Lunr.js
Ranked 4 of 4 full-text search libraries by recommenders
A lightweight client-side full-text search library for static sites, with fuzzy matching, wildcards and field queries. Critics note that the search data file can be large and slow page loads.
A lightweight client-side full-text search library for static sites, with fuzzy matching, wildcards and field queries. Critics note that the search data file can be large and slow page loads.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not 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
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 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
Simple, effective client-side search
“It's simple and effective, but searching the whole content would have required loading more files than I was comfortable with.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “You Don't Need Mintlify” Fuzzy search, wildcards and field queries
“it has lots of options for things like different fields, complex queries, fuzzy searching and wildcards”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo” Used in production at endoflife.date
“We use at endoflife.date, and are fairly happy.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “You Don't Need Mintlify”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Large search data file slows page load
“downloading and parsing almost 2MB file of search data creates some hiccups on website during load”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “You Don't Need Mintlify”
Other full-text search libraries people recommend
The three most recommended other full-text search libraries, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Lucene | 12 | 3 | 80% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tantivy | 8 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| PHP-fts | 6 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Lunr.jsThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“We use at endoflife.date, and are fairly happy.”
“for static search you could use lunr.js”
“downloading and parsing almost 2MB file of search data creates some hiccups on website during load”
“It's simple and effective, but searching the whole content would have required loading more files than I was comfortable with.”
“it has lots of options for things like different fields, complex queries, fuzzy searching and wildcards”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.