Best JavaScript Rich Text Editors: Complete Guide for September 2025

You've likely spent hours comparing different rich text editors for your JavaScript project, only to realize that choosing the wrong one can completely derail your development timeline. The good news is that the JavaScript ecosystem has some incredible options in 2025, but the challenge is knowing which editor fits your specific needs.

Let's break down the top contenders so you can make the right choice for your project, and if you're looking to add document collaboration, we have some tips at the end.

TLDR:

• TinyMCE and CKEditor offer professional/enterprise features with pricing based on usage, starting around $75/month and going up for higher tiers or enterprise plans

• Free, open-source options like Quill, Lexical (React), and Tiptap (React/Vue) offer powerful alternatives to commercial editors.

• Most editors need additional collaboration infrastructure for comments and real-time features

• Choose based on budget, customization needs, and required collaboration features

What is a Rich Text Editor?

A rich text editor lets users format content with bold, italic, links, lists, images, and other elements without writing HTML code. Unlike plain text editors that only handle unformatted text, rich text editors provide a visual interface for creating formatted content.

These editors have evolved from traditional WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) solutions to framework-integrated components that work smoothly with React, Vue, and other JavaScript libraries. They use the browser's contentEditable API to allow direct text manipulation while maintaining clean HTML output.

Rich text editors are important for any app where users create content. Think blog posts, documentation, messaging apps, or collaborative documents. They bridge the gap between simple text inputs and complex content management systems.

Modern rich text editors often need collaboration features like real-time comments, presence indicators, and synchronization across multiple users to create truly engaging experiences.

Many developers choose an editor for its core functionality but later realize they need additional features like commenting systems or collaborative editing. That's where complete collaboration solutions become valuable.

TinyMCE JavaScript Rich Text Editor

TinyMCE is one of the most popular rich text editors, trusted by over 1.5 million developers with 350+ million downloads annually. It's an enterprise-grade solution that offers extensive customization and plugin support.

The editor integrates smoothly with React through the @tinymce/tinymce-react package. Installation is straightforward via npm, and the component provides props for configuration, event handling, and content management.

TinyMCE's pricing model charges based on "editor loads" (each time the editor initializes counts as one load). Paid plans start around $75/month depending on usage. For example, 100 users each loading the editor 10 times results in 1,000 editor loads, which can add up quickly in collaborative environments.

The editor shines with its plugin ecosystem. You get spell checking, image handling, table management, and advanced formatting options. The cloud service handles updates and CDN delivery, reducing your infrastructure overhead.

However, TinyMCE focuses primarily on the editing experience. For collaborative features like real-time comments or presence indicators, you'll need additional solutions. Many teams pair TinyMCE with collaboration SDKs to create complete editing environments.

CKEditor for React Applications

CKEditor 5 is a complete rewrite with TypeScript, MVC architecture, and native framework integrations. It's designed for enterprise applications that need strong editing features and collaborative tools.

The @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react package provides smooth React integration. The editor uses a custom data model and virtual DOM for performance, making it suitable for complex documents and real-time collaboration.

CKEditor's pricing starts at $144/month for the Essential plan and $405/month for Professional. Professional includes real-time collaboration (co-authoring, comments, track changes) and document conversion features. AI-assisted features are available as add-ons.

What sets CKEditor apart is its built-in collaboration features. Real-time editing, comments, and track changes come standard with paid plans. The editor handles conflict resolution and synchronization automatically.

But even with these features, many teams need additional collaboration infrastructure. Custom commenting systems or screen recording features often require specialized solutions that work alongside CKEditor's core functionality.

Quill and React Quill Integration

Quill has been used as the basis for editors at Slack, LinkedIn, Figma, Zoom, Miro, and Airtable (often with custom modifications). After years of minimal updates, Quill 2.0 launched in April 2024 with a TypeScript rewrite that fixed many long-standing issues.

The react-quill wrapper provides React integration, though several alternatives exist including react-quill-new and react-quilljs. Each wrapper offers different features and maintenance levels.

Quill's strength lies in its simplicity and performance. The API is intuitive, the bundle size is reasonable, and customization doesn't require deep framework knowledge. You can add custom formats, modify the toolbar, and handle content changes with minimal code.

The editor's delta format provides a clean way to represent document changes. This makes it easier to implement features like undo/redo, collaborative editing, and content versioning.

However, Quill's collaborative features are limited. While you can build real-time editing on top of deltas, most teams need additional infrastructure for features like contextual comments or document analytics.

Lexical Rich Text Editor

Lexical is Meta's answer to the limitations of Draft.js. Built from the ground up for performance and cross-device compatibility, it's optimized for React applications with TypeScript support.

The framework takes a different approach than traditional editors. Instead of manipulating the DOM directly, Lexical maintains an editor state that gets synced with the view layer. This provides better performance and more predictable behavior.

Lexical's plugin system allows for extensive customization without sacrificing performance. You can add custom nodes, modify editing behavior, and integrate with external systems while maintaining the editor's core stability.

The framework is particularly strong for applications that need custom editing experiences. Unlike editors with fixed feature sets, Lexical gives you the building blocks to create exactly what your users need.

Lexical works well for development tools and applications where the editing experience is a core differentiator.

Slate React Rich Text Editor

Slate provides complete control over the rich text editing experience and is used by teams like Discord, Grafana, and Sanity.io when they need fully custom behavior. It’s React-first, treating the editor as a controlled component, which makes state management predictable but comes with a steep learning curve.

