PHP-fts
Ranked 3 of 4 full-text search libraries by recommenders
Pure PHP full-text search library that needs no extensions, a middle ground between LIKE queries and a full search engine, suited to shared hosting.
Pure PHP full-text search library that needs no extensions, a middle ground between LIKE queries and a full search engine, suited to shared hosting.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: 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
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 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
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-ftsThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Lunr.js | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I find it very useful because shared hosting is still big for me.”
“This bridge between LIKE and a full-blown engine is exactly what's needed for the PHP long-tail.”
“I find this project very impressive and have bookmarked it for potential use in future projects.”
“I expected a toy project, but it is a usable library, which required a lot of work.”
“code looks pretty clean. is small and compact, decent benchmarks”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.