W3Avenue

If you are developing a customized content management system for a website, blog, wiki, social network or any other web based application, your choice of HTML editor is going to have a major impact on success of your project.

Even if you are already comfortable with an HTML editor, you should be aware of alternatives that may be more suitable for a specific project or audience. Following is a list of free web based editors to help you choose best solution for your next CMS project.

WYSIWYG Editors

• CKEditor
  One of the strongest features in CKEditor is its almost unlimited compatibility. It’s a JavaScript application, so it simply works with all server technologies, just like a simple textarea. In the browser side instead, it has been developed to be compatible with the browsers that dominate the market, namely Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera. Even the old Internet Explorer 6 is compatible with.
• TinyMCE
  TinyMCE is a platform independent web based JavaScript HTML WYSIWYG editor that converts HTML TEXTAREA fields or other HTML elements to editor instances. TinyMCE is very easy to integrate into other Content Management Systems.
• WYMeditor
  WYMeditor is a web-based WYSIWYM editor, created to generate perfectly structured XHTML strict code that conforms to the W3C XHTML specifications. WYMeditor is dual licensed under the Open Source MIT and GPL licenses.
• jWYSIWYG
  This jQuery plugin is an inline content editor to allow editing rich HTML content on the fly. It’s an alternative to WYMeditor with much less features. The main concept is to keep it simple, not all users need font coloring or create tables, just the basic.
• TinyEditor
  simple JavaScript WYSIWYG editor that is both lightweight (8KB) and standalone. It handles most of the basic formatting needs and has some functionality built in to help keep the rendered markup as clean as possible.
• NicEdit
  NicEdit is a Lightweight, Cross Platform, Inline Content Editor to allow easy editing of web site content on the fly in the browser. NicEdit JavaScript integrates into any site in seconds to make any element/div editable or convert standard textareas to rich text editing.
• jHtmlArea
  A simple, light weight, extensible WYSIWYG HTML Editor built on top of jQuery. This component allows you to easily display a WYSIWYG HTML Editor in place of any TextArea DOM Elements on the page.
• MooEditable
  A simple web-based WYSIWYG editor, written in MooTools.
• MooRTE
  The Mootools Rich Text Editor.
• YUI Rich Text Editor
  YUI Rich Text Editor is highly customizable editor that works great with YUI library. The Rich Text Editor’s toolbar is extensible via a plugin architecture so that advanced implementations can achieve a high degree of customization.
• Xinha
  Xinha is a powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor component that works in all current browsers. Its configurability and extensibility make it easy to build just the right editor for multiple purposes, from a restricted mini-editor for one database field to a full-fledged website editor. Its liberal, BSD license makes it an ideal candidate for integration into any kind of project.
• openWYSIWYG
  openWYSIWYG is a free cross-browser WYSIWYG editor that’s packed with rich-text editing feature you need to make your content management system.
• Free Rich Text Editor
  Free Rich Text Editor is an easy to use FREE JavaScript based HTML WYSIWYG editor for your website, it can easily be implemented into any existing content management system or other web application with no knowledge required in programming or JavaScript. Only 3 lines of code required to set up the editor.
• Wyzz
  Wyzz is an ultra-small, very light WYSIWYG editor for use in your web applications. It’s written in JavaScript, and is free for you to use in your web applications and/or alter to your needs.
• widgEditor
  widgEditor is a browser-based JavaScript WYSIWYG editor for HTML content. It is designed to be simple to use, have a small code footprint, and produce valid, semantic code.

Markup / Markdown Editors

• markItUp
  markItUp! is a JavaScript plugin built on the jQuery library. It allows you to turn any textarea into a markup editor. Html, Textile, Wiki Syntax, Markdown, BBcode or even your own Markup system can be easily implemented.
• WMD: The WYSIWYM Markdown Editor
  WMD is a simple, lightweight HTML editor for blog comments, forum posts, and basic content management. You can add WMD to any textarea with one line of code. Add live preview with one line more. WMD works in nearly all modern browsers, and is completely free to use.
• SmartMarkUP
  SmartMarkUP is a lightweight and powerful JavaScript library that allows you to turn any textarea into a fancy markup editor. HTML, CSS, XML, Wiki syntax, BBCode or any other desired markup language can be implemented and/or adjusted to your preferences and business needs.