Old Reddit vs New Reddit

Old Reddit (accessible at old.reddit.com) is the legacy interface that Reddit launched in 2005 and refined incrementally for years. New Reddit (the default at reddit.com) is the redesign that launched in 2018, with a more modern card-based UI, infinite scroll, and embedded media playback. Both interfaces show the same underlying content; users can switch between them via account preferences.

The Old Reddit interface remains overwhelmingly preferred by Reddit's power users and moderators. The information density is higher, the loading is faster, custom subreddit styling (CSS) works as designed, third-party browser extensions integrate cleanly, and the moderator tools (modtoolbox, RES) work better. Many moderation workflows are essentially Old Reddit-only — modtoolbox in particular is a critical mod tool that doesn't have a New Reddit equivalent.

New Reddit defaults for new users and works well on mobile-derived patterns (cards, infinite scroll). It's also where most Reddit product development happens — new features like polls, image galleries, and Reddit Live tend to launch on New Reddit first. The trade-off is that New Reddit hides moderator controls, custom subreddit styles don't render, and the information density is lower for users browsing many threads.

For founders and marketers, this split matters because the audience you reach varies by which interface they use. Old Reddit users tend to be longer-tenured Redditors with high karma and stronger participation patterns. New Reddit users skew newer and more casual. Many subreddits unofficially style themselves for Old Reddit — meaning posts that look fine on New Reddit might lose context or look wrong to the Old Reddit users who are most likely to vote and comment.

Reddit periodically announces it will deprecate Old Reddit, but as of 2026 it's still available. If you're operating on Reddit at all, switching to Old Reddit at least occasionally to see what your power-user audience sees is useful research.