Lexical
Ranked 3 of 4 rich text editors by recommenders
Free, extensible rich-text editor framework from Meta, praised for clean design, few dependencies and a package system. Critics distrust Meta as its maker.
Free, extensible rich-text editor framework from Meta, praised for clean design, few dependencies and a package system. Critics distrust Meta as its maker.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Extensible package system, few dependencies
“What's super cool with Lexical is the package/extension system.”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Wordgard: The new in-browser rich-text editor from the creator of ProseMirror” “Lexical is very powerful and needs little dependencies.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Wordgard: The new in-browser rich-text editor from the creator of ProseMirror” Thoughtful, clean design philosophy
“The Lexical whitepaper is insightful, interesting, and resonates with my experience in language learning.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026)” “Really like the philosophy, and the UI looks clean.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: Lexical - How I learned 3 languages in 3 years”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Distrust of Meta as maker
“I wouldn't touch "Lexical" no matter the marketing they put on top.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Wordgard: The new in-browser rich-text editor from the creator of ProseMirror” “I wouldn't touch "Lexical" no matter the marketing they put on top”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Wordgard: The new in-browser rich-text editor from the creator of ProseMirror” “Because Meta is a harmful company, for one.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “Wordgard: The new in-browser rich-text editor from the creator of ProseMirror”
Other rich text editors people recommend
The three most recommended other rich text editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ProseMirror | 16 | 6 | 73% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Wordgard | 10 | 9 | 53% | 1 | — | — |
| LexicalThis page | 9 | 5 | 64% | 3 | — | — |
| Tiptap | 8 | 6 | 57% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“What's super cool with Lexical is the package/extension system.”
“ProseMirror (and as the sibling comment mention, Lexical) should handle this fine”
“works well on mobile, I've used it at work before with great success”
“I wouldn't touch "Lexical" no matter the marketing they put on top”
“I wouldn't touch "Lexical" no matter the marketing they put on top.”
“Lexical it is not in maintenance mode and continues to receive commits from contributors.”
“Because Meta is a harmful company, for one.”
“it's already in maintenance mode”
“Lexical is very powerful and needs little dependencies.”
“The Lexical whitepaper is insightful, interesting, and resonates with my experience in language learning.”
“I really love using this app!”
“it's a bit slow - maybe you're getting increased traffic from the HN post”
“Really like the philosophy, and the UI looks clean.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.