4 open-source options compared for rich text editor for a web app, with live GitHub data on each.
Last updated Repo data refreshed 25 Oct 20264 options
Our pick · tiptap
Our pick is Tiptap because it expertly balances flexibility, modern developer experience, and powerful features for typical web applications. Its headless architecture enables full UI customization and its robust extension system delivers extensive functionality, offering an easier integration path compared to lower-level frameworks like Lexical or Slate. While Lexical provides excellent performance and core accessibility, Tiptap is generally more approachable and quicker for many web developers to adopt. CKEditor 5 is feature-rich, yet its GPL-2.0-or-later license and potential for a larger bundle size make Tiptap a more broadly suitable open-source option for many projects.
Tiptap vs Lexical vs Slate vs CKEditor 5: side by side
★ 38,843 starsLicence: MITLast commit 23 Oct 2026Latest release 13 Oct 2026TypeScript
A headless, framework-agnostic rich text editor based on ProseMirror, offering great flexibility and a modern developer experience.
Best for: Developers seeking a flexible, headless editor that integrates well with various JavaScript frameworks and allows for extensive UI customization.
What's good
Framework agnostic, integrating well with React, Vue, Svelte, and others.
Excellent developer experience with a clean, well-structured API.
Highly extensible through a robust extension system, allowing custom functionality and nodes.
Headless architecture provides complete control over the editor's UI and styling.
Watch out for
Requires some understanding of underlying ProseMirror concepts for advanced customizations.
Core features often need to be implemented or extended using available extensions, rather than being built-in by default.
The extensive documentation can be overwhelming for new users.
A highly performant and extensible JavaScript web editor framework developed by Facebook.
Best for: Developers needing ultimate control and performance for complex, highly custom rich text editing experiences, particularly within React applications.
★ 31,744 starsLicence: MITLast commit 22 Oct 2026Latest release 22 Oct 2026TypeScript
A customizable, framework-agnostic editor framework that gives developers full control over the editing experience.
Best for: Experienced developers who require fine-grained control over every aspect of a rich text editor and are prepared to invest significant development time.
What's good
Provides low-level control and extensibility for highly specific use cases.
Immutable data model simplifies state management and undo/redo functionality.
Renders to any UI framework, offering great flexibility in presentation.
Powerful plugin architecture for extending core capabilities.
Watch out for
Significantly steep learning curve, requiring substantial effort to master.
Most common rich text editor features must be built from scratch, requiring significant development time.
Documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand.
Community support, while present, can be fragmented compared to other solutions.
A modern rich text editor with a component-based architecture, offering a wide range of features and collaborative editing capabilities.
Best for: Projects requiring a full-featured, out-of-the-box editor with strong collaborative editing capabilities, especially when extensive customization is not the primary concern.
What's good
Offers a comprehensive set of rich text editing features out of the box.
Strong focus on collaborative editing with robust real-time capabilities.
Provides extensive documentation and a supportive ecosystem.
Modular architecture allows for creating custom builds with specific features.
Watch out for
Can be complex to deeply customize beyond its provided plugins and themes.
Often results in a larger bundle size compared to more lightweight, headless alternatives.
"Dormant" means no commit pushed to the default branch in the last 12 months. "Archived" means the maintainers have marked the repository read-only on GitHub. "Deprecated" means the project's README says it is deprecated or no longer maintained. Stars, licence, commit and release dates come from the GitHub API (GitLab for projects developed there) and are cached for up to 24 hours. The written analysis is AI-assisted and checked against that data.
Frequently asked questions
Are Tiptap, Lexical, Slate and CKEditor 5 actively maintained?
Tiptap, Lexical, Slate and CKEditor 5 are active: each has had a commit in the last 12 months (most recent: Tiptap on 23 Oct 2026, Lexical on 24 Oct 2026, Slate on 22 Oct 2026, CKEditor 5 on 23 Oct 2026). Status is checked against GitHub daily.
What licences do Tiptap, Lexical, Slate and CKEditor 5 use?
Tiptap: MIT; Lexical: MIT; Slate: MIT; CKEditor 5: GPL-2.0-or-later (dual commercial). Check each project's licence file before use.
Which is easiest to learn: Tiptap, Lexical, Slate or CKEditor 5?
By our estimate (1 = easiest, 5 = steepest): Tiptap 3/5, Lexical 4/5, Slate 4/5, CKEditor 5 3/5. Tiptap and CKEditor 5 share the gentlest learning curve. This is ExploreGit's AI-assisted estimate, not a measured figure.
