Still Unbuilt: the 100 tools Hacker News keeps asking for

Hacker News, 2008 to 2026 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.

63,300comments and posts read 12,441real requests for software 1,433asks behind these 100, each re-read $6.00spent on AI labelling Every column is one idea.

Every row is a year. Asks per year for each of the 100 ideas, 2008 to 2026.

Each column is one idea, ranked left to right.200820122016202020242026#1 A mute button for news feeds: 45 asks in 13 years#2 Windows without the junk: 23 asks in 10 years#3 A browser you can pay for: 31 asks in 9 years#4 Email you pay for, not with: 28 asks in 14 years#5 Hacker News for other fields: 23 asks in 14 years#6 Paid search without ads: 24 asks in 10 years#7 Block popups, not just ads: 23 asks in 12 years#8 Choose what each site may run: 20 asks in 12 years#9 A job board with standards: 18 asks in 12 years#10 A fast native email client: 25 asks in 13 years#11 Time Machine for every computer: 23 asks in 13 years#12 Google Reader, for every platform: 20 asks in 14 years#13 An honest TL;DR for anything: 24 asks in 11 years#14 Paid Linux that just works: 21 asks in 10 years#15 A CMS for editors and developers: 24 asks in 11 years#16 A private memory for everything: 19 asks in 9 years#17 Your own Dropbox, minus the hassle: 19 asks in 12 years#18 Search for the small web: 22 asks in 10 years#19 VS Code, native and quiet: 15 asks in 8 years#20 A social network you own: 21 asks in 13 years#21 Remote desktop that feels local: 15 asks in 11 years#22 A shell with a sane language: 17 asks in 14 years#23 Back up your cloud accounts: 22 asks in 12 years#24 Heroku without the surprise bill: 17 asks in 9 years#25 IDE smarts in any editor: 14 asks in 10 years#26 One pass for every paywall: 18 asks in 7 years#27 Run any OS's apps anywhere: 14 asks in 11 years#28 Notes as plain Markdown files: 15 asks in 8 years#29 Classic desktops reborn on Linux: 13 asks in 9 years#30 See a codebase as a map: 13 asks in 9 years#31 A modern ctags on tree-sitter: 13 asks in 9 years#32 Honest reviews of employers: 17 asks in 11 years#33 Forums worth hosting again: 12 asks in 9 years#34 Turn off phone-home everywhere: 11 asks in 8 years#35 Git without the arcane commands: 14 asks in 9 years#36 A database GUI that feels modern: 11 asks in 9 years#37 Sync any browser with any other: 15 asks in 11 years#38 A terminal with editor manners: 11 asks in 7 years#39 Diagrams that align themselves: 18 asks in 9 years#40 Hiring without application spam: 13 asks in 9 years#41 Tailscale without the vendor: 13 asks in 9 years#42 Run scripts with a simple UI: 13 asks in 7 years#43 Restyle any website your way: 12 asks in 9 years#44 Google Photos on your own server: 15 asks in 8 years#45 Microsoft Access, reborn: 14 asks in 10 years#46 Bookkeeping that does itself: 18 asks in 12 years#47 Ask questions of your codebase: 10 asks in 6 years#48 A coding agent for any model: 9 asks in 3 years#49 Rails for your favourite language: 13 asks in 7 years#50 A site blocker you can't cheat: 14 asks in 9 years#51 Find healthy open-source libraries: 10 asks in 9 years#52 Feeds and Shorts stripped from sites: 10 asks in 9 years#53 Bookmarks you can actually search: 12 asks in 10 years#54 A backup forge for GitHub: 11 asks in 8 years#55 LLM tests on real work: 8 asks in 4 years#56 Keyboard tiling on any desktop: 13 asks in 9 years#57 Self-hosted email that gets delivered: 14 asks in 8 years#58 A faster app switcher and dock: 10 asks in 6 years#59 Your email and chats, archived locally: 10 asks in 8 years#60 A seatbelt for npm installs: 8 asks in 6 years#61 Every local event in one feed: 13 asks in 9 years#62 A fairer marketplace for small gigs: 11 asks in 7 years#63 A password manager you own: 19 asks in 9 years#64 Reddit without the ad company: 14 asks in 7 years#65 An open Cursor: 9 asks in 6 years#66 Music discovery you can steer: 9 asks in 7 years#67 A feed of only your people: 11 asks in 9 years#68 Ad blocking for the whole house: 11 asks in 7 years#69 Whispersync for any book: 10 asks in 7 years#70 Better than Google Scholar: 12 asks in 8 years#71 Confluence without the pain: 12 asks in 8 years#72 Encrypted chat as easy as WhatsApp: 12 asks in 8 years#73 Tabs for people with hundreds: 13 asks in 11 years#74 Sign-in not owned by big tech: 13 asks in 11 years#75 Little Snitch for every platform: 13 asks in 7 years#76 Your own Vercel on your servers: 10 asks in 9 years#77 Dreamweaver for plain HTML: 9 asks in 7 years#78 Read social posts without the app: 11 asks in 8 years#79 Turn a photo into art, faithfully: 9 asks in 7 years#80 Search you can rank yourself: 14 asks in 6 years#81 An app store for home servers: 11 asks in 8 years#82 Launch videos without After Effects: 10 asks in 8 years#83 A browser fingerprint that blends in: 10 asks in 8 years#84 Budgeting that stays on your machine: 9 asks in 5 years#85 Fence in apps and AI agents: 8 asks in 5 years#86 A player for music you own: 8 asks in 7 years#87 A Siri that stays at home: 8 asks in 7 years#88 AutoHotkey for every OS: 9 asks in 7 years#89 Why is my computer doing that: 12 asks in 7 years#90 Clean up CSS against real pages: 8 asks in 7 years#91 An office suite simpler than LibreOffice: 8 asks in 7 years#92 RSS with friends: 8 asks in 7 years#93 Taxes without TurboTax: 7 asks in 6 years#94 CI runners for every platform: 7 asks in 6 years#95 Native GUIs without Electron: 15 asks in 8 years#96 Screen recording for demos, made simple: 13 asks in 9 years#97 LaTeX output, Markdown effort: 13 asks in 9 years#98 A phone number for every device: 13 asks in 9 years#99 Logs and metrics on a budget: 14 asks in 8 years#100 A friendlier, cheaper Twilio: 9 asks in 8 years#1#10#25#50#75#100 The top 100, ranked left to right.

