Rich-text editor libraries
8 products in this dataset are rich-text or block document editors — the component behind a comment box, an article body or a knowledge-base page — rather than page builders with a layout canvas.
A rich-text editor edits a document: paragraphs, headings, lists, inline formatting, embeds. It has no canvas, no breakpoints and no style manager, and a requirement that mentions columns or brand colours belongs with a page builder instead. Within the category the real split is licensing — MIT and MPL frameworks you assemble yourself against GPL-or-commercial editors that arrive finished — and that split decides more than any feature list.
8 of 8 products
| Product | Type | Licence | Frameworks | Bundle (min+gzip) | Price from | Self-hosted | White label | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BlockNote | Library | MPL-2.0 | React, Vue | 386.1 kB gzip | from $195/mo | Yes | Yes | — |
| CKEditor 5 | Library | GPL-2.0-or-later OR commercial | Any (framework-agnostic) | 161.2 kB gzip | from $144/mo | Yes | — | — |
| Editor.js | Library | Apache-2.0 | Any (framework-agnostic) | 64.3 kB gzip | Free (open source) | Yes | Yes | 7.7 |
| Lexical | Library | MIT | Any (framework-agnostic) | 104.9 kB gzip | Free (open source) | Yes | Yes | 7.4 |
| Plate | Library | MIT | React | 150.8 kB gzip | Free (open source) | Yes | Yes | 8 |
| Quill | Library | BSD-3-Clause | Any (framework-agnostic) | 58.7 kB gzip | Free (open source) | Yes | Yes | — |
| TinyMCE | Library | GPL-2.0-or-later OR commercial | Any (framework-agnostic) | 393.9 kB gzip | from $79/mo | Yes | — | — |
| Tiptap | Library | MIT | Any (framework-agnostic) | 123.3 kB gzip | Free tier, paid plans undisclosed | Yes | Yes | 8.3 |
What is in this list
- BlockNoteBlockNote is a Notion-style block editor for React built on ProseMirror and Tiptap, shipping slash menus, drag handles and formatting toolbars ready-made; its core is MPL-2.0, while AI, multi-column and export packages are GPL-3.0 or commercially licensed.
- CKEditor 5CKEditor 5 is a finished rich-text editor with a toolbar, a plugin architecture and first-party React, Vue and Angular integrations, dual-licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later for self-hosted use or under commercial terms, with collaboration, AI and email tooling sold as premium features.
- Editor.jsEditor.js is an Apache-2.0 licensed block-style content editor that outputs clean JSON instead of HTML, aimed at article and document authoring rather than page layout. First published to npm in February 2019.
- LexicalLexical is Meta's MIT-licensed extensible text editor framework, published to npm as version 0.1.0 in January 2022 and built around an immutable editor state with a plugin architecture rather than a supplied interface.
- PlatePlate is an MIT-licensed React rich-text editor framework built on Slate, shipping headless plugins plus copy-in shadcn/ui components for editors that need document editing rather than page layout. First published to npm in July 2021.
- QuillQuill is a BSD-3-Clause rich-text editor maintained by Slab, with a built-in toolbar and themes, a Delta document format and a module API; version 2.0, rewritten in TypeScript, shipped in April 2024, and every framework wrapper for it is community-maintained.
- TinyMCETinyMCE is a long-established WYSIWYG editor whose licence moved from MIT in version 6 to GPL-2.0-or-later in version 7, and since 8.3 to GPL-2.0-or-later or Tiny's self-hosted commercial terms, with every self-hosted TinyMCE 8 install required to set a licence key.
- TiptapTiptap is an MIT-licensed headless rich-text editor framework built on ProseMirror, shipping no UI of its own and exposing extensions instead; its React binding first appeared on npm in February 2021.
Membership of this list is computed from the dataset, not curated by hand, so it changes when the data changes. See the methodology for the rule behind each flag, or take the raw data from the dataset page. The full table across every category is on the comparison page.