
Show HN: I built a website to better compare USB-C hubs found on Amazon - junkern
https://www.usb-hubs.org/
======
Terretta
Needs to filter whether it can show HDMI 4K at 30Hz or 60Hz. And related to
that, for video, it’s possible to have 2 4K 60hz through or one or none.

Also filter whether it’s one USB-C connects to computer or two USB-C connects
to computer. With two USB-C connected to computer, can pass through more types
of USB to accessories.

Finally, it doesn’t show matches that I know are matches.

// I buy these to test, but don’t want to waste time testing duds, so spend
time trying to figure out if/when the claimed stats are possible.

101 Intro: [https://www.howtogeek.com/211843/usb-type-c-explained-
what-i...](https://www.howtogeek.com/211843/usb-type-c-explained-what-it-is-
and-why-youll-want-it/)

301 Deep dive:
[https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-...](https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-
video-through-usb-c-hub/)

~~~
maxsilver
> Needs to filter whether it can show HDMI 4K at 30Hz or 60Hz. And related to
> that, for video, it’s possible to have 2 4K 60hz through or one or none.

I don't think they'd bother, because none of these docks can do it. USB-C 3.1
inherently can't support a 4k@60hz display, due to bandwidth limitations. And
it certainly can't run two of them.

You'd have to jump up to a Thunderbolt 3 dock for that sort of thing.

~~~
Terretta
The Thunderbolt capable docks on Amazon are still listed as USB-C because
consumers seem to think it’s all about cable shape.

That said, there are plenty of dual USB-C connector, dual HDMI 4K@60hz port,
dongles designed for Mac on Amazon. I think this is the most recent addition:

[https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RH9HF4R/](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RH9HF4R/)

 _”Satechi Aluminum Type-C Dual HDMI Adapter 4K 60Hz with USB-C PD Charging —
Stunning dual HDMI display with a convenient USB-C PD port to keep your setup
up and running - all in 4K 60Hz resolution. ENGINEERED FOR 4K DUAL DISPLAY -
features dual HDMI ports to connect two monitors for stunning, extended 4K
60Hz display. Requires a direct HDMI connection, will not work with VGA, DVI
or Thunderbolt displays...”_

By contrast, this is one HDMI 4K@60Hz and one HDMI 4K@30Hz:

[https://smile.amazon.com/Satechi-Multimedia-Adapter-
Gigabit-...](https://smile.amazon.com/Satechi-Multimedia-Adapter-Gigabit-
Ethernet/dp/B07RH8L9GV/)

Includes the two 4K HDMI ports of differing refresh rates, USB-C PD 3.0
charging, Gigabit Ethernet, micro/SD card readers, and USB 3.0 ports, and also
will _not_ work with Thunderbolt.

~~~
chx
Two 4k @ 60 Hz is either Thunderbolt (which is fine for Macs but has a price
and I would rather buy like
[https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38575](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38575)
or
[https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=31261](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=31261)
instead of a noname company) or DisplayLink which is to be avoided at all
costs. This hub is Thunderbolt as can be deciphered from "Does not support
MacBook models with single USB-C port" (see [https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT201736#usbc](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201736#usbc) ) but the
fact I need to decipher what it is a second strike against it. It seems lately
Intel has loosened its iron grip on Thunderbolt 3 (after all, it handed the
standard over to USB IF) so now everything goes (we see empty M.2 to TB3
enclosures and chaining eGPU boxes both of which were forbidden by Intel
prior) but the fact they didn't include the trademarked name makes me go hm.

Finally, it could be a DP 1.4 MST hub but that is very rare (the first USB C
to DP 1.4 MST I am aware of was announced at CES 2020
[https://plugable.com/2020/01/07/plugables-new-docking-
statio...](https://plugable.com/2020/01/07/plugables-new-docking-station-and-
adatpers-at-ces-2020-raise-the-bar-for-connectivity-power-and-productivity/)
and didn't ship yet) and figuring out support will be _very_ interesting. All
Intel 14nm laptop CPUs are stuck with DisplayPort 1.2 and then researching
which laptops with Radeon / nVidia GPUs run their USB C through those GPUs to
provide DP 1.4 will be fun.

Let's put 4k @ 60 (and then 4k @ 30) into the bandwidth calculator:
[https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/729232-guide-to-
display...](https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/729232-guide-to-display-
cables-adapters-v2/?section=calc&H=3840&V=2160&F=60&calculations=show) you can
see you need more than what DP 1.2 can provide so everything I said above
applies.

Oh and of course if it's for a Mac, in general, you could just use two USB C
plugs, I suspect that's what the 4k @ 60 + 4k @ 30 is: one plug is used in DP
alt mode, the other is used in MFDP mode.

~~~
Terretta
It doesn’t support macs with a single port because it takes two ports, uses
each one. That changes the bandwidth calculator math.

