@ckeditor/ckeditor5-react vs draft-js vs react-quill
Rich Text Editors for React
@ckeditor/ckeditor5-reactdraft-jsreact-quillSimilar Packages:

Rich Text Editors for React

Rich text editors are web-based text editing tools that allow users to format text, insert images, create lists, and perform other content editing tasks directly within a web application. Unlike simple text areas, rich text editors provide a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface, enabling users to see how their formatted content will appear in real time. These editors are commonly used in content management systems, blogging platforms, and any application that requires user-generated content with advanced formatting capabilities. @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react is a modern, highly customizable rich text editor built on the CKEditor 5 framework, offering a wide range of features, plugins, and a modular architecture. It provides excellent support for collaborative editing, real-time collaboration, and is designed for accessibility and internationalization. draft-js is a framework for building rich text editors in React, developed by Facebook. It provides a set of APIs and components for creating highly customizable editors with support for inline styles, block types, and custom content. react-quill is a React wrapper for the Quill rich text editor, known for its simplicity and ease of use. It offers a clean API, lightweight design, and supports basic formatting, custom themes, and modules, making it a great choice for projects that need a straightforward yet powerful editing solution.

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@ckeditor/ckeditor5-react0462412 kB8015 days agoSEE LICENSE IN LICENSE.md
draft-js022,683-9546 years agoMIT
react-quill07,016405 kB431-MIT

Feature Comparison: @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react vs draft-js vs react-quill

Customization and Extensibility

  • @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react:

    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react offers extensive customization options, including the ability to create custom plugins, toolbar configurations, and themes. Its modular architecture allows developers to include only the features they need, making it highly extensible.

  • draft-js:

    draft-js provides a high level of customization, allowing developers to define their own content models, styling, and behavior. It is designed to be flexible, enabling the creation of unique editing experiences, but requires more effort to implement advanced features.

  • react-quill:

    react-quill allows for some customization, particularly in terms of toolbar configuration and styling. However, it is more limited compared to CKEditor and Draft.js in terms of extensibility, making it less suitable for highly specialized use cases.

Collaboration Features

  • @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react:

    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react includes built-in support for real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to edit the same document simultaneously. This feature is particularly useful for team environments and applications that require collaborative content creation.

  • draft-js:

    draft-js does not provide built-in collaboration features, but its architecture allows developers to implement custom solutions for real-time editing and collaboration if needed. This requires additional development work and integration with external services.

  • react-quill:

    react-quill does not have native support for collaboration. However, developers can implement collaborative features using third-party libraries or by integrating with real-time databases, but this would require additional coding and setup.

Ease of Integration

  • @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react:

    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react is relatively easy to integrate into React applications, especially with its well-documented API and examples. However, its extensive feature set may require some time to configure and customize according to specific needs.

  • draft-js:

    draft-js is designed for seamless integration with React, but its flexibility and customization capabilities may require a steeper learning curve for developers who want to fully leverage its potential. The documentation is thorough, but building a fully-featured editor can be time-consuming.

  • react-quill:

    react-quill is very easy to integrate into React projects, thanks to its simple API and lightweight nature. It requires minimal setup, making it a great choice for developers who need to add rich text editing capabilities quickly.

Code Example

  • @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react:

    @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react Example

    import React from 'react';
    import { CKEditor } from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-react';
    import ClassicEditor from '@ckeditor/ckeditor5-build-classic';
    
    const MyEditor = () => {
        return (
            <CKEditor
                editor={ClassicEditor}
                data="<p>Hello, world!</p>"
                onReady={editor => {
                    // You can store the editor instance and use it later if needed.
                    console.log('Editor is ready to use!', editor);
                }}
                onChange={(event, editor) => {
                    const data = editor.getData();
                    console.log({ data });
                }}
                onBlur={(event, editor) => {
                    console.log('Blur.', editor);
                }}
                onFocus={(event, editor) => {
                    console.log('Focus.', editor);
                }}
            />
        );
    };
    
    export default MyEditor;
    
