Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pygments VS Torchlight.dev

Compare Pygments VS Torchlight.dev and see what are their differences

Pygments logo Pygments

Generic syntax highlighter suitable for use in code hosting, forums, wikis or other applications...

Torchlight.dev logo Torchlight.dev

Torchlight is a VS Code-compatible syntax highlighter that requires no JavaScript, supports every language, every VS Code theme, line highlighting, git diffing, and more.
  • Pygments Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15
Not present

Pygments features and specs

  • Wide Language Support
    Pygments supports a broad range of programming languages and file formats, making it highly versatile for developers working in diverse environments.
  • High-Quality Output
    The library produces highly readable and aesthetically pleasing highlighted code, which is crucial for documentation and presentation.
  • Easy Integration
    Pygments is designed to integrate easily with a variety of web frameworks, content management systems, and text editors.
  • Customization Options
    Users can customize styles, themes, and output formats to meet specific needs, providing flexibility for different aesthetic requirements.
  • Active Community
    A strong, active community contributes to its continuous development and improvement, ensuring it stays updated with the latest languages and features.

Possible disadvantages of Pygments

  • Performance Overhead
    For large codebases or high-frequency requests, using Pygments can introduce performance overhead, potentially slowing down applications.
  • Dependency Management
    As with any library, integrating Pygments means managing its dependencies and ensuring compatibility with other project components.
  • Complexity in Advanced Use
    While basic usage is straightforward, more advanced features and customizations can introduce complexity, requiring a deeper understanding of the library.
  • Limited Built-In Features
    Pygments primarily focuses on syntax highlighting, so additional functionality (like code execution or detailed analysis) has to be handled by other tools or custom development.

Torchlight.dev features and specs

  • Syntax Highlighting
    Torchlight.dev provides accurate and visually appealing syntax highlighting for a wide range of programming languages, enhancing readability and presentation in documentation and blogs.
  • Easy Integration
    It offers simple integration with popular static site generators and content management systems, which makes it accessible for users to enhance their code blocks without significant overhead.
  • Customization
    Torchlight.dev allows for extensive customization options, enabling users to tailor the appearance of code highlights to match the aesthetics of their site or brand.
  • Real-Time Updates
    With real-time updates, any changes to code highlighting configurations are reflected immediately, allowing users to see results instantly as they tweak settings.

Possible disadvantages of Torchlight.dev

  • Dependency on External Service
    Relying on an external service like Torchlight.dev means that downtime or service interruptions could impact the availability of highlighted code.
  • Limited Offline Use
    Because it's a web-based tool, using Torchlight.dev requires an internet connection, which may be a drawback for developers needing offline access to syntax highlighting tools.
  • Potential Cost
    While there might be free tiers or trials, using Torchlight.dev extensively may incur additional costs for premium features or higher usage levels.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pygments and Torchlight.dev)
Documentation
69 69%
31% 31
App Reviews
53 53%
47% 47
Customer Feedback
55 55%
45% 45
Marketing Tools
46 46%
54% 54

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pygments seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pygments mentions (10)

  • Ask HN: Printing Code to Paper?
    Some starter ideas[0] beyond spacing/line numbers. BNF format is used to describe a programming language. treesitter as a text editor plug in makes use of a language BNF description to be able to know how to parse & format a given lanuage in a text editor (aka pygments[1], gnu source code hightlights, [2] neovim with treesitter[3]). Aka searching google "treesitter work with microsoft notepade" --- [0] :... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Marcel the Shell
    I suspect Pygments will be to your liking. https://pygments.org/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Blog in django
    It's not clear exactly what you want, but if you mean syntax highlighting, you could use pygments https://pygments.org/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I'm looking for a way to display live changes to a text file with Python
    Https://pygments.org/ - never tried it though. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Markdown, Asciidoc, or reStructuredText - a tale of docs-as-code
    Sphinx is incredibly powerful and can offer a table of contents, automatic links for functions, automatic code highlighting using Pygments, and other capabilities using built-in or third-party extensions. If you'd like to use (a flavor of) Markdown with Sphinx, you can do so using MyST-parser - a Sphinx and Docutils extension to parse MyST. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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Torchlight.dev mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Torchlight.dev yet. Tracking of Torchlight.dev recommendations started around May 2025.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pygments and Torchlight.dev, you can also consider the following products

prism.js - Prism is a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter, built with modern web standards in mind.

Chroma (Syntax Highlighter) - Chroma takes source code and other structured text and converts it into syntax highlighted HTML, ANSI-coloured text, etc.

Shiki - A beautiful syntax highlighter based on TextMate grammar, accurate and powerful.

Re-Highlight - Re-Highlight is a powerful text syntax highlighting library.

highlight.js - Highlight.js is a syntax highlighter written in JavaScript. It works in the browser as well as on the server.

Speed-highlight JS - A lightweight syntax highlighter written in JavaScript.