This adapter was, I believe, also announced at CES 2020.

~~~
chx
Oh I see now [https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/71z-IlmfZeL...](https://images-na.ssl-images-
amazon.com/images/I/71z-IlmfZeL._AC_SL1500_.jpg) the single plug misled me to
think it's just one USB C. Crafty.

------
calaphos
For choosing the right product based on a list of spec requirements I can
highly recommend the price comparison website Geizhals [1]. They offer an
insane amount of filter options over a wide category of products. Want USB C
hub with Power Delivery, Gigabit LAN, a card reader and at least 2 display
options? Here are your options: [2]. Also works for Mainboards, TVs and a
whole lot of other stuff

[1] [https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nbdock](https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nbdock) [2]
[https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nbdock&xf=5206_2%7E5207_DisplayPort...](https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nbdock&xf=5206_2%7E5207_DisplayPort%7E5208_Gb+LAN%7E5211_Cardreader%7E5211_USB-C+Power+Delivery%7E5860_USB-C+3.0)

~~~
TekMol
This one is my favorite site of this type:

[https://www.productchart.com](https://www.productchart.com)

It has an awesome interface and covers the US and the UK.

~~~
arnaudsm
I've been working for 2 years on a successor for productchart! Modern UI and
KISS, check it out here : [https://picked.cc](https://picked.cc)

~~~
ghostpepper
How can you reduce phones to a single checkbox that says whether they're
"intuitive" or not?

~~~
anoncareer0212
it lets people say 'i want an iphone' while still feeling reasonable

~~~
jshevek
OnePlus, LG, and Xiaomi are all included under 'intuitive'. (Though Samsung
appears to not be?)

~~~
anoncareer0212
Ugh, I feel awful snarking now - that is strange to me, I could see OnePlus
and Xiaomi, but LG and not Samsung is a headscratcher... and honestly, if you
include all those, it seems like a "has top 5 marketshare except Huawei"
checkbox...maybe that's a good thing?

Anyways, enough rambling, thanks for sharing :)

------
ebg13
Unfortunately this doesn't fix any of the confusing bullshit around USB
versions and specs and port shapes. And it muddies the issue by mixing "3" and
"2" with "C", which describe entirely different things. My first search
looking for 3 USB-C ports brought up this behemoth:
[https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Adapter-VEOOVE-Samsung-
Unive...](https://www.amazon.com/Ethernet-Adapter-VEOOVE-Samsung-Universal-
Compatible/dp/B07VNKR495/)

2 of the USB-C ports are USB 2.0? WTF is that. Nobody wants that.

~~~
soneil
And the third is just PD, no data. Searching for 2 ports is no better -
they’re all one data plus one PD (with the exception of one that’s macbook-
specific, so it can pass-thru two ports because it’s using 2 on the host).

It seems like it’d be more realistic to have a tick-box for “a usb-c port” and
a tick-box for “a PD port”.

------
mmastrac
Awesome work. Having just gone through this for my company, I'd recommend a
few valuable bits of information:

\- Thunderbolt 3 support filter

\- Power delivery capability (usually 60W-100W if at all)

Both of those are valuable for mac shoppers.

~~~
loopbit
Not only for macs... I have 4 raspberry pi4 powered through an USB hub and
spent quite a bit of time looking for one that had at least 4 ports and that
every port could deliver a minimum of 5V-3A. The US amazon had a few, but
trying to find them (or similar) in several european Amazons was quite
difficult.

~~~
alias_neo
Any chance of a link? I'm looking good something to power a Pi4 cluster.
Thanks

~~~
loopbit
I ended up going with this one: [https://thepihut.com/products/anidees-6-port-
smart-ic-usb-ch...](https://thepihut.com/products/anidees-6-port-smart-ic-usb-
charger-50-watt)

Have had it for a couple of months now with no issues.

~~~
alias_neo
Thanks

------
Roritharr
I would prefer if it had less products but actually reviewed them, there is so
much crap on Amazon you really need to try something out, disassemble it,
sometimes even measure it to figure out if it's crap or not.

SEO Spam really ruined product search / reviews.

Just last week I tried hard but couldn't find a good review of USB-C Power
Adaptors, just page after page of SEO optimized spam without actual content.

~~~
mdolon
I actually wrote about this just last week: [http://mdolon.com/essays/amazon-
has-ruined-search-and-google...](http://mdolon.com/essays/amazon-has-ruined-
search-and-google-is-in-on-it)

~~~
MaxBarraclough
Interesting post, thanks.

------
junkern
Thanks so much people, I really appreciate all your feedback. I read all
comments, already answered to some them. I will try to respond to every one,
but can't promise that.

I noted down all the feedback and ideas for improvement and will tackle those
points:

* better filters (video resolution, displayPort, card readers, power delivery) and sorting by price, "no-feature" search

* Better and cleaner design

* Moar data: definitely Thunderbolt 3 hubs and usb-c hubs of higher quality (anker?)

