KaTeX vs MathJax: Choosing the Best Math Engine for Your Web App | LaTeX in the browser

KaTeX is currently the fastest math typesetting library for the web, capable of rendering expressions in under 5 milliseconds. With over 20,000 GitHub stars, it is preferred for high-performance needs over MathJax, which is more feature-rich but has a larger bundle size.

MathJax v3 has significantly improved its footprint but remains around 70-100KB for a basic configuration. In contrast, KaTeX is much lighter, often requiring only around 20-30KB of JavaScript, making it more suitable for mobile users on slow connections.

Yes, modern libraries like MathJax and KaTeX generate MathML (Mathematical Markup Language) and provide ARIA labels. This allows the estimated 2.2 billion people globally with vision impairments to interpret complex equations through assistive technologies.

Client-side rendering is the standard for interactivity, as it leverages the user's CPU to process thousands of equations locally. However, for SEO and 0ms 'Time to Interactive,' developers often use Node.js on the server to pre-render LaTeX into static HTML/CSS strings.

No, you do not need a full 5GB+ TeX distribution. Browser-based libraries use JavaScript to parse LaTeX syntax directly into HTML and CSS, removing the need for server-side binaries or complex PDF conversion engines.