Hammer.JS
JavaScript web frameworks
Web frameworks
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What is Hammer.JS
Hammer.js is a JavaScript library for recognizing touch gestures (such as pan, pinch, rotate, swipe, and tap) in web applications. It provides a unified event model that normalizes input across touch, mouse, and pointer events, and it is commonly used to add mobile-friendly interactions to custom UI components. Developers typically integrate it into existing front-end codebases rather than using it as a full application framework.
Cross-input gesture normalization
Hammer.js abstracts differences between touch, mouse, and pointer inputs into a consistent set of gesture events. This reduces the amount of device-specific handling needed in interactive web UIs. It is useful when building custom interactions that are not covered by native browser events alone.
Broad set of gestures
The library includes recognizers for common gestures such as pan, pinch, rotate, swipe, press, and tap. It supports configuring thresholds and directions to tune recognition behavior for specific UI patterns. This makes it suitable for interactive components like carousels, image viewers, and draggable panels.
Framework-agnostic integration
Hammer.js can be used with plain JavaScript and can also be integrated into applications built with various front-end stacks. It does not require adopting a specific UI component suite or charting library. This flexibility helps teams add gesture support to existing code without replacing other tooling.
Not a full web framework
Despite sometimes being grouped with web frameworks, Hammer.js focuses narrowly on gesture recognition. It does not provide routing, state management, rendering, or UI components. Teams typically need additional libraries or frameworks to build complete applications.
Maintenance and roadmap uncertainty
Hammer.js is widely known but has had periods of limited release activity compared with many modern front-end libraries. For long-lived products, this can increase risk around future compatibility and security maintenance. Organizations may need to validate current project activity and plan contingencies.
Browser-native alternatives exist
Modern browsers support Pointer Events and improved touch handling, which can reduce the need for a separate gesture library in some scenarios. Hammer.js may add overhead when only basic interactions are required. Teams may need to evaluate whether native events plus small utilities meet their requirements.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source (MIT) | $0 — free | MIT-licensed JavaScript library for touch gestures. Install via npm (npm install --save hammerjs), CDN, or download from the official site/docs. No paid tiers or pricing pages on the vendor site. |