* implement reviewmeta to check the reviews of each product

* better quality of product data/prices and so on

~~~
japhyr
> * Moar data: definitely Thunderbolt 3 hubs and usb-c hubs of higher quality
> (anker?)

Are you talking about adding hubs that aren't available on Amazon? When I
started to use my 13" mbp as a desktop station I was surprised how hard it was
to find a decent hub, and I couldn't find anything on Amazon that worked. I
tried several hubs that seemed to work, but they interfered with wifi.

I ended up with a CalDigit TS3 Plus, and it's been really good so far. I would
not have found that on a site that only reviews Amazon products, but I would
have really appreciated an actual recommendation rather than just a large set
of products to compare.

------
ec109685
This is great. I always wonder why amazon itself is so useless in this space.
The only thing you can go is price and reviews there, without any good
comparisons between products.

~~~
kylehotchkiss
I like wirecutter for this. Their picks are rarely the most expensive and they
try to recommend things that last long. I am happy they can make a dollar or
two of my referral link pick for the research work they do.

~~~
dawnerd
I feel like they’ve been slipping recently in order to maximize referral
income. There’s been a number of things they’ve suggested that are simply no
where near the best. I’d use them as a guide but not a definitive answer -
that should go for any site with affiliate links.

~~~
jjeaff
I agree. A lot of the highest quality products are not sold on Amazon any
longer due to the myriad of issues and I have noticed that unless the site has
a referral program or is a member of one, I rarely see a recommendation for
their product. Or even a mention of their product. I could be wrong, but I'm
not sure they have any recommendations for products that aren't sold with an
affiliate program.

------
bonestamp2
Just a word of caution, I believe it is against the affiliate agreement that
you show prices. I mean, two of the first four now have the wrong price -- the
price probably changed on amazon's side. I believe that's why Amazon doesn't
want affiliates to show prices.

~~~
intpbro
Yes this is true. Can confirm

------
tn890
I'm in the market for a dock/hub for my 16" MBP and I'm completely baffled by
the lack of decent options. I just want the following 3 capabilities:

\- 100W PD

\- 4k60Hz (preferably through USB-C)

\- Gigabit ethernet

I have not been able to find a _single_ docking station or hub that can check
these 3 boxes :(

~~~
nfriedly
4k60 + gigabit is not possible without going up to Thunderbolt 3 - there isn't
enough bandwidth otherwise. The best you can do is 4k60 + USB 2.0 (so a
gigabit Ethernet connection would cap out at ~300mbps in practice.) See
[https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-...](https://www.bigmessowires.com/2019/05/19/explaining-4k-60hz-
video-through-usb-c-hub/)

DisplayPort 1.4 changes this, but everything seems to be stuck on 1.2

100W is, of course, possible.

I use a CalDigit USB-C Pro Dock with my MBP:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07VL675DT](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07VL675DT)
\- it's TB3, but it can fall back to USC-C (with reduced capabilities, of
course). It uses Intel's newer Titan Ridge chipset. The older and more common
Alpine Ridge chipset is TB3 only.

~~~
gambiting
>>100W is, of course, possible.

I don't think it is. The dock itself uses quite a lot of power, that's why the
highest you can find is about 85-90W. USB-C cables support max of 100W so I
don't think it's physically possible to accept 100W and output 100W at the
same time.

~~~
nfriedly
Well, with these power pass-through hubs like what the website has, you're
correct.

I was thinking more of a proper dock that has its own power supply. My dock
has a 150W power brick, and then it supplies 85W to my laptop. In theory, the
numbers could be 165W and 100W.

------
atombender
Nice work. I miss the ability to filter by video support. I got this one [1]
without reading the fine print, and it only supports 4K at 30Hz, not 60Hz.

I'm actually still looking for a hub that will do 4K/60Hz HDMI/DP and power
delivery (and preferably 1-2 extra USB-C ports), so that I can power my
MacBook Pro with it, and have it deliver video to my external display, all
while only having one cable going into the MacBook. Not dual monitors, just a
single display while the lid is closed.

From what I can tell, that's only possible with an expensive Thunderbolt dock.

[1]
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079GSMZ7G](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079GSMZ7G)

~~~
withinrafael
To work around macOS' awful monitor restrictions (i.e. lack of general MST
support), we bit the bullet and got a Dell WB19TB [1] (Thunderbolt dock). It
sucks from a wiring perspective but it works.

[1] [https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-thunderbolt-
dock-w...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-thunderbolt-dock-
wd19tb/apd/210-arik/pc-accessories)

(To those that go down this route, be aware: you cannot use both DP ports on
this dock as-is -- again, macOS lacks MST support. One monitor must be
connected to the Thunderbolt add-on module.)

~~~
fpgaminer
I wouldn't trust Dell with this. I have a Dell monitor that I bought because
it has a USB-C port that supported both PD and video. But it turns out it
doesn't work well with MacBooks (constantly loses connection, and messes with
the MacBook's sleep). Dell acknowledged the issue and released a patch that
fixed it ... for Windows machines. They refuse to fix it for MacBooks because
they don't want to support a competitor's product. So I would be highly
skeptical of a Thunderbolt dock from Dell working well with MacBooks.

Addendum: That monitor is also a dud in many other ways, notably that the PIP
and PBP feature sucks and it has horrific ghosting. All a real shame as Dell
used to have high standards for their monitors.

~~~
atombender
I have the same monitor. It's great, but I ran into the issues you mentioned
with multiple USB-C docks, including Apple's own multiport adapter. Have you
been able to get anything to work?