Darker means more asks that year.

Hover or tap a column to open it.

none a few most 4 of 10HN wants to pay to stop being the productFour of the top ten are people asking to pay: for Windows without the junk, a browser, email, and search without ads.

46 vs 8It asks for ownership, not AI46 of the 100 mostly want it local or private.

Only 8 mostly want AI to do the job. 81 of 100Building 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.

27%It now asks to fix what already existsSince 2024, 27% of requests want a better version of existing software, up from 14% in 2008 to 2011. How the asks changed The listRanked by separate threads, years asked, and asks since 2024. Topic Sort 100 ideas #2 Windows without the junk A paid Windows edition with no ads, telemetry, bundled apps, forced updates or Microsoft account, just the core OS. 23 asks10 of 19 years11 in 2024–2661% would pay61% want it local or private Never launchedNo attempt found on Show HN. #6 Paid search without ads A paid search engine with clean results like old Google, no ads or tracking, and ideally a cheaper plan without AI features. 24 asks10 of 19 years6 in 2024–2683% would pay Never launchedOne partial attempt on Show HN. #8 Choose what each site may run Per-site control of scripts, cookies, WebGL and referrers, with shared allowlists so each site gets only what it needs. 20 asks12 of 19 years5 in 2024–2635% want it local or private Never launchedOne partial attempt on Show HN. #14 Paid Linux that just works A maintained desktop Linux that works on their hardware out of the box, with drivers, sleep and codecs sorted and no upsells, worth paying for. 21 asks10 of 19 years4 in 2024–2662% would pay57% want it local or private Never launchedNo attempt found on Show HN. #19 VS Code, native and quiet An editor as capable and extensible as VS Code, ideally running its extensions, but native, fast to start, with no telemetry or Copilot push. 15 asks8 of 19 years6 in 2024–2633% would pay60% want it local or private Built, still asked for2 launches on Show HN do the job.

Top: Void - open source Cursor AI code editor (2024, 13 points).

#33 Forums worth hosting again Simple, modern forum software a small group can host themselves, with persistent searchable threads instead of Discord, light install and email posting. 12 asks9 of 19 years4 in 2024–26 Built, still asked for18 launches on Show HN do the job.

Top: Minimal, no-JS web forum software (2022, 392 points).

#38 A terminal with editor manners A fast, simple terminal with editor-style mouse and text editing, richer shell integration and saved SSH hosts, on Windows and iPad too.

11 asks7 of 19 years5 in 2024–2645% want it local or private Built, still asked for6 launches on Show HN do the job.

Top: Warp, a Rust-based terminal (2022, 946 points).

#61 Every local event in one feed One searchable place or followable feed for local tech meetups, hackathons, talks and gigs, so they no longer need Facebook to hear about them.

13 asks9 of 19 years2 in 2024–26 Built, still asked for19 launches on Show HN do the job. Top: Things to Do API (2026, 57 points).

#72 Encrypted chat as easy as WhatsApp An encrypted messenger as easy as iMessage that signs up without a phone number and moves chat history across devices. 12 asks8 of 19 years2 in 2024–2625% would pay Never launchedOne partial attempt on Show HN.

#88 AutoHotkey for every OS An AutoHotkey or Keyboard Maestro equivalent for Linux and macOS that can drive any GUI, with recent asks wanting AI computer use on Linux.

#90 Clean up CSS against real pages Developers want to check CSS against their real HTML to drop unused rules, get fix tips, and convert between Tailwind classes and CSS.