Building a production-ready editor with Slate requires significant effort. You’ll need to implement basics like formatting and accessibility yourself but the payoff is an editor that works exactly how your application needs it to.

Editor.js Block Style Editor

Editor.js takes a different approach to rich text editing. Instead of treating content as formatted text, it organizes everything into discrete blocks: paragraphs, headings, images, lists, and quotes.

Each block is an independent contenteditable element provided by a plugin. The Editor.js core coordinates between blocks and provides the overall editing experience.

This architecture produces clean JSON output instead of HTML. Each block has a defined structure, making it easier to validate content, implement custom display, and integrate with APIs that expect structured data.

The plugin ecosystem covers most content types you'd need. Community plugins handle everything from code blocks to embedded media, and creating custom blocks is straightforward.

Editor.js works particularly well for content management systems and no-code tools where structured content is important. The block-based approach makes it easier to implement features like content templates and automated formatting.

Tiptap Headless Editor Framework

Tiptap builds on ProseMirror's reliability while providing a developer-friendly API. The MIT-licensed framework gives you complete control over the editor's appearance and behavior without sacrificing functionality.

The headless architecture means Tiptap handles editing logic while you control the UI. This approach provides maximum design flexibility, you can make the editor look exactly like your application without fighting against built-in styles.

Tiptap's React integration is excellent, with hooks and components that feel natural in React applications. The extension system allows for modular functionality, so you only include features your application needs.

The framework offers both open-source core functionality and Pro extensions for advanced features. This model lets you start free and upgrade when you need features like collaborative editing or advanced formatting.

Many developers choose Tiptap for its collaboration potential. The framework works well with commenting systems and provides integration examples for common collaboration scenarios.

Choosing the Right Editor for Your Project

The best rich text editor depends on your specific requirements, team expertise, and long-term goals. Here's a framework for making the decision:

Budget Considerations: TinyMCE and CKEditor charge based on usage, which can become expensive at scale. Quill, Lexical, Slate, Editor.js, and Tiptap offer free options with different feature sets.

Development Time: Quill and TinyMCE provide the fastest implementation. CKEditor offers enterprise features out of the box. Slate and Lexical require more development but offer complete customization.

Collaboration Needs: CKEditor includes collaborative editing in paid plans. Other editors typically need additional solutions for real-time features, comments, and presence indicators.

Framework Integration: All editors support React, but some integrate more naturally than others. Lexical and Slate are React-first, while others provide wrapper components.

Bundle Size and Performance: Quill and Tiptap offer smaller bundles. TinyMCE and CKEditor are feature-rich but larger. Lexical optimizes for performance in React applications.

Why Collaboration Features Matter (and How to Add Them)

Rich text editors excel at content creation and editing, but modern applications need collaborative features to create engaging user experiences. Real-time editing, contextual comments, presence indicators, and synchronization across multiple users require additional infrastructure.

Building these features from scratch involves complex challenges. You need WebSocket infrastructure for real-time communication, conflict resolution algorithms for simultaneous edits, and user management systems for permissions and presence.

Many teams start with change algorithms or CRDTs for synchronization, but these approaches require deep expertise and ongoing maintenance. The complexity multiplies when you add features like threaded comments, mentions, notifications, and audit trails.

The most successful collaborative editing implementations combine a great editor with purpose-built collaboration infrastructure rather than trying to build everything from scratch.

Complete collaboration solutions provide ready-to-use components that work with any JavaScript editor. Features like contextual comments, presence indicators, and real-time synchronization can be added with just a few lines of code.

FAQ

How do I choose between free and paid rich text editors?

Free editors like Quill, Lexical, and Tiptap work well for most projects, while paid options like TinyMCE and CKEditor provide enterprise features and support out of the box. Consider your budget, required features, and whether you need built-in collaboration tools when making this decision.

What's the difference between traditional WYSIWYG editors and modern JavaScript editors?

Traditional WYSIWYG editors were standalone components, while modern JavaScript editors integrate smoothly with frameworks like React and Vue. Modern editors also offer better performance, TypeScript support, and cleaner APIs for customization and state management.

Can I add real-time collaboration to any rich text editor?

Yes, but it requires additional infrastructure beyond the editor itself. Most editors focus on content creation and editing, so you'll need separate solutions for features like real-time synchronization, contextual comments, and presence indicators regardless of which editor you choose.

Many teams use open-source libraries like Yjs or build custom CRDT/WebSocket infrastructure to make editors collaborative, but that can take months. If you’d rather skip the backend work, Velt provides a ready-to-use collaboration layer that plugs into popular editors like Tiptap, Quill, Lexical, TinyMCE, and CKEditor.

When should I use a headless editor like Tiptap versus a complete solution like CKEditor?

Choose headless editors when you need complete design control and want the editor to feel native to your application. Choose complete solutions when you need enterprise features like built-in collaboration, document conversion, or AI integration without additional development effort.

Final thoughts on selecting JavaScript rich text editors

The JavaScript ecosystem offers excellent rich text editing options for every type of project. Whether you choose a free solution like Quill or Tiptap, or invest in enterprise features with CKEditor, success often depends on how well you handle collaboration beyond basic editing. Most teams find that complete document collaboration tools can change any editor into a fully collaborative experience without months of custom development.

Your users expect real-time features and smooth collaboration, and the right combination of editor and collaboration infrastructure makes that possible.
If you want to add presence indicators, comments, and real-time sync to any JavaScript editor without building the infrastructure yourself, Velt lets you add these features in minutes.