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

List of source code editors

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
Visual Studio Code (with Monaco as the open source engine)	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 Archived 2010-08-26 at the Wayback Machine , 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 Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine	?	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 Demo	2023-05	plain textarea	Free	MIT	Yes	Firefox 3.5+, Safari 4+, Chrome, IE 8+, Opera 11.5+	Yes

List of features

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.

List of source code editor features

Feature	Ace	CodeMirror	CodeJar	Orion	CodePress	CodeTextArea	EditArea	Helene	markItUp!	MDK-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

• Comparison of online source code playgrounds
• HTML editor

References

1. CodeMirror supported browsers
2. Orion supported browsers
3. "markItUp! Universal Markup jQuery Editor". Markitup.jaysalvat.com. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
4. EditArea compatibility chart
5. "Code Folding Demo". CodeMirror. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
6. "Orion 0.3 M2 – New and Noteworthy | Orion News". Planetorion.org. 2011-09-26. Archived from the original on 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2013-06-14.