The performance of Sphinx is easily the best thing about it. Faster then Lucene/Xapian or any other indexing engine I have tried. In addition it has one of the simplest configuration files I have had the pleasure of using. I consider it the Nginx to Lucene's Apache. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Possibly the only issue you may hit is that it you cannot easily write your own indexing pipeline. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

* Sphinx is the de facto tool for generating source code documentation in a variety of output formats.

* reStructuredText is a simple (yet powerful and flexible) markup language and is part of the standard.

* High quality generated content, highlighting the last responsive html themes are a huge plus.

* Variety of themes and output formats: from a simple (yet beautiful) html static page to pdf export! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

* Initial setup is somewhat confusing. Documentation is a bit dense.

* By the former point, the learning curve is a bit steep, just enough for the cost/benefit to be rewarding.

* Pluginization: More functionality than I expected is provided by third parties, but as this doesn't seem to affect the workflow (since the current state of the plugins I used is great), could bring problems if one of the plugin devs stop supporting their code. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sphinx works well as an indexer. It's fast and efficient. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It doesn't scale as easily as other indexers. It scales vertically, but not horizontally. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Very flexible tool with possibilities to be discovered as you grow into into using its full potential. One of the best (basic) features: you design one survey (questionnaire, ballot, poll, report form...) and can use it - in different designs - as online or offline (paper) tool.

The design and extent of real time results (publishable online) appear to be endless. Beautiful graphics make results easily understood.

Once you know your way round Sphinx you can even construct an individual score for one person (e.g. a personality profile) as well as a summative report for the whole sample, using various statistical procedures. At least in Germany (may not be true for all countries) the support is superb, friendly, helpful, highly committed - to your interests, that is. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The statistical procedures available are somewhat odd and limited. If Sphinx would improve here, a lot could be gained. However, it is possible to export data (e.g. to Excel, SPSS, csv ...). Tools for qualitative analysis of data are available as add-on, but somewhat rudimentary. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.