~~~
fpgaminer
I've only tried my MacBook. Make sure you're on the monitor's latest firmware
at least. That doesn't fix anything for MacBooks but the latest patch was
supposed resolve USB-C issues for other devices.

------
crooked-v
I want a USB-C hub that's just one USB-C in to multiple USB-C out. Why is that
so impossible to find?

~~~
baybal2
Type-C says that there can't be type-c hubs. Just wait for some Chinese OEM to
work that around

~~~
Dylan16807
> Type-C says that there can't be type-c hubs.

Where does it say that? I've seen a lot of posts claiming just the opposite.

You can't just take a setup designed for type-A ports and mechanically convert
them to type-C, because that would allow you to make an A-to-A connection. But
that's not a blocker for a properly-designed hub.

~~~
baybal2
It's buried somewhere in the spec, using evasive wording.

I bet this is fully artificial limitation sneaked into the spec by people not
wanting "stuff working without PCs"

------
larrywright
This is really cool. One more bit of data that would be helpful: cord length.
Almost all of these have short cords that are great for portable use cases,
but not ideal for use at a desk.

~~~
koala_man
I was going to suggest just getting a longer cable, but I see now that almost
all of them have non-removable USB-C cables sticking out.

Why is this? Is it because only one port can be upstream, so they try to avoid
the confusion? Or just cost?

~~~
wmf
Probably both. A good USB-C cable isn't cheap and using the wrong cable would
cause the hub not to work.

------
urda
This really didn't make things any less confusing. If anything else, I'm more
confused by just a massive spam of product tiles as the first thing I see. It
feels like I misclicked an ad in my Google search and ended up at a knock-off
product website from abroad.

What you really need to be doing is making recommendations, product breakdown,
and even label things as your "choice" and why. Right now, it just looks like
a glorified affiliate link farm and that feels dirty.

Spamming users with a wall of product is not the solution.

------
lbotos
One of the things that blew my mind was that in the USB-C spec, you can't have
a male to female cord, but I was only able to find two hubs on amazon with a
detatchable cable.

Why you ask?

I have a mac and a PC on my desk, and i plug my kb,mouse, and headset (usb
sound card) into the hub) and just swap one cable instead of three to game. If
you have a better solution that has hub/kvm -> usb-c for the mac, i'm all
ears.

------
brandon272
I am extremely frustrated at the lack of options for USB-C multiport adapters.
The majority of the models seem to be manufactured by brands I have never
heard of. Any that seem to be decent quality and have decent port selection
are also extremely expensive.

Apple decided to eliminate all data ports except USB-C on its notebooks
several years ago, yet they don't offer a robust multiport adapter? (I guess
you can spend $70 if you want the privilege of being able to plug in a
conference room HDMI adapter, but not much else.)

I am also completely confused on how many of these multiport adapters work.
One I purchased in the past required that I install drivers on my Mac. Others
seem to not require that. Can I plug USB-C adapters into USB-C adapters, if
say, I wanted to plug a USB-C to Ethernet adapter into my main USB-C multiport
adapter? Does it depend on the adapters? Does any USB-C multiport adapter that
has a female USB-C port allow me to charge the device the adapter is plugged
into? I seem to have had mixed results with that in the past.

~~~
whywhywhywhy
>yet they don't offer a robust multiport adapter?

After struggling with countless hubs now, having drives disconnect and
displays freak out I'm now convinced the reason Apple only offers adapters
like single USB-C to USB-A and no hub solution is because deep down they know
that the hub technology just isn't reliable or feasible at all and only 1 to 1
port conversions are actually reliable in this spec.

Happy to be proven completely wrong, but honestly I've yet to see a hub that
can reliably keep drives connected and only the Apple single C to A cable
manages to do it reliably enough across 5+ hours and the fact Apple doesn't
even ship a $100-$300 hub speaks volumes to me.

------
6841iam
Very nice project! Can you tell us a little about your tech? How did you crawl
Amazon's USB listings, did you use their API? And then how did you figure out
if an item has the feature you are looking for: What was your parsing and
extraction logic like? Finally, how often are you refreshing your index?

