Levels.fyi
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Use it free for tech salary benchmarks . it's the reference dataset for tech compensation.
Comparison
Levels.fyi vs Hacker News
Levels.fyi lands on Worth it, and Hacker News lands on Depends.
Hacker News
Depends
Confidence: Medium
There is nothing to buy: Hacker News is a free social news site, so use it if you are a founder or engineer who wants high-signal tech discussion and launch exposure.
| Compare | Levels.fyi | Hacker News |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Tech workers benchmarking compensation | Founders tracking startup and tech news |
| Who it's not for | Non-tech industries . data skews heavily to tech-first companies | Anyone shopping for software . it is not a product |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.12 | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | Negotiation service support called scammy | Community-run, no official support channel |
| Public sentiment | Users overwhelmingly praise the free salary data as the best in tech but repeatedly warn against paying for the negotiation service.⁴ | Users see HN as a free, high-signal but slow, niche tech community that can turn pedantic and hostile.16 |
| Biggest gotcha | Paid negotiation service draws 'expensive and scammy' warnings; read reviews before paying.³ | Self-promotion is heavily policed; marketing posts get flagged and visibility dies fast |
Pick Levels.fyi when
- Tech workers benchmarking compensation
- Big-tech offer comparisons
- Security and engineering salary research
- Pre-negotiation research
When Levels.fyi is not a fit
- Non-tech industries . data skews heavily to tech-first companies
- Buyers of the paid negotiation service expecting consistent results
- Median-market research . figures reportedly skew high
- Teams wanting verified HR payroll data . submissions are anonymous
Pick Hacker News when
- Founders tracking startup and tech news
- Engineers wanting deep comment threads
- Show HN product launches
- Vetting SaaS tools alongside Reddit and G2
When Hacker News is not a fit
- Anyone shopping for software . it is not a product
- Marketers expecting easy self-promotion
- Teams needing support, SLAs, or guarantees
- Users wanting images, video, or fast feeds
Sources
official
review
- Levels.fyi is heavily biased toward companies where tech is their...news.ycombinator.comreview
review
- Read Customer Service Reviews of levels.fyi - Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Levels.fyi - Crunchbase Company Profile & Fundingcrunchbase.comnews
news
- Levels.fyi security pagelevels.fyisecurity
- Hacker News . official sitenews.ycombinator.comofficial
- Hacker News . Wikipediaen.wikipedia.orgnews
- Hacker News Sucks, Don't Waste Your Timereddit.comreview
- Does anyone understand Hacker News?reddit.comreview