DeepSeek V4: what 48 developers actually say.
48 Hacker News opinions from 44 developers, Nov 2025 – Nov 2026. 39 come from people who say they use it. Here is what they praise, what they complain about, and who switched.
The case for DeepSeek V4, in one paragraph.
DeepSeek V4 earns 78% approval across 48 opinions. Developers praise its cost & pricing. In the last 90 days it sits at 72%.
Pick it if you
- Want low cost for routine coding and quick fixes
- Need a cheap second opinion on engineering decisions
- Work on algorithmic reasoning or small, contained tasks
Look elsewhere if you
- Need dependable long runs in large codebases
- Need precise detail recall across large context
- Depend on stable output formats and complete rows
Where it wins and loses.
Mentions across 48 opinions. Bars are counts, not votes; a tool can be both praised and criticized on the same topic.
View data table
| Topic | Praise | Complaints | Mentions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost & pricing | 21 | 2 | 23 |
| Code quality | 10 | 1 | 11 |
How opinion has moved.
Monthly approval, Apr 2026 – Oct 2026. Bars show opinion volume; low-volume months are still included but faded.
View data table
| Month | Approval | Opinions |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2026 | 100% | 3 |
| May 2026 | 68% | 19 |
| Jun 2026 | 95% | 11 |
| Jul 2026 | 75% | 6 |
| Aug 2026 | 50% | 5 |
| Oct 2026 | 100% | 4 |
What developers say.
Summaries are paraphrased. Each links to the original Hacker News comment.
Praise
4 selectedThey will keep using DeepSeek V4 if the new release is comparable to it.
Uses DeepSeek V4 locally as daily driver; it one-shots iOS apps but is slowish and sometimes needs retries.
Lists DeepSeek V4 among favorite open models used via API before moving to a $100 subscription.
Likes the DeepSeek V4 models, saying they critique engineering decisions better than MiMo.
Complaints
4 selectedThe final DeepSeek V4 overthinks, takes over an hour per run, and grades lower than Luna.
DeepSeek V4 flash and pro changed output formats and skipped rows, unlike GPT models on the same check.
Finds DeepSeek V4 weaker than Opus at spotting small details in large context.
DeepSeek V4 repeatedly claimed completion on a reverse-engineering task and took shortcuts.
Questions developers ask.
Is DeepSeek V4 worth it?
Is DeepSeek V4 better than Claude Opus?
How reliable is DeepSeek V4?
The data behind this page.
Developers give DeepSeek V4 a 78% approval score across 48 opinions from 44 authors, including 39 firsthand reports. Cost is the main driver: pricing drew 21 positive and 2 negative comments, and code quality drew 10 positive and 1 negative. Reliability is the weak spot at 1 positive and 4 negative, with reports of stalls and false completion claims on longer tasks. Approval over the last 90 days is 72%, below the overall figure, and monthly samples are small: 50% in August 2026 and 100% in October 2026.
Every number comes from public Hacker News comments collected through the HN Search API. A language model tagged each comment for sentiment, first-hand use, topic and switches; a human spot-checks samples. No vendor can pay for placement.
Get the monthly report
Which AI coding tools gained or lost developer approval on Hacker News, and why people switched. One email a month.