I'm always interested in projects that have a clear path to monetization.

~~~
cocochanel
Also, I was pleased to see Erlang :)

------
whywhywhywhy
No option for DisplayPort? Currently trying to find a way to run two screens
from my 2 port MacBook Pro (Macs don't support display daisy chaining for some
reason) and the HDMI dongles I've used before have been so incredibly janky
and unreliable.

The two ports on this laptop are an absolute nightmare, this wasn't my choice
because it's a work machine but please no one else buy this thing because it's
pure suffering, hubs never work reliably only cables that work are the single
C to display port cable and the single official Apple C to A cable.

Every hub I try has drives disconnecting on their own, HDMI displays freaking
out and so on. This isn't pro level computing if my data and displays don't
work reliably.

------
jitendrac
Do not forget to use Amazon Product api to fetch price and mention the last
price update in product disclaimer, otherwise you may be violating affiliate
program terms, and may get your account suspended.

------
nfriedly
First up, nice job. This is awesome!

Here's a few filters off the top of my head that you might consider adding:

* Price

* DisplayPort ports

* Maximum power pass-through

* Is the ethernet port gigabit or just 100mbit ( e.g. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5N3YCD/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5N3YCD/) \- You generally can't get 4k60 + gigabit without thunderbolt 3.)

You might also want to consider adding docks, or perhaps create a second
website for those. (In my mind, the main distinction between the two is
weather or not it has a built-in power supply - it looks like none of yours
do.)

------
dvcrn
Cool that you have an option to turn off affiliate links but since you are
providing value and product recommendations with this site I'd personally say
it's fine to remove that option.

------
Trias11
I was thinking about adding few things to make it paid service: \- allow
people to enter keywords describing product \- allow people to enter their own
affiliate id \- allow people to generate short url to dynamically generated
page showing above

All above would allow people to quickly generate and share chunks of specific
amazon products to their following and monetize it.

You could either produce sidebar with your own ads or just charge for such
service so it would be win-win for all

~~~
thrwaway69
I was thinking about the same. If there are any affiliate marketing people in
here, can you tell us more about your workload, RoI, setup and problems? :D

~~~
tomschwiha
Depends on the niche. Some work easily out (especially if its about products
with an EAN), for others it works too, but you need manually processing, if
you care to not only offer a comparing of Amazon products. The Amazon API is
howevery very detailed and useful for product data. You look at the data
provided and either try to "not care and add everything" or to form it to fit
your scheme (imo the better way).

Issues are with marketing (SEO, useful text), malformed or wrong informations
and normally there is no global valid usable database available to get all the
data. Sometimes I depend on crawling, so websites changing break normally
price-updating. By using an API its not such much a hassle, but also using the
API sometimes product ids change and you have to keep it updated to not end up
with a broken website.

I created Keyfuchs[1], a german / english price comparing website for game key
prices and we mostly manually write the texts, half-automatically crawl the
different stores and try to set it up nicely for our users.

[1][https://www.keyfuchs.de](https://www.keyfuchs.de) /
[https://www.thegamefox.net](https://www.thegamefox.net)

------
h4kor
Anyone else thinks its weird that we created an entire industry/product
section just because notebook builders don't include common ports anymore?

~~~
tn890
Not really. I mean, it's conceivable that portable devices have gotten smaller
and more streamlined since they get replaced sooner, while the outside world
has largely remained the same (from a connectivity standpoint).

------
rubatuga
There's only one USB-C hub listed with a detachable cable, the uni Hub. Any
USB-C cable that supports full speed USB 3.2 Gen 2 works. I reviewed it on my
blog here: [https://www.naut.ca/blog/2019/09/11/uni-usb-c-
hub/](https://www.naut.ca/blog/2019/09/11/uni-usb-c-hub/)

~~~
ydj
I’ve bought a uni USB-c to DisplayPort cable before. Support was helpful: had
some trouble getting it to work with my laptop in Linux and they sent me
another cable to make sure it wasn’t a cable issue.

------
falcolas
Personal opinion: I have had the best value-for-quality out of the "J5 Create"
brand. Adding them to this list (it's a useful tool) would be great.

[https://smile.amazon.com/stores/node/9123406011](https://smile.amazon.com/stores/node/9123406011)

~~~
junkern
Thanks for the hint! Will add them:)

------
gumby
The key factor esp for video is “does it support thunderbolt” (to which the
answer today for these price points is “no”).

For a laptop you want TB 3 for high frame rate video and fast drives. For an
iPad Pro, it’s not necessary (and I carry one of these listed devices in my
bag with me)

------
jlengrand
I just want to tell you how much I appreciate how you allow to turn the
affiliate link on and off. And also that you basically made it so that it's
the first thing I see when I join. I don't see that much honesty and openness
out in the open that often. So thanks!

------
martin_
Nice work, looks like a solid tool - have a suggestion for my recent debacle.
I had to buy a dock to use my Apple Thunderbolt Display with a new USB-C MBP.
There were few that could do it whilst also offering power delivery. I went
with this dock which I notice isn't on your list, nor is the ability to filter
for Thunderbolt 2 support. [https://www.amazon.com/OWC-14-Port-Thunderbolt-
Compatible-OW...](https://www.amazon.com/OWC-14-Port-Thunderbolt-Compatible-
OWCTB3DK14PSG/dp/B07JMH6BSY)

------
pkamb
Are _any_ of these products actual one-to-many USB-C hubs?

You know, a _hub_. Which seemingly do not exist for USB-C / USB 3.

[https://superuser.com/q/1381139/122042](https://superuser.com/q/1381139/122042)

[https://mjtsai.com/blog/2017/10/14/the-impossible-dream-
of-u...](https://mjtsai.com/blog/2017/10/14/the-impossible-dream-of-usb-c/)

------
bitL
Tangentially related, does anyone know if there is a DisplayPort-to-
USB-C/Thunderbolt cable one could use to connect a GPU (DisplayPort) to a
monitor (USB-C/Thunderbolt)?