  • draft-js:

    draft-js Example

    import React, { useState } from 'react';
    import { Editor, EditorState } from 'draft-js';
    import 'draft-js/dist/Draft.css'; // Import default styles
    
    const MyDraftEditor = () => {
        const [editorState, setEditorState] = useState(EditorState.createEmpty());
    
        const handleEditorStateChange = (state) => {
            setEditorState(state);
        };
    
        return (
            <div>
                <Editor
                    editorState={editorState}
                    onEditorStateChange={handleEditorStateChange}
                    placeholder="Type something..."
                />
            </div>
        );
    };
    
    export default MyDraftEditor;
    
  • react-quill:

    react-quill Example

    import React, { useState } from 'react';
    import ReactQuill from 'react-quill';
    import 'react-quill/dist/quill.snow.css'; // Import Quill styles
    
    const MyQuillEditor = () => {
        const [value, setValue] = useState('<p>Hello, world!</p>');
    
        return (
            <div>
                <ReactQuill 
                    value={value} 
                    onChange={setValue} 
                    theme="snow" 
                />
            </div>
        );
    };
    
    export default MyQuillEditor;
    

How to Choose: @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react vs draft-js vs react-quill

  • @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react:

    Choose @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react if you need a feature-rich, highly customizable editor with built-in support for collaboration, advanced formatting, and a wide range of plugins. It is suitable for enterprise-level applications where flexibility and extensibility are important.

  • draft-js:

    Choose draft-js if you want complete control over the editor's behavior and appearance. It is ideal for developers who need to create a highly customized editing experience and are comfortable building out features like toolbars and formatting options from scratch.

  • react-quill:

    Choose react-quill if you need a lightweight, easy-to-integrate editor with a good balance of features and simplicity. It is perfect for projects that require basic rich text editing capabilities without the overhead of a large library.

README for @ckeditor/ckeditor5-react

CKEditor 5 rich text editor component for React

npm version CircleCI Coverage Status Dependency Status

Official CKEditor 5 rich text editor component for React.

Developer Documentation 📖

See the "Rich text editor component for React" guide in the CKEditor 5 documentation to learn more:

Contributing

[!NOTE] This project requires pnpm v10 or higher. You can check your version with pnpm --version and update if needed with npm install -g pnpm@latest.

After cloning this repository, install necessary dependencies:

pnpm install

Running the development server

To manually test the editor integration with different versions of React, you can start the development server using one of the commands below:

pnpm run dev:16 # Open the demo projects using React 16.
pnpm run dev:18 # Open the demo projects using React 18.
pnpm run dev:19 # Open the demo projects using React 19.

Executing tests

To test the editor integration against a set of automated tests, run the following command:

pnpm run test

If you want to run the tests in watch mode, use the following command:

pnpm run test:watch

Building the package

To build the package that is ready to publish, use the following command:

pnpm run build

Releasing package

CircleCI automates the release process and can release both channels: stable (X.Y.Z) and pre-releases (X.Y.Z-alpha.X, etc.).

Before you start, you need to prepare the changelog entries.

  1. Make sure the #master branch is up-to-date: git fetch && git checkout master && git pull.
  2. Prepare a release branch: git checkout -b release-[YYYYMMDD] where YYYYMMDD is the current day.
  3. Generate the changelog entries: pnpm run release:prepare-changelog.
    • You can specify the release date by passing the --date option, e.g., --date=2025-06-11.
    • By passing the --dry-run option, you can check what the script will do without actually modifying the files.
    • Read all the entries, correct poor wording and other issues, wrap code names in backticks to format them, etc.
    • Add the missing the/a articles, () to method names, "it's" -> "its", etc.
    • A newly introduced feature should have just one changelog entry – something like "The initial implementation of the FOO feature." with a description of what it does.
  4. Commit all changes and prepare a new pull request targeting the #master branch.
  5. Ping the @ckeditor/ckeditor-5-platform team to review the pull request and trigger the release process.

License

Licensed under a dual-license model, this software is available under:

For more information, see: https://ckeditor.com/legal/ckeditor-licensing-options.