Text Search vs Code Syntax Highlighting in React
react-highlight-words and react-highlighter are designed for highlighting search terms within plain text content, such as marking matching keywords in search results. react-syntax-highlighter serves a different purpose entirely — it applies color coding to code blocks based on programming language grammar. Choosing the right tool depends on whether you need to emphasize user search matches or display formatted code snippets.
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Text Search vs Code Syntax Highlighting in React
While all three packages include "highlight" in their names, they solve fundamentally different problems. react-highlight-words and react-highlighter match search terms within plain text, whereas react-syntax-highlighter colors code based on language grammar. Using the wrong tool for the job can lead to broken layouts or security issues. Let's break down how they work.
🎯 Core Purpose: Search Matches vs Code Grammar
react-highlight-words finds specific words in a string and wraps them in a tag.
- Ideal for search results pages.
- Handles multiple search terms safely.
// react-highlight-words
import Highlighter from 'react-highlight-words';
<Highlighter
highlightClassName="highlight"
searchWords={['react']}
textToHighlight="I love react development"
/>
react-highlighter does similar text matching but with an older API.
- Wraps children content based on a search prop.
- Less flexible with multiple terms.
// react-highlighter
import Highlighter from 'react-highlighter';
<Highlighter search={/react/gi}>
I love react development
</Highlighter>
react-syntax-highlighter parses code strings and applies theme styles.
- Used for documentation or code editors.
- Requires a language definition.
// react-syntax-highlighter
import { Prism } from 'react-syntax-highlighter';
<Prism language="javascript">
{`console.log("hello world")`}
</Prism>
🎨 Styling the Highlighted Content
Customizing the look of highlighted sections is critical for matching your design system.
react-highlight-words lets you pass class names or custom tags directly.
- Use
highlightClassNamefor CSS modules. - Use
highlightTagfor styled-components.
// react-highlight-words
<Highlighter
searchWords={['term']}
textToHighlight="some text"
highlightClassName="my-custom-class"
highlightTag="span"
/>
react-highlighter relies on CSS targeting the default mark tag.
- You must style the
<mark>element globally or via wrapper. - Less control over the specific tag used.
// react-highlighter
/* CSS */
mark {
background: yellow;
color: black;
}
/* JSX */
<Highlighter search={/term/gi}>
some text
</Highlighter>
react-syntax-highlighter uses pre-built themes or custom CSS.
- Import a style object from the library.
- Pass it to the
styleprop.
// react-syntax-highlighter
import { tomorrow } from 'react-syntax-highlighter/dist/esm/styles/prism';
<Prism language="javascript" style={tomorrow}>
{`code here`}
</Prism>
🛠️ Maintenance and Long-Term Risk
Package health matters when building production applications.
react-highlight-words is actively maintained by known React community contributors.
- Regular updates for React compatibility.
- Safe for long-term use.
// react-highlight-words
// Actively developed
import Highlighter from 'react-highlight-words';
react-highlighter has seen little activity since 2017.
- Risk of breaking with future React versions.
- No support for modern React patterns.
// react-highlighter
// Unmaintained since ~2017
import Highlighter from 'react-highlighter';
react-syntax-highlighter is widely adopted and regularly updated.
- Supports new languages and themes.
- Critical for documentation sites.
// react-syntax-highlighter
// Actively maintained
import { Prism } from 'react-syntax-highlighter';
📊 Summary: Key Differences
| Feature | react-highlight-words | react-highlighter | react-syntax-highlighter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Use | 🔍 Search term matching | 🔍 Search term matching | 💻 Code syntax coloring |
| Input | textToHighlight string | Children text | Code string |
| Styling | highlightClassName prop | Global CSS on <mark> | style prop (theme) |
| Maintenance | ✅ Active | ⚠️ Unmaintained | ✅ Active |
| Best For | Search results | Legacy apps | Docs / Code blocks |
💡 The Big Picture
react-highlight-words is the modern standard for highlighting search terms — use it when building search interfaces or filtering lists. It offers the best balance of features and maintenance.
react-highlighter is effectively deprecated for new work — avoid it unless you are stuck maintaining an old project that already depends on it. Switching to react-highlight-words is recommended for stability.
react-syntax-highlighter is in a category of its own — use it whenever you need to display code. It is not a substitute for text search highlighting, nor vice versa.