I'd like to connnect Titan RTX (DisplayPort) to LG's 31" 5k2k (USB-C) but all
I see are cables for the opposite direction, i.e. USB-C/Thunderbolt to
DisplayPort, for MacBooks. Other DisplayPort on LG is already used by another
computer (gaming PC with 2080Ti) and HDMI can't do 5120x2160@60Hz.

~~~
chx
The Delock 63928
[https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_63928/merkmale.html?setLang...](https://www.delock.de/produkte/G_63928/merkmale.html?setLanguage=en)
is in the direction you want but I am not 100% it can do DisplayPort 1.4.
AmazonGlobal ships it globally from [https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLOCK-
Displayport-Adaptor-type-Mon...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLOCK-Displayport-
Adaptor-type-Monitor/dp/B07FYLCG3S) please test and report back either at
[https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/co23kd/i_have...](https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/co23kd/i_have_found_the_mythical_displayport_to_usbc/)
and mention /u/chx_ so I see your report or just email me at chx1975 gmail .
While reddit has unsavory parts, we keep our little corner focused on USB C
knowledge.

Alternatively, you can power the Gigabyte GC Titan Ridge from a mining riser,
no PCIe is necessary, feed it DisplayPort signals, get Thunderbolt signals.
Titan Ridge is DP 1.4 capable.

~~~
bitL
Thanks, ordering that DeLOCK now! Will get back to you when I test it!

Titan Ridge is an option as well though I want to use it in an x399 Zenith
Extreme board (DeepLearning rig) and that might be challenging (in theory it
should work but the board is super buggy).

------
brandonmenc
I'm still baffled as to why no one offers more than four USB-A ports - and
very few offer four.

The Anker four-port hub [0] is great (I own like four, just in case), but I
would kill for one with five or six ports.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Adapter-MacBook-
Chrome...](https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Adapter-MacBook-
Chromebook/dp/B07DFYQXY7/ref=sr_1_19?tag=usbhubs0b-20)

~~~
wlesieutre
Could be power reasons? There are plenty of many-port USB hubs for desktop
use, but they tend to have external power bricks.

For example:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014ZQ07NE/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014ZQ07NE/)
(7 ports)

With a cable like:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UXKTJE0](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UXKTJE0)

------
Eric_WVGG
oh goodness… yes, fine work, but this site rubs my hugest tech pet peeve today

There is not a single USB-C hub on this site. A USB-C hub would take one USB-C
port and turn it into several USB-C ports.

These are what are called port replicators. There are no USB-C hubs in
existence, which is a huge reason why the standard is still struggling.

Thank you for putting a selector for "how many USB-C ports" front and center,
that at least illustrates the problem…

~~~
Eric_WVGG
(why are there no “real” USB-C hubs? some say that it is due to the lack of
the existence of a chip that Intel is going to release "any time now" for like
a year now… others say that the power delivery requirements of USB-C make this
really tricky)

~~~
nrp
USB-C hubs are on their way. A couple of IC makers now have parts supporting
that, so products using them are in the development pipeline:
[http://www.genesyslogic.com/en/product_view.php?show=69](http://www.genesyslogic.com/en/product_view.php?show=69)

I'm actually currently developing one as well that has a unique twist to it.

~~~
pzb
[http://www.simulatechnology.com/Product/Detail/uid/5de9347e-...](http://www.simulatechnology.com/Product/Detail/uid/5de9347e-1741-11ea-
ad99-0050568966ec?typeName=Industries&type=Type-C_Accessory) exists, at least
to some extent. It uses the aforementioned chip.

------
peter_d_sherman
It looks really nice!

I was wondering if you could add power output per port, and total, in Amps...

Reason that I ask is because someone might want to power a whole bunch of
Raspberry Pi's off of a single USB hub, and if it doesn't have the requisite
amps (~3.0 Amps per socket), it will probably burn out, or power will probably
sag, and that wouldn't be fun!

But, other than that minor "would-be-nice" \-- great site, all in all!

------
berbec
Seems very nice. Is there a way to search for hubs that don't have a feature?
I want a hub that has ethernet, but not hdmi, for example.

~~~
junkern
Is already on my todo list. It was easier to implement the simple "has
feature", instead of doing a full blown search interface :D

------
btutal
This is really good work! I have been trying to find a hub that I can use
between Macbook Pro and LG 27UK850-W USB Type C display but so far didn't have
a chance

MacbookPro <-> USB-C Hub <-> Display

Currently, the display can provide enough power to RMP, I would like to have
hub in between so that I still have only one cable but it seems impossible to
find

------
macawfish
This is so necessary! However, it still doesn't answer a burning question that
I have: are there any USB-C hubs that can draw power from an _upstream_ power
delivery source and supply it to downstream USB-A devices?

Just to be clear, I don't expect you to have this answer. From what I can
tell, the answer is "no that doesn't exist".

