web and SaaS

2022

Openship

I'm building an open-source Amazon

Mixed1,335 points301 comments

AI

2026

isometric.nyc

giant isometric pixel art map of NYC

Mixed1,325 points241 comments

Security and privacy

2022

Portable Secret

How I store my secrets and communicate privately

Mixed1,290 points376 comments

Games

2025

pdftris

Tetris in a PDF

Mixed1,289 points223 comments

Languages and libraries

2019

Bel

I think the point of a high-level language is to make your programs shorter.

Curious1,288 points456 comments

Creative

2025

I built a synth for my daughter

A synth for my daughter

Loved1,278 points209 comments

Dev tools

2024

Puter

3 years and 1M users later, I just open-sourced my "Internet OS"

Mixed1,274 points319 comments

Hardware

2017

jacquesmattheij.com

Sorting Two Metric Tons of Lego

Loved1,264 points211 comments

Learning and science

2026

HackerBooks

HackerTube, but for books mentioned on HN

Debated1,242 points221 comments

Games

2022

Looptap

A minimal game to waste your time

Curious1,241 points170 comments

Learning and science

2022

SHA-256 explained step-by-step visually

Loved1,241 points137 comments

AI

2016

Wave function collapse

Wave function collapse algorithm

Loved1,226 points122 comments

Languages and libraries

2021

Imba

I have spent 7 years creating a programming language for the web

Mixed1,216 points345 comments

Learning and science

2015

Spot the Drowning Child

Curious1,215 points378 comments

Dev tools

2019

instant

Make your site’s pages instant in one minute

Curious1,214 points337 comments

Productivity

2025

touchgrass.now

An app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

Mixed1,203 points268 comments

Creative

2021

Lofi.cafe

Mixed1,192 points230 comments

Creative

2025

AnyCrap

A store that generates products from anything you type in search

Mixed1,184 points333 comments

Data

2017

SkyTorrents

Privacy-focused, ad-free, non-tracking torrent search engine

Curious1,183 points346 comments

Dev tools

2026

Performative-UI

A react component library of design tropes

Mixed1,181 points213 comments

Consumer and social

2021

ente

An end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos

Mixed1,180 points405 comments

Learning and science

2018

Six Degrees of Wikipedia

Curious1,176 points324 comments

Hardware

2015

HomeMirror

Make a programmable mirror

Curious1,172 points136 comments

Dev tools

2017

Alacritty

A GPU-accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust

Curious1,170 points476 comments

Productivity

2023

Boring Report

A news app that uses AI to desensationalize the news

Debated1,166 points332 comments

Games

2026

18 Words

Mixed1,160 points366 comments

Games

2022

Captain of Industry

A friend and I spent 6 years making a simulation game, finally released

Curious1,157 points279 comments

Creative

2024

Pikimov

An After Effects alternative

Mixed1,150 points258 comments

Games

2022

Wyldcard

Trading cards made with e-ink displays

Loved1,149 points291 comments

Data

2024

InstantDB

A Modern Firebase

Curious1,145 points297 comments

Creative

2025

Kilopixel

I spent 6 years building a ridiculous wooden pixel display

Loved1,145 points144 comments

Games

2022

Almost Pong

A web game called Almost Pong

Mixed1,135 points181 comments

AI

2025

Clippy

90s UI for local LLMs

Mixed1,122 points275 comments

Dev tools

2016

CSS Reference

A visual guide to the most popular CSS properties

Debated1,117 points122 comments

Consumer and social

2024

lanparty.house

A(nother) house optimized for LAN parties

Loved1,117 points381 comments

Games

2021

Permafrost Engine

My own RTS game engine in C

Mixed1,102 points262 comments

Web and SaaS

2017

DemandRush

Get Paid to Build Your Next Side Project

Mixed1,100 points451 comments

AI

2023

imaginAIry

New AI edits images based on text instructions

Curious1,098 points227 comments

Productivity

2017

Monica

An open-source CRM to manage friends and family

Mixed1,097 points568 comments

Dev tools

2025

Term.everything

Term.everything – Run any GUI app in the terminal

Loved1,094 points144 comments

Web and SaaS

2015

Open Hunt

an open and community-run alternative to Product Hunt

Curious1,093 points180 comments

Languages and libraries

2018

RoughJS

Create hand-drawn graphics using JavaScript

Mixed1,087 points92 comments

Productivity

2020

Obsidian

A knowledge base that works on local Markdown files

Debated1,087 points477 comments

Games

2019

Ultra Square Catcher (USC)

