Google Lighthouse
Hacker ApprovedWeb auditing tool in Developer tools
Free Google tool that flags accessibility issues like image alt text and colour contrast, and gives quick performance scores. Critics say its synthetic tests and scores can mislead.
Free Google tool that flags accessibility issues like image alt text and colour contrast, and gives quick performance scores. Critics say its synthetic tests and scores can mislead.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Finds accessibility issues like alt text
“It will make some very helpful suggestions, like img alt text and colour contrast issues.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Nutrepedia – nutrition info in 29 locales built with Clojure and Htmx” “good old Lighthouse can point out a11y issues”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?” “tools like WebAIM and Lighthouse help a ton”
Comment from 7 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What's Been Your Experience Implementing Web Accessibility?” Helps reach high performance scores
“Bonus: I find it much easier to get 100 across the board on Lighthouse scores this way.”
Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “The Overcomplexity of the Shadcn Radio Button” “run Google Lighthouse for a single visitor view of perf”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Brolly, a plain-text weather forecast site”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Synthetic scores may mislead
“the synthetic Lighthouse tests would be great but”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Ruby website redesigned” “Lighthouse reports giving worse scores”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Have You Restarted Your Computer This Week?”
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Lighthouse, the schema-first GraphQL package, is one of the neatest I have seen.”
“take a look at the google lighthouse check for things to improve”
“The Lighthouse is also one of the best movies ever period.”
“Other important spots to look at are the Network tab and Lighthouse (in Chrome).”
“run Google Lighthouse for a single visitor view of perf”
“Lighthouse reports giving worse scores”
“It will make some very helpful suggestions, like img alt text and colour contrast issues.”
“got tired of opening Lighthouse for each one”
“It looks like a vibe coded website.”
“Bonus: I find it much easier to get 100 across the board on Lighthouse scores this way.”
“the synthetic Lighthouse tests would be great but”
“good old Lighthouse can point out a11y issues”
“tools like WebAIM and Lighthouse help a ton”
“I hate Lighthouse and that google thinks it can push whatever it wants to the developers while itself largely ignoring it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.