~~~
zamadatix
USB hubs did this even prior to PD. Is there a particular non-standard wattage
you're looking for?

~~~
macawfish
The USB spec limits the amount of power a single device can draw from its
host. For a USB hub, this means that the downstream devices will have to split
a single device's worth of power allowance between them. So to support
multiple power hungry devices, many existing USB hubs offer additional
external power supplies.

In my case, I have two midi controllers and an external audio interface that
all want their full share of power. The audio interface refuses to run without
it.

So I'm wondering if there's a hub that is "externally powered" via the _host
's_ PD power supply.

There are plenty of USB C hubs that can draw additional power from a
downstream PD source. But I want something that can draw additional power from
the host even if it's a laptop running on battery.

(Power Delivery is an additional spec that can run over USB C, but its
existence is independent of and doesn't change the USB spec's power
limitations for a single device)

------
DrJaws
It doesn't show some of the most important brands and sellers like the anker
7+3 usb 3 hub.

[https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerIQ-Charging-MacBook-
Surfac...](https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerIQ-Charging-MacBook-
Surface/dp/B00VDVCQ84)

------
m0zg
Of all these there are probably half a dozen devices that are free of defects.
This site does nothing to help me filter out the rest. For me, the way I
approach this is I just find an Anker-made thing that most closely matches
what I need and buy it. It might cost a few bucks more, but it works.

------
indymike
Suggestion: add a field for HDMI or Thunderbolt video. I have devices that
will only work with HDMI like ChromeBooks and Samsung Galaxy phones (you can
plug them into a screen and use them like a computer). I also have devices
that will work with thunderbolt like my Mac and Dell laptops.

------
arnaudsm
I love these kind of websites, it's much better than a 20-page guide on CNET
or Wirecutter.

I've been working for two years on a similar website for
Phones/VR/Cameras/Drones, check it out here :
[https://picked.cc](https://picked.cc)

------
haddr
Actually all those hubs are almost all equal: they support usb 3.0 and differ
very little. Just buy Anker (upgraded) and you will be fine. Different story
for usb 3.1 gen 2. There’s only one hub currently and it’s Sony UHS-II. (And
even this one can support 4K only in 30 FPS)

------
fwipsy
Needs an option for total USB ports (including USB3 + USB2). Say someone has 3
hard drives, a keyboard and a mouse. Probably they would want at least 3 USB3
ports for the hard drives and at least 5 total, but would be just as happy
with 5 USB3 as 3 USB3 and 2 USB2.

------
usbcconfused
Related question: a lot of these hubs have very short cords. Apparently usb c
extension cords are not allowed by the usb c spec, but some users report
generic female-male cables from amazon can do the job fine. Anyone have
experience with this or know of caveats?

------
tgv
Useful, but one thing: a USB-3 port can be compatible with a USB-2 port, so
one _might_ expect that 2 USB-2 ports can also be covered by a device with two
USB-3 ports (as long as they have the same connector), but I don't think the
search works like that.

------
guidedlight
Here’s a bug/feature request:

The website doesn’t support the Amazon links in Australia. When I click a link
on my iPhone it opens the Amazon app, then tries to switch my app to the US
listing which doesn’t work.

My suggestion is to provide multiple Amazon links for various countries.

------
hrgiger
Nice site! Would be nice to add cable length as well, finding hub for desktop
PCs very hard.

------
az656
From what I can see, none of these support multiple 4K monitors - how do
people dock in situations like this? I’ve been using a USB-C eGPU with my
multiple screens and Ethernet attached to that. Is there a cheaper way to do
this?

~~~
applecrazy
Is it possible to buy two adapters and plug one monitor into each? Tedious,
yes, but cheaper than eGPUs.

~~~
Terretta
[https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RH9HF4R/](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RH9HF4R/)

------
fortran77
Nice job. (But how did we get into this mess in the first case, I ask
rhetorically.)

------
eutropia
Consider running fakespot against the reviews of them as well, because I
straight up never buy commodity electronics on amazon without first checking
to see how astroturfed the reviews are.

------
gre
Great start, I end up with 49 products that meet my basic filters. I'd really
like some more feature differentiation to decide. Release dates might help
too, as I'd rather buy a newer product.

------
thrwaway69
Nice! It looks pretty clean and I appreciate the affiliate toggle button.

What's the story behind this? (Very specific product ;))

I would suggest adding more margin vertically on cards and making them smaller
for mobile.

~~~
junkern
Yeah, the design was/is more of a quick and dirty to get it up and running,
will definitely improve it!

The Story: I was actually looking to buy a USB-C hub myself but was annoyed by
the amazon website: no filtering, no clear marking of features... Talked to
some tech friends, they had encountered the same thing, so I quickly acted and
created that website^^

------
donatj
I’d personally like to be able to filter by DisplayPort ports.

------
voltagex_
Quite a few of these use the exact same board internally, I wish there was a
way to work it out, and I wish manufacturers were more open about this.

------
vxa_victor
Not bad. Functionality aside, one thing it can improve is UI responsiveness -
the UI alignment isn’t displayed nicely in iPhone SE Safari.

