[ggerganov]

Actually, I wasn't even aware that there is HN Algolia API :-)

From quick look, it seems the Algolia API offers a Search API which I don't think you can implement using the official API.

However, the official API seems to have a big advantage that it tells you which were the items that were updated recently - i.e. scores, comments, stories, etc. Using this you can implement real-time updates of the screen by fetching only the modified items. I believe using the Algolia API you would need to fetch everything over and over.

But other than that, the two APIs are similar. I guess the official one is more low-level than the other. The main difference is that you need to fetch the children one-by-one while with Algolia you seem to get this in one call.