# Craft.js alternatives when building the editor is too much *Source: https://www.editorstack.cc/alternatives/craftjs — last updated 2026-09-17. Licensed CC BY 4.0 with attribution to EditorStack.* ## Summary - Craft.js is the lightest library we measured at 29.2 kB gzip, and it ships no editor interface at all — which is why teams leave it when the UI work outgrows the timeline. - Puck is the natural next step: the same premise of editing React components, with an interface included, at 90.4 kB gzip and MIT licensed. - If the reason for leaving is a quiet upstream rather than the workload, that is a maintenance judgement rather than a feature comparison — and forking a 29 kB library is a realistic option. ## Why teams leave **The interface work outgrew the plan.** Craft.js ships no panels, no toolbar, no settings forms and no layer tree. Our [calculator](/use-cases/build-vs-buy-visual-editor) puts editor interface work at 120 hours, and with Craft.js none of it is optional. **Release cadence.** Development is quiet compared with newer React builders. That is stability if you are shipped and a risk if you are still adopting. **Missing capabilities that were never there.** No style manager, no breakpoints, no HTML output. These are not gaps to be filled by a plugin; they are outside the library's scope. **Nobody to ask.** A thin ecosystem means few worked examples when you get stuck. ## Four replacements ### 1. Puck — the natural next step [Puck](/libraries/puck) keeps the premise (your React components are the editable units) and adds the interface. MIT licensed, 90.4 kB gzip, actively developed, with documentation that targets the Next.js App Router directly. *You give up:* total control of the editing interface and 61 kB. [Full comparison](/compare/puck-vs-craftjs). ### 2. React Page — if you need a layout grid [React Page](/libraries/react-page) includes a resizable row-and-cell grid and multilingual content, neither of which Craft.js or Puck provide. It is also one of the heaviest libraries we measured at 377.2 kB gzip and needs a bundler alias for React 19. [Full comparison](/compare/craftjs-vs-react-page). ### 3. GrapesJS — if users need to style [GrapesJS](/libraries/grapesjs) has the style manager, breakpoints and HTML output that the React component builders deliberately lack, and it works outside React. 294.6 kB gzip, BSD-3-Clause. [Full comparison](/compare/grapesjs-vs-craftjs). ### 4. A commercial SDK — if the timeline broke If the reason for leaving is that the editor did not ship, the honest option is buying one. Our [build-versus-buy calculator](/use-cases/build-vs-buy-visual-editor) compares the remaining engineering against subscription pricing, and with Craft.js the remaining engineering is usually larger than teams expect. ## The option worth considering first Craft.js is 29.2 kB of well-scoped code with a small API. If your objection is upstream activity rather than capability, forking it is genuinely viable — a rare thing to be able to say about a dependency in this category. That is not a recommendation to fork casually. It is a reminder that "the project is quiet" is a different problem from "the library cannot do what we need", and only the second one requires migrating. ## Migration notes **Craft.js to Puck** is the most tractable move in this dataset. Both store a JSON tree keyed by component names, so a transformer is realistic, and your user components survive with modest changes — Craft.js connectors come out, Puck field definitions go in. What does not survive is the editor you built. That is the sunk cost, and it is worth weighing against how much of it you actually like. **Craft.js to GrapesJS** is a rebuild: component-tree JSON to HTML is a rendering step, and the editing model changes completely. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the closest alternative to Craft.js? Puck. Same idea — your React components as editable units — with an editor interface, a config API and active development. Roughly three times the bundle size and a fraction of the work. ### Is Craft.js abandoned? No, but releases are infrequent. For a small, stable library that is survivable; teams adopting it should assume they may maintain a fork, and price that in. ### What if I need a style manager? Neither Craft.js nor Puck provides one. GrapesJS is the engine in this dataset with a real style manager that writes CSS and supports responsive breakpoints.