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Shiki VS prism.js

Compare Shiki VS prism.js and see what are their differences

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  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Shiki logo Shiki

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

prism.js logo prism.js

Prism is a lightweight, extensible syntax highlighter, built with modern web standards in mind.
Not present
  • prism.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-28

Shiki features and specs

  • Aesthetic Appeal
    Shiki.style offers visually stunning themes that enhance the user experience by providing modern, sleek, and aesthetically appealing designs.
  • Customization
    Users can extensively customize themes to suit their personal tastes or brand identity, offering a high degree of personalization.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform is user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for users to implement and modify themes even if they lack extensive technical skills.
  • Regular Updates
    Shiki.style regularly updates its themes and features, ensuring that users benefit from the latest design trends and technological advancements.
  • Responsive Design
    Themes provided by Shiki.style are responsive, meaning they adapt well to different screen sizes and devices, enhancing the user experience across platforms.

Possible disadvantages of Shiki

  • Limited Free Options
    While Shiki.style offers high-quality designs, free options are limited, which may require users to purchase premium themes for more features.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendliness, there might still be a learning curve for those unfamiliar with web design or theme customization.
  • Dependency on Platform
    Using Shiki.style creates a dependency on its platform, which might make it difficult for users to switch to another service without losing their customizations.
  • Performance Overheads
    Highly detailed themes and customizations might impact website loading times, leading to potential performance issues on lower-end devices.
  • Integration Limitations
    Some users may experience limitations when trying to integrate Shiki.style themes with certain third-party services or platforms, requiring additional adjustments.

prism.js features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Prism.js is designed to be a lightweight library, minimizing performance impact on the website. It is optimized for being small in size, which aids in faster loading times.
  • Easy to Use
    It is very easy to integrate Prism.js into any web project with minimal setup required. The instructions and implementation are straightforward, making it accessible for developers.
  • Theme Customization
    Prism.js supports custom themes, allowing developers to easily match syntax highlighting styles with the design of their website or application.
  • Extensible
    The library is modular with plugins and supports language extensions. This allows developers to add just the components they need, reducing bloat and improving performance.
  • Wide Language Support
    Prism.js supports a broad array of programming languages, making it versatile for projects that require syntax highlighting across multiple coding languages.

Possible disadvantages of prism.js

  • Basic Functionality
    Prism.js focuses on simple syntax highlighting and doesn't include advanced features like IDE-level code analysis or linting, which some users might expect.
  • Limited Plugin Ecosystem
    While there are several plugins available, the ecosystem isn't as extensive as some other larger projects, which may limit customization for more advanced use cases.
  • Lacks Built-in Line Highlighting
    Some alternative libraries offer built-in advanced line highlighting features, which are not included out of the box in Prism.js, requiring additional customization.
  • No Built-in Live Code Editing
    Prism.js doesn’t support live code editing natively, which may be a limitation for users needing an interactive coding environment, such as in educational tools.
  • Supports Web Only
    Prism.js is optimized specifically for web use, which might be a limitation if you need syntax highlighting for different environments or formats, like desktop applications.

Shiki videos

+ Add

Shiki Review: A-Hunting We Will Go

More videos:

  • Review - GR Anime Review: Shiki
  • Review - Shiki Review - Vampires are Terrible People

prism.js videos

+ Add

Prism.js - How to show html css javascript code syntax on your own website

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Shiki and prism.js)

Shiki

prism.js

Customer Feedback
26 26%
Customer Feedback
74% 74
App Reviews
21 21%
App Reviews
79% 79
Marketing Tools
35 35%
Marketing Tools
65% 65
Documentation
31 31%
Documentation
69% 69

User comments

Share your experience with using Shiki and prism.js. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, prism.js seems to be a lot more popular than Shiki. While we know about 22 links to prism.js, we've tracked only 1 mention of Shiki. 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.

Shiki mentions (1)

  • Artisanal Handcrafted Git Repositories
    The site uses Astro (https://astro.build/) and the code blocks are generated using Shiki (https://shiki.style/). As Shiki generates the HTML and CSS at build-time instead of requiring runtime JS like alternatives like Prism (https://prismjs.com/#basic-usage), it's actually quite performant. I think it's unlikely that a couple of hundred lines with some empty spans in is going to cause performance issues – imo it's... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago

prism.js mentions (22)

  • Prism
    It reminded me of the code highlighter[0], and the ORM Prisma[1]. [0] https://prismjs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 1Password Breaks Syntax Highlighting On The Internet
    Starting sometime in early December of 2025, a change was rolled out to the 1Password browser extension that began injecting prism.js onto every site and targeting every block it encountered. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Artisanal Handcrafted Git Repositories
    The site uses Astro (https://astro.build/) and the code blocks are generated using Shiki (https://shiki.style/). As Shiki generates the HTML and CSS at build-time instead of requiring runtime JS like alternatives like Prism (https://prismjs.com/#basic-usage), it's actually quite performant. I think it's unlikely that a couple of hundred lines with some empty spans in is going to cause performance issues – imo it's... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Build A Full-Stack Application With AnalogJS
    First step it to open src/app/app.config.ts, enable markdown file support, and add a syntax highlighter. You can pick between Prism or Shiki, both are great, but for this example, we’re rolling with Prism. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Supercharge Your Projects: Must-Have JavaScript Plugins for Developers 🚀
    ✨ Explore Prism.js for more themes and plugins! - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Shiki and prism.js, you can also consider the following products

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

Inkjet (Syntax Highlighting) - A batteries-included syntax highlighting library for Rust, based on tree-sitter.

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

Bright - React Server Component for syntax highlighting.

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.

starry-night - This package is an open source version of GitHub’s closed-source PrettyLights project (more on that later).

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