# Vertico 18 Hacker News commenters recommended Vertico and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Free Emacs package that shows completion candidates vertically in the minibuffer; people praise how well it integrates with Emacs and works with consult, marginalia and orderless. ## Why people recommend it - Part of a popular completion stack (4 comments): "Having a good completion package (e.g. `vertico` + `unordered`) goes a long way to finding stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48587902)) "man does vertico, consult, orderless and marginalia help with discovery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50285296)) "Vertico + Marginalia + Embark in my case" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47328264)) - Integrates cleanly with native Emacs (2 comments): "packages like consult, vertico, marginalia etc all built on Emacs' facilities improving not just the package itself but how it integrates" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48550771)) "They're more cleanly integrated with the native capabilities." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45784416)) - Vertical candidate list in minibuffer (2 comments): "Emacs has some really innovative UI plugins (things like Vertico)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943830)) "vertical display of candidates in the minibuffer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45785004)) - Feels essential for daily use (2 comments): "demonstrates powerful completion workflows that use daily in Emacs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48037157)) "Vertico feels like a must-have to me these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586588)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Evil mode for Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/evil-mode.md): 39 recommend - [TRAMP for Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tramp.md): 25 recommend - [SLIME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/slime.md): 19 recommend - [Eglot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eglot.md): 16 recommend - [Consult (Emacs package)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/consult.md): 16 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Vertico", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vertico/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).