Lightweight JavaScript WYSIWYG Editor
LiteEditor is a fast, minimal rich text editor in pure vanilla JS — no jQuery, no framework. A modern, lightweight alternative to TinyMCE and CKEditor for CMS and web apps, at just ~41 KB gzipped.
Free lifetime plan · No credit card · No build step · Works with any stack
Features
Everything you expect from a rich text editor
A vanilla JS WYSIWYG editor that stays small without cutting the features developers actually use.
Truly Lightweight
A minimal rich text editor at ~33 KB gzipped. No jQuery, no framework, zero runtime dependencies — the whole point of a lightweight WYSIWYG editor.
Iframe-Isolated Editing
Editing happens inside a sandboxed iframe, so the host page CSS never leaks into your content and vice versa. Cleaner output, fewer style surprises.
13 Built-in Plugins
Tables, image, media embed, links, lists, code samples, emoticons, character map, search & replace, word count, anchors, autolink and visual blocks.
Smart Responsive Images
Drag-to-resize image handles plus automatic migration of fixed-size images to responsive aspect-ratio markup, so content stays sharp on mobile.
Source & Clean HTML
Toggle a source-code view and get self-contained, portable HTML with inline styles on save — paste in from anywhere, sanitized on the way in.
Multiple Editors, One Line
Initialize every matching element with a single class selector. Each instance is independent, with a clean destroy() for SPA lifecycles.
Performance
Lightweight by design, fast by default
The entire editor — JavaScript and CSS — is about ~41 KB gzipped with 0 runtime dependencies. Nothing to tree-shake, no jQuery to ship, no framework to reconcile. Just add two files and initialize.
- 36.4 KB JavaScript + 4.3 KB CSS, gzipped
- No runtime dependencies — pure vanilla JavaScript
- Loads on demand; no render-blocking framework
- Editing isolated in an iframe for predictable performance
Comparison figures are approximate published core-bundle sizes; LiteEditor is measured from this release.
Comparison
A lightweight alternative to TinyMCE, CKEditor & Quill
Same everyday rich-text features — tables, media, images, code — at a fraction of the weight.
| Feature | LiteEditor | TinyMCE | CKEditor 5 | Quill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approx. gzipped size | ~41 KB | ~200 KB+ | ~150 KB+ | ~43 KB |
| Runtime dependencies | None | Bundled core | Bundled core | Bundled core |
| jQuery required | No | No | No | No |
| Drop-in via CDN (no build) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tables plugin included | Yes | Yes | Paid tier | Add-on |
| Media / video embed | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on |
| Source-code view | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Free plan for commercial use | Lifetime | Cloud tier | Paid | Yes |
Live demo
Try the WYSIWYG editor right here
This is the real LiteEditor, running in your browser. Format text, insert a table, embed media — then head to the full demo for more modes.
Installation
Add a rich text editor in under a minute
Drop in via CDN — no build step, no bundler config. Point liteeditor.init() at any textarea and you have a working editor.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.liteeditor.com/liteeditor/1.2.0/liteeditor.min.css">
<script src="https://cdn.liteeditor.com/liteeditor/1.2.0/liteeditor.min.js"></script>
<textarea id="editor"></textarea>
<script>
liteeditor.init({ selector: '#editor', apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
</script>Grab your free YOUR_API_KEY from the dashboard.
Free to start
Free lifetime plan — no credit card
Sign up, grab an API key, and ship. The free lifetime plan covers commercial use with the full editor and all 13 plugins. Upgrade only when you need more scale.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
LiteEditor is a lightweight JavaScript WYSIWYG editor written in vanilla JS with zero runtime dependencies. It is a minimal, no-jQuery rich text editor and a modern alternative to TinyMCE, CKEditor and Quill for CMS and web apps.
Ship a lightweight WYSIWYG editor today
Zero dependencies, ~41 KB gzipped, free lifetime plan. Try it now or read the docs.