Love small practical tools with a very clear pain point.
Every USB-C cable looks the same, but some charge fast, some are slow, some handle displays, and some quietly break your setup.
WhatCable makes that visible in plain English. It basically tells you whether the cable, charger, device, or Mac port is the problem, so you don’t have to guess why your SSD is slow, your dock is acting weird, or your display refuses to work.
Spent some embarrassing amount of time this spring suffering from slow charging on a MacBook before realizing my "big" block charger was just 60W. I have an apple charger right now but I also want to get a smaller one for travel — does the e-marker decode work reliably across no-name third-party cables as well?
Thanks everyone, genuinely chuffed to see WhatCable here.
A few questions keep coming up, so I'll try to answer them all in one go:
iOS / iPad? Sadly not possible right now. The IOKit access WhatCable needs is blocked by the iOS sandbox. If Apple ever opens that up, I'll be there!
Linux? In progress, and I'm pretty excited about it. An official port is being built right now, alongside new features for both the free and Pro tiers. The community has also already shipped a KDE plasmoid, a GNOME CLI, and a Rust crate within hours of the HN launch, which has been amazing to watch.
Android? A separate codebase entirely, so not on the roadmap yet, but I hear you.
Windows? Not really possible right now, unfortunately. Windows doesn't expose USB-C e-marker data through its APIs the way macOS does with IOKit. Without that, there's nothing for an app to read. If Microsoft adds it, I'll be the first in the queue.
Thank you so much for the upvotes, and a huge thanks to @zaczuo for hunting WhatCable!
Hey Zac, was on WhatCable's site and the "every USB-C cable looks the same" opening basically described my drawer at home. one thing I wanted to ask, how are you reading the e-marker data, is it through a passthrough hub or are users plugging the cable into a dedicated reader? hardware UX on this category is usually the make-or-break part.
Noice! I was wondering where exactly are you getting these stats from, but then checked the source code - amazing
This looks promising. I always have to call my husband to check the cable and figure out stuff. He knows all the USB cables and how fast it charges. To me, they look all the same. haha
Definitely going to try it out!
I've got a mess of cables to sort through, with some that are suspect. Now I can find out for sure!
USB-C cable confusion is one of those problems that sounds trivial until you're trying to figure out why your display isn't working. Every developer has a drawer of mystery cables. Does it work on iOS too or Mac only?
That is really cool, Please tell me I can use this for my iPhone and iPad as well, by any chance @daz1uk?
Love it! As one of the folks who keeps "known good cables" separately from the rest of the flock.
That's a cool idea, I struggled with this issue a few times before and wondered why my device was charging slower than usual.
About WhatCable on Product Hunt
“Know what your USB-C cable can really do”
WhatCable launched on Product Hunt on May 24th, 2026 and earned 242 upvotes and 14 comments, placing #4 on the daily leaderboard. Why is my MacBook charging slowly? WhatCable shows USB-C cable speed, charging power, and e-marker data in plain English so you don't have to guess.
WhatCable was featured in Hardware (11.4k followers), Menu Bar Apps (12.2k followers) and Apple (15.5k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 11.2k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted WhatCable?
WhatCable was hunted by Zac Zuo. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how WhatCable stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Zac Zuo
Hi everyone!
Love small practical tools with a very clear pain point.
Every USB-C cable looks the same, but some charge fast, some are slow, some handle displays, and some quietly break your setup.
WhatCable makes that visible in plain English. It basically tells you whether the cable, charger, device, or Mac port is the problem, so you don’t have to guess why your SSD is slow, your dock is acting weird, or your display refuses to work.
Super handy stuff!