Comparison of JavaScript-based source code editors
This article provides basic feature comparison between some of the JavaScript-based source code editors available today.
Overview[edit]
| Editor | Site | Latest version | Style, clone of | Cost (US$) | Software license | Open source | Browser support | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | Home, demo | v1.4.12, 2020-7 | Sublime Text / Microsoft Visual Studio | Free | New BSD License | Yes | Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome, IE 8+, Opera 11.5+ | Yes |
| Atom | Home | v1.50.0-beta0, 2020-07-14 | Emacs, Vim and others | Free | Dual | Yes | Chrome | No |
| CodeMirror | Home, demo | 5.59.1, 2020-12-31 | plain textarea | Free | MIT-like | Yes | Firefox 3+, Chrome, Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 8+, Opera 9+[1] | Yes |
| CodeJar | Home, demo | 1.0.2, 2020-04-05 | plain textarea | Free | MIT | Yes | Firefox 3+, Chrome, Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 8+, Opera 9+ | Yes |
| Codeanywhere | Home | 6.0 | SublimeText | - | Public Cloud | No | Firefox 3+, Chrome, Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 8+, Opera 9+ | Yes |
| Codenvy Editor | Home | 2.10.17, 2014-01-17 | Eclipse | - | Public Cloud | Yes | Firefox 3+, Chrome, Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 8+, Opera 9+ | Yes |
| Orion | Home | 22.0, 2020-04-03. | Eclipse SWT StyledText, regular textarea | Free | dual-licensed: BSD 3-clause and EPL | Yes | Firefox 37+, Chrome 40+, Safari7+, Internet Explorer 11+[2] | No |
| Monaco (Visual Studio Code) | Home, demo | 0.31.1, 2021-12-14 | Visual Studio Code | Free | MIT | Yes | IE8+, Firefox 4+, Chrome | Yes |
| Markitup | Home, demo | 1.1.14, 2013-02-04 | Markup editor, no syntax highlight | Free | MIT, GPL | Yes | IE 6 & 7, Firefox 2 & 3, Safari 3.1, Opera 9+[3] | No |
| LDT | Home | 2012-02-19 | regular textarea | Free | MIT, GPL | Yes | Firefox 3.6+, IE8, Chromium 16, Midori 4.1, Opera 11, Epiphany | No |
| Ymacs | Home Archived 2011-02-10 at the Wayback Machine, demo Archived 2011-03-01 at the Wayback Machine | 0.5, 2012-03-28 | Emacs | Free | BSD | Yes | Firefox, Chrome, Safari | No |
| CodePress | Home | 0.9.6, 2007-09-26 | Microsoft Visual Studio | Free | LGPL | Yes | ? | No |
| CodeTextArea | Home, demo | 2009-06 | Microsoft Visual Studio | Free | BSD | Yes | Dojo widget | No |
| EditArea | Home, demo | 0.8.2, 2010-01-14 | Microsoft Visual Studio | Free | LGPL | Yes | IE 6+, Firefox 1.5+, Safari 3+, Opera 9+, Chrome[4] | No |
| Helene | Home, demo | 0.9, unknown release date | Microsoft Visual Studio | Free | GPL | Yes | No | |
| 9ne | Home | ? | Emacs | Free | GPL | Yes | No | |
| jsvi | Home | ? | vi | Free | GPL | Yes | No | |
| MDK-Editor | Home | 2.10, 2008 | Microsoft Visual Studio | Depends on use | Dual | Code is readable | tested to work on: IE 6, 7 - Firefox 2, 3 - Chrome | No |
| Micro | Home | 2013 | nano | Free | GPL | Yes | No | |
| HirenJS Code Editor | Home | 2023-05 | plain textarea | Free | MIT | Yes | Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome, IE 8+, Opera 11.5+ | Yes |
List of features[edit]
Feature testing was performed with Firefox 3.0.6 against the current demo version, and results may not match those in other browsers or downloadable versions.
| Feature | Ace | CodeMirror | CodeJar | Orion | CodePress | CodeTextArea | EditArea | Helene | markItUp! | MDK-Editor | Monaco Editor (Visual Studio Code) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation | nestable full parsers | pattern-based parser | pattern-based parser | parsers | |||||||
| Syntax highlight | Over 110 languages | 129 languages | Yes | mixed mode: HTML + JavaScript and CSS, PHP, EJS; single mode: JavaScript, Java, JSON, CSS, Python, Ruby, XML, YAML (pluggable) | limited mixed mode: HTML + JavaScript (no CSS), PHP + HTML (no JavaScript or CSS), Java, Perl, SQL | only keywords | only one language at a time: Perl, PHP, CSS, Javascript, Python, HTML, XML, VB, C, CPP, SQL, Pascal, Basic, Brainf*ck | PHP | No | mixed mode: PHP + HTML + JavaScript + CSS, single-mode: PHP, Javascript, CSS, XML; extensible | Hundreds of languages |
| Syntax checking | HTML, CSS, JavaScript (using JSHint) | Some | No | JavaScript (using JSLint) | No | No | HTML, JavaScript (using JSLint) | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript | |||
| Tab support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Indent, new line keeps level | optional setting that is on by default | Yes | Yes | Yes | very limited | No | Yes | N/A (can't press Enter) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Indent, syntax | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ||||
| Indent, selected block | yes, including Shift+Tab | either automatically, or block-level indent/unindent | Yes | yes, including Shift+Tab | No | yes, including Shift+Tab | yes, including Shift+Tab and using context menu | yes, including Shift+Tab | |||
| Bracket matching | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | an implementation exists with mouse-hover bracket matching [citation needed] | Ctrl+B; no angle bracket matching | No | matching bracket ([{<>}]) always highlighted | Yes | ||
| XML matching tag highlight | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Code folding | Yes | Yes[5] | No | Some[6] | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Code snippets | Yes | through API/add-on | Some | type 'for' or 'if' then Tab | No | Yes | No | Yes | JavaScript | ||
| Code suggestion | Yes | example | Yes through esprima content assist plugin | No | yes[citation needed] | No | CSS, HTML, JavaScript) | Yes | |||
| Toggle syntax highlight on/off | Yes | Yes | No | last example in demo | N/A | textmode | |||||
| Keyboard shortcuts | All Common Shortcuts & Custom Keybindings | fully configurable | Yes | some common used: Ctrl+f, Ctrl+g,Ctrl+z,Ctrl+y | Yes | All key combos (except F1 in IE7) can be bound to shortcuts | Yes | ||||
| Line numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | supports mouse selection | Yes |
| Search & replace | regex supported | via API | No | Yes | No | toolbar button | has API for the studio | Yes | |||
| Spell checking | addon for context menu | No | No | No | browser-based | none | browser-based | none | browser-based | No | |
| Toolbar | But command line console | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | ||
| Visual styling | Fully theme-able | CSS-based themes | Yes | Yes | font-type and font-size | 5 styles to choose from, having 2 font-sizes | Yes | ||||
| Undo/Redo | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Differential Undo | Yes | |||
| Multiple cursors / Block selection | Multiple cursors | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| IndentGuides | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| Inline widgets | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
| Non US charset support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||||||
| Diff editor | Yes |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ CodeMirror supported browsers
- ^ Orion supported browsers
- ^ "markItUp! Universal Markup jQuery Editor". Markitup.jaysalvat.com. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
- ^ EditArea compatibility chart
- ^ "Code Folding Demo". CodeMirror. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
- ^ "Orion 0.3 M2 – New and Noteworthy | Orion News". Planetorion.org. 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2013-06-14.