Editor.js

What Is Editor.js?

Editor.js is a revolutionary block-style text editor that transforms how developers handle content creation. Unlike traditional WYSIWYG editors that output bloated HTML markup, Editor.js delivers clean, structured JSON data that can be rendered anywhere—from web applications to mobile apps, voice assistants, and AI chatbots.

Created by the CodeX Team, this open-source editor has earned over 31,000 GitHub stars for good reason. It treats every piece of content as an independent block, giving developers unprecedented flexibility in how they structure, store, and display content.

The Block-Based Revolution

Traditional rich text editors generate messy HTML that becomes a nightmare to parse, sanitize, and adapt for different platforms. Editor.js takes a fundamentally different approach with its block-style architecture.

Every element in your content—paragraphs, headings, images, lists, quotes, code blocks, tables—exists as a separate, self-contained block. Each block is powered by a plugin, making the entire system incredibly modular and extensible.

Key Features That Set Editor.js Apart

Clean JSON Output Format

The most compelling advantage of Editor.js is its clean JSON output. Instead of generating complex HTML, you get structured data that looks like this:

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "paragraph",
      "data": { "text": "Your content here" }
    }
  ]
}

This approach provides several critical benefits:

• Platform agnostic: Render the same data on web, iOS, Android, or any platform
• Easy sanitization: No HTML injection vulnerabilities to worry about
• Simple parsing: Work with structured data instead of regex nightmare
• Future-proof: Add new block types without breaking existing content
• API-friendly: Perfect for headless CMS architectures

Plugin-Powered Flexibility

Editor.js ships with only the Paragraph block by default, keeping the core lightweight. Everything else—headers, images, lists, tables, code blocks—comes from separate plugins.

This modular design means you only load what you need. Building a simple blog? Add just the basics. Need advanced features? Install plugins for:

• Embed blocks for YouTube, Twitter, Instagram
• Gallery blocks for image collections
• Code blocks with syntax highlighting
• Mermaid diagrams for flowcharts
• Table blocks for structured data
• Warning/Alert blocks for callouts

The awesome-editorjs repository showcases dozens of community-created tools.

Developer-Friendly API

Editor.js provides an intuitive API that makes implementation straightforward. Getting started takes just a few lines of code:

import EditorJS from "@editorjs/editorjs";

const editor = new EditorJS({
  holder: "editorjs",
  tools: {
    header: Header,
    list: List,
    image: Image
  }
});

The API also supports programmatic content manipulation, inline formatting tools, and Block Tunes—additional options you can attach to any block type.

Real-World Applications and Use Cases

Editor.js shines in scenarios where content needs to live across multiple platforms. Here are proven use cases:

Content Management Systems

Build headless CMS solutions where content creators use Editor.js while your application renders the JSON data however needed. Projects like Frappe Framework, Automad CMS, and CodeX Docs rely on Editor.js for their content pipelines.

Multi-Platform Publishing

Create once, publish everywhere. The JSON output can be:

• Rendered as HTML for web browsers with tools like Next.js
• Converted to native UI components for mobile apps
• Transformed into Markdown for documentation
• Parsed for voice readers and accessibility tools
• Fed to AI systems for content analysis

Modern Development Workflows

Editor.js integrates seamlessly with modern development stacks. Use it with:

• TypeScript for type safety (90% of Editor.js is written in TypeScript)
• React, Vue, Angular through community wrappers
• API-first architectures alongside Supabase or other backends
• Static site generators for build-time rendering

Editor.js vs Other Rich Text Editors

What Makes It Different

Traditional WYSIWYG editors like TinyMCE or CKEditor output HTML directly. This creates tight coupling between content and presentation.

Block-based editors like Editor.js, Notion, and Gutenberg separate content structure from visual styling. Editor.js takes this furthest with its JSON-first approach.

Key Advantages

Considerations

Editor.js currently lacks built-in collaborative editing support. While there are community attempts at integrating Yjs for real-time collaboration, this isn't part of the core product yet.

The plugin-based approach also means you'll need to install and configure tools manually—there's no "batteries included" option for a fully-featured editor out of the box.

Getting Started with Editor.js

Installation

Install via npm for modern JavaScript projects:

npm install @editorjs/editorjs

Or include via CDN for quick prototyping:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@editorjs/editorjs@latest"></script>

Basic Implementation

1. Create a container in your HTML:

<div id="editorjs"></div>

2. Initialize the editor with your preferred tools:

import EditorJS from "@editorjs/editorjs";
import Header from "@editorjs/header";

const editor = new EditorJS({
  holder: "editorjs",
  tools: { header: Header }
});

3. Save and retrieve data:

editor.save().then((outputData) => {
  console.log(outputData); // Clean JSON
});

Check the official documentation for comprehensive tutorials covering React, Angular, and Vue integrations.

Who Should Use Editor.js?

Perfect For

• API-first applications needing structured content
• Multi-platform products (web + mobile + voice)
• Headless CMS projects requiring content flexibility
• Developer-focused tools where customization matters
• Modern JAMstack sites with Netlify or Vercel

Consider Alternatives If

• You need real-time collaboration out of the box
• You want a fully-featured editor with zero configuration
• Your team prefers traditional WYSIWYG interfaces
• You require extensive enterprise support

The Open Source Advantage

Editor.js is completely free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license. The project is maintained by CodeX, a nonprofit team committed to building high-quality developer tools.

With 79+ contributors and an active community, Editor.js continues evolving. The roadmap includes improvements to the plugin ecosystem, unified toolbars, and better collaboration features.

For developers seeking a modern, flexible, API-first editor that prioritizes clean data over presentation, Editor.js represents the future of content editing. It pairs perfectly with modern development tools like Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and Supabase to create powerful content management workflows.

The question isn't whether you should try Editor.js—it's whether your current editor is holding your application back.