Final Thought: Always match the tool to the content type. Use text highlighters for user search matches and syntax highlighters for code blocks. Mixing them up will result in poor user experience and technical debt.
How to Choose: react-highlight-words vs react-highlighter vs react-syntax-highlighter
- react-highlight-words:
Choose
react-highlight-wordsfor modern applications requiring search term highlighting in user-generated content. It is actively maintained, supports multiple search words, and offers flexible styling options via props. This package is the standard choice for implementing search result previews or filtering interfaces. - react-highlighter:
Choose
react-highlighteronly if you are maintaining a legacy codebase that already depends on it. The package has not seen significant updates in years and lacks features found in newer alternatives. For new projects, avoid this package in favor ofreact-highlight-wordsto ensure long-term stability. - react-syntax-highlighter:
Choose
react-syntax-highlighterwhen you need to display code snippets with proper syntax coloring in documentation or dashboards. It supports dozens of languages and themes based on Prism.js or Highlight.js. This is the required tool for any feature involving code presentation rather than plain text search.
Popular Comparisons
README for react-highlight-words
React component to highlight words within a larger body of text.
Check out a demo here.
Usage
To use it, just provide it with an array of search terms and a body of text to highlight.
Try this example in Code Sandbox.
import React from "react";
import { createRoot } from "react-dom/client";
import Highlighter from "react-highlight-words";
const root = createRoot(document.getElementById("root"));
root.render(
<Highlighter
highlightClassName="YourHighlightClass"
searchWords={["and", "or", "the"]}
autoEscape={true}
textToHighlight="The dog is chasing the cat. Or perhaps they're just playing?"
/>
);
And the Highlighter will mark all occurrences of search terms within the text:
Props
| Property | Type | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
activeClassName | String | The class name to be applied to an active match. Use along with activeIndex | |
activeIndex | Number | Specify the match index that should be actively highlighted. Use along with activeClassName | |
activeStyle | Object | The inline style to be applied to an active match. Use along with activeIndex | |
autoEscape | Boolean | Escape characters in searchWords which are meaningful in regular expressions | |
className | String | CSS class name applied to the outer/wrapper <span> | |
caseSensitive | Boolean | Search should be case sensitive; defaults to false | |
findChunks | Function | Use a custom function to search for matching chunks. This makes it possible to use arbitrary logic when looking for matches. See the default findChunks function in highlight-words-core for signature. Have a look at the custom findChunks example on how to use it. | |
highlightClassName | String or Object | CSS class name applied to highlighted text or object mapping search term matches to class names. | |
highlightStyle | Object | Inline styles applied to highlighted text | |
highlightTag | Node or String | Type of tag to wrap around highlighted matches. Defaults to mark but can also be a React component (class or functional) | |
sanitize | Function | Process each search word and text to highlight before comparing (eg remove accents); signature (text: string): string | |
searchWords | Array<String | RegExp> | ✓ | Array of search words. String search terms are automatically cast to RegExps unless autoEscape is true. |
textToHighlight | String | ✓ | Text to highlight matches in |
unhighlightClassName | String | CSS class name applied to unhighlighted text | |
unhighlightStyle | Object | Inline styles applied to unhighlighted text | |
unhighlightTag | Node or String | Type of tag applied to unhighlighted parts. Defaults to span but can also be a React component (class or functional) | |
| * | any | Any other props (such as title or data-*) are applied to the outer/wrapper <span> |
Custom highlight tag
By default, this component uses an HTML Mark Text element (<mark>) to wrap matched text, but you can inject a custom
tag using the highlightTag property. This tag should be a React component that accepts the following properties:
| Property | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
children | String | Text to be highlighted |
highlightIndex | Number | Index of matched text |
For example:
const Highlight = ({ children, highlightIndex }) => (
<strong className="highlighted-text">{children}</strong>
);
Installation
yarn add react-highlight-words
npm i react-highlight-words
License
MIT License - fork, modify and use however you want.