I taught my little brother JS, and he made this videogame in a week

Loved1,079 points270 comments

Consumer and social

2021

Nom de Bébé

My wife is pregnant; naturally I made a baby-name app to prepare

Curious1,077 points372 comments

Learning and science

2018

wolfram-cellular-automata

I'm 12, learning JS, and wrote Wolfram's cellular automaton in Node

Loved1,072 points283 comments

Learning and science

2014

Markov chains explained visually

Loved1,070 points92 comments

Dev tools

2021

Bonsai

Web browser to help programmers think clearly

Mixed1,070 points226 comments

Productivity

2023

Heynote

A dedicated scratchpad for developers

Mixed1,063 points303 comments

Learning and science

2024

rahulilango.com

A puzzle game that gently introduces my favorite math mysteries

Mixed1,054 points172 comments

Learning and science

2020

SHA-256 Animation

Loved1,053 points102 comments

Creative

2026

Bento

An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)

Mixed1,033 points239 comments

Productivity

2025

Mitch Ivin portfolio (Windows XP recreation)

I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio

Debated1,032 points323 comments

Consumer and social

2025

Tender

Tinder but it's only pictures of my wife and I can only swipe right

Curious1,030 points263 comments

Web and SaaS

2014

OneBody

OneBody Church Directory software I've been hacking on for 7 years

Loved1,020 points304 comments

Dev tools

2024

htmz

a low power tool for HTML

Mixed1,020 points242 comments

Security and privacy

2014

GlassWire

I got hacked, felt paranoid, made an app – GlassWire

Debated1,013 points331 comments

Creative

2016

Generating fantasy maps

an interactive exploration

Loved1,004 points64 comments

AI

2025

Kitten TTS

25MB CPU-Only, Open-Source TTS Model

Mixed1,003 points361 comments

Consumer and social

2023

Workout.lol

a web app to easily create a workout routine

Mixed993 points281 comments

Games

2021

Slingshot Effect

I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

Loved985 points252 comments

Hardware

2025

PyXL

A hardware processor that runs Python

Curious983 points265 comments

Productivity

2021

Modern Wiki

A modern web UI for Wikipedia

Debated979 points409 comments

Creative

2020

A basketball hoop to maximize shots that go in [video]

Curious971 points162 comments

Data

2018

Simple Analytics

A privacy-first minimalist Google Analytics

Curious968 points263 comments

Dev tools

2018

Browsh

A modern, text-based browser

Debated967 points322 comments

Learning and science

2026

mvidia

A game where you build a GPU

Debated964 points187 comments

Consumer and social

2024

sitinshade.com

A website to find best bus seat to avoid the sun while traveling

Mixed963 points210 comments

Consumer and social

2021

Beeper

All Your Chats in One App

Curious962 points486 comments

Creative

2025

nodaysoff.run

Ten years of running every day, visualized

Mixed958 points495 comments

AI

2020

This Word Does Not Exist

Debated956 points342 comments

Dev tools

2008

GitHub on iGoogle

Quiet3 points0 comments

AI

2009

PittPatt face recognition demo

Our new online face recognition demo

Mixed50 points25 comments

Creative

2010

Etude

I finally released that sheet music app I keep yammering about

Loved318 points112 comments

Learning and science

2011

Codecademy.com

The easiest way to learn to code

Debated787 points232 comments

Languages and libraries

2013

XKCD-inspired StackSort

Ah, applying the Infinite monkey theorem to programming :)…

Mixed948 points198 comments