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 Yes
CodeMirror Home, demo 5.56.0, 2020-07-20 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] Yes
Monaco Editor Home, demo 0.20.0, 2020-02-11 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] Some
LDT Home 2012-02-19 regular textarea Free MIT, GPL Yes Firefox 3.6+, IE8, Chromium 16, Midori 4.1, Opera 11, Epiphany Some
Ymacs Home, demo 0.5, 2012-03-28 Emacs Free BSD Yes Firefox, Chrome, Safari Some
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 Yes
Micro Home 2013 nano Free GPL Yes Some

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
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
Syntax checking HTML, CSS, JavaScript (using JSHint) Some No JavaScript (using JSLint) No No HTML, JavaScript (using JSLint)
Tab support Yes Yes Yes Yes Some 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
Indent, syntax Yes Yes Yes Yes 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
Bracket matching Yes Yes No Yes an implementation exists with mouse-hover bracket matching Ctrl+B; no angle bracket matching No matching bracket ([{<>}]) always highlighted
XML matching tag highlight Yes Yes No No No Yes
Code folding Yes Yes[5] No Some[6] No No No No No No
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 No CSS, HTML, JavaScript)
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
Line numbers Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No supports mouse selection
Search & replace regex supported via API No Yes No toolbar button has API for the studio
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
Undo/Redo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Differential Undo
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
gollark: People should probably consider privacy more seriously than most actually *do*, at least. A lot of people say they care a bit but then ignore it.
gollark: <@126590786945941504> Maybe they should.
gollark: What makes them better than the advertising companies then?
gollark: I am leaving off the second half so as not to fill more than a screen or so.
gollark: No, Richard, it's 'Linux', not 'GNU/Linux'. The most important contributions that the FSF made to Linux were the creation of the GPL and the GCC compiler. Those are fine and inspired products. GCC is a monumental achievement and has earned you, RMS, and the Free Software Foundation countless kudos and much appreciation.Following are some reasons for you to mull over, including some already answered in your FAQ.One guy, Linus Torvalds, used GCC to make his operating system (yes, Linux is an OS -- more on this later). He named it 'Linux' with a little help from his friends. Why doesn't he call it GNU/Linux? Because he wrote it, with more help from his friends, not you. You named your stuff, I named my stuff -- including the software I wrote using GCC -- and Linus named his stuff. The proper name is Linux because Linus Torvalds says so. Linus has spoken. Accept his authority. To do otherwise is to become a nag. You don't want to be known as a nag, do you?(An operating system) != (a distribution). Linux is an operating system. By my definition, an operating system is that software which provides and limits access to hardware resources on a computer. That definition applies whereever you see Linux in use. However, Linux is usually distributed with a collection of utilities and applications to make it easily configurable as a desktop system, a server, a development box, or a graphics workstation, or whatever the user needs. In such a configuration, we have a Linux (based) distribution. Therein lies your strongest argument for the unwieldy title 'GNU/Linux' (when said bundled software is largely from the FSF). Go bug the distribution makers on that one. Take your beef to Red Hat, Mandrake, and Slackware. At least there you have an argument. Linux alone is an operating system that can be used in various applications without any GNU software whatsoever. Embedded applications come to mind as an obvious example.

See also

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. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
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