------
sonar_un
I would like to see a filter for UHS-II SD cards as well. I think Sony is the
only brand making a hub with one included at the moment.

------
tgdn
It looks very cool :)

Is it open source? I'd love to contribute!

------
alagu
It is quite nice of you to give option to disable affiliate links - though I
guess no sane person would want to disable them.

------
snvzz
No tickbox for powered vs not, no data on psu if powered, no chipset
information either.

So it ends up being not very helpful, sorry.

------
bonestamp2
Nice! Unless I'm not seeing it, the only thing it really needs is sorting (by
price, by rating, etc).

------
grizzles
Feature request: USB-PD 3.0 feature option. The protocol changed pretty
massively between PD 2.0 and 3.0

------
kyriakos
An important filter is not just if it has hdmi but how many screens it can
support. Just a suggestion.

~~~
junkern
Is already on my todo list:)

------
dep_b
Why not Thunderbolt 3 hubs? Also card readers are interesting, pass through
power might be as well.

~~~
junkern
My plan is to add more usb hubs (usb-3, thunderbolt), so stay tuned ;) Card
reader filter will also be implemented very soon:)

I am no expert on usb hubs, but filtering for pass through power is actually
possible: You have to specify at least 1 for usb-c port, then you can select
the "Power Delivery" checkbox. Is power delivery the same as pass through
power? and it is it possible to have that without having a usb-c port?

------
shmoogy
So this means there are no hubs that can do 4k60 for an iPad Pro because it's
not TB3?

------
Legogris
Would be cool if this could link to not only amazon USA bUt also those in
other countries.

------
jungletime
Which of these would work best for connecting two external drives to move
files around.

I have a 2013 macbook pro with 2 lightning ports, and 2 usb 2 ports.

Very often I need to connect two external drives at the same time, leaving me
without a port to connect my wireless logitech mouse and keyboard.

I tried to find a lightning to usb adapter, but these don't seem to exist.

------
thierryzoller
Sell it to Amazon, their GUI needs an overhaul, it's an unstructured mess.

------
lennydizzy
The new 16 inch Macbook Pro has a 96W charger, any adapter supports that yet?

------
abalone
Nice idea. I’m curious, how much affiliate revenue are you generating?

------
blazespin
Need to find a way to detect fraudulent reviews and you're set.

~~~
junkern
Definitely! It is on my todo list to include
[https://reviewmeta.com/](https://reviewmeta.com/) information for every
product :)

~~~
mthoms
Just out of curiosity, do you have any statistics on how many people disable
the affiliate links?

That's really clever by the way, placing that button so prominently. It both
instills trust and serves as a gentle reminder of the amount of work that went
into this (at least in my mind).

~~~
junkern
I do not track that information, yet. But it is a cool idea and I think would
make for some interesting insights: Will implement!

------
reiichiroh
Have you posted this to the folks at /r/usbchardware ?

~~~
chx
Oh hi! /r/usbchardware mod here.

I will talk to the other mods whether we want to endorse these. I personally
would never encourage anyone to buy a non-certified device made by a noname
company but the others might have a different opinion.

------
huxflux
Dude, you should really Github this one, would be huge Kudos!

------
jp1016
thanks for this, i made a mistake of buying a normal hdmi cable for 4k
monitor, it provided 4k@30hz only, i was not aware of this spec until i
experience the lag.

------
all-out-of-hope
That lack of consistent height across cards is killing me.

------
aladine
I wish there is a website to compare power bank on Amazon.

------
wraithm112
Adding a number of DisplayPort ports would be nice too.

------
adriansky
Very nice! How do you crawl the data and how often?

------
guaka
Can you add a switch for Amazon UK DE FR ES?

------
nachteilig
Would also be great to know if it supports 4K!

~~~
larrywright
And if 4K, whether it’s 4k@60hz or 4k@30hz. Almost none of the affordable hubs
support 60hz.

~~~
sgarman
I still don't have a dock for my MPB at my home because none of them support
144hz+. Just have to shuffle cables around every time.

------
Vordimous
What is the app stack? i see vue in there.

------
tantalor
There are other storefronts than Amazon.

~~~
jbay808
I agree. Amazon is probably the worst choice for this, since you never know if
the product you buy will still be the same one that was reviewed.

~~~
Finnucane
Bur who else rewards you with sweet referral dollars? Or pennies, anyway.

------
whatsmyusername
When it comes to peripherals you should seriously consider all the options,
discard everything, and just buy Anker because it's the best.

~~~
bubersson
I did exactly that. And I'm really positively surprised about the build
quality of Anker hub.

I bought some of the wireless chargers from Anker before and those feel quite
plastic-y, so this was nice.

~~~
whatsmyusername
They tend to drop product lines immediately when they're no longer profitable
(like their bang'n external drive docks) so we buy their stuff in bulk when it
fits our purpose.

edit: Oh hey, it's run by a former googler.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anker_(mobile_chargers)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anker_\(mobile_chargers\))
neat.

------
toastal
How far away is USB4?

------
hackerposter77
Any as an option?

------
moonbug
missing display port..

