MathJax
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 3 math rendering libraries
Recommended for broad LaTeX support, accessibility, and improved speed in its v3 and v4 releases. Critics note occasional rendering inaccuracies.
Recommended for broad LaTeX support, accessibility, and improved speed in its v3 and v4 releases. Critics note occasional rendering inaccuracies.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 4 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: 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 carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Broad LaTeX features and packages
“has broader support for LaTeX features, better accessibility features, and has slightly better typography”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “It also doesn't support several basic packages that MathJax supports.”
Comment from 5 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “it's not nearly as feature complete as Mathjax”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “RaTeX: KaTeX-compatible LaTeX rendering engine in pure Rust” Faster rendering after rewrite
“I think the latest version of MathJax (v4) has rendering speed comparable to, if not faster than, KaTeX.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “MathJax 3 (a complete rewrite) has significantly improved performance from the previous version”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News Strong accessibility features
“has broader support for LaTeX features, better accessibility features, and has slightly better typography”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “MathJax has way more accessibility features”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 on Hacker News Go-to choice alongside KaTeX
“I've been using MathJax, and more recently KaTeX”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “I tend to just stick with MathJax or KaTeX.”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
Other math rendering libraries people recommend
The two most recommended other math rendering 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.
See all 3 math rendering libraries, rankedWhat people said
All 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“A search reveals this could be done on the server-side, but I'd need to deal with the node.js ecosystem.”
“but MathJax is very much alive.”
“it's not nearly as feature complete as Mathjax”
“MathJax for LaTeX rendering, which is great for web compatibility”
“writing as much math as possible in Unicode makes for the best HTML reading experience”
“AsciiMath is pretty tightly integrated into each implementation (like MathJax)”
“It also doesn't support several basic packages that MathJax supports.”
“MathJax has way more accessibility features”
“MathJax does not even let you select text, so it seems less accessible to me.”
“it still has some inaccuracies tho”
“I tend to just stick with MathJax or KaTeX.”
“I think the latest version of MathJax (v4) has rendering speed comparable to, if not faster than, KaTeX.”
“I've been using MathJax, and more recently KaTeX”
“continual reflows or jitter I used to see with MathJax”
“has broader support for LaTeX features, better accessibility features, and has slightly better typography”
“It was hell to navigate pages that rendered MathJax on demand. That also improved a lot though.”
“MathJax 3 (a complete rewrite) has significantly improved performance from the previous version”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.