The study examined community discussions spanning from 2008 to 2026, revealing that nearly two-thirds of the most requested utilities first appeared over a decade ago. Although founders have attempted over 1,400 launches on the platform to solve these problems, members continuously re-request them due to a lack of refined execution. Users are also increasingly looking backward, with 27 percent of recent requests focusing on repairing and improving existing ecosystems rather than building entirely new platforms.
Key points
Founders struggle with product refinement and long-term maintenance rather than a lack of…: Founders struggle with product refinement and long-term maintenance rather than a lack of initial attempts to build requested software.
Tech users increasingly prefer paying direct fees for search engines, browsers, and opera…: Tech users increasingly prefer paying direct fees for search engines, browsers, and operating systems to avoid advertising models.
Demand has shifted toward fixing bloated ecosystems, led by calls for tools that filter o…: Demand has shifted toward fixing bloated ecosystems, led by calls for tools that filter out paywalls, clickbait, and automated content.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Hacker News, 2008 to 2026
The 100 tools Hacker News keeps asking for
I collected every comment and post since 2008 that says “I wish there was”, “is there a tool” or “I’d pay for”: 63,300 of them. An AI classifier kept the 12,441 that ask for software. These are the 100 tools people asked for most often, across the most years, and are still asking for now. Every number links to the comments behind it.
Every column is one idea. Every row is a year.
HN wants to pay to stop being the product
Four of the top ten are people asking to pay: for Windows without the junk, a browser, email, and search without ads.
It asks for ownership, not AI
46 of the 100 mostly want it local or private. Only 8 mostly want AI to do the job.
Building isn’t the gap. Finishing is.
81 have already launched on Show HN, 1,423 times between them, and people still ask. 64 were first asked for in 2012 or earlier.
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