BlockNote vs Trix
BlockNote
blocknotejs.orgTrix
trix-editor.orgSide by side
| Figure | BlockNote | Trix |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $195/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Rich Text Editor Software | 8.3 (#8) | 7.5 (#21) |
| Customization | Developers can create custom block types, customize menus, or build their own UI from scratch. | Developers can customize the toolbar and add external actions through editor events and data attributes. |
| Maker | The about page says BlockNote is developed by engineers led by Matthew Lipski, Nick Perez, and Yousef El-Dardiry. | Trix is made by 37signals, the creators of Ruby on Rails. |
Plans
In their own words
BlockNote
BlockNote is an open-source rich-text editor for developers adding document editing to web applications. It is suited to knowledge bases, note-taking apps, document editors, and internal tools, with a ready-made animated interface and block-based documents to start from. Developers can add custom block types, change menus, or build a UI from scratch. The editor is built on ProseMirror and TipTap; real-time collaboration uses Yjs, with providers including Liveblocks, PartyKit, Y-Sweet, Hocuspocus, y-websocket, and y-webrtc. Documentation lists y-indexeddb for offline storage. BlockNote imports and exports its JSON format and HTML, while conversions to standard HTML and Markdown are marked lossy. XL packages add AI integration, multi-column layouts, and exports to PDF, DOCX, ODT, and email. They are free for open-source projects under GPL-3.0; closed-source use requires a commercial license. The Community plan is free, and Business is $195 a month, billed yearly. It runs self-hosted or on the web.
Trix
Trix is a free, open-source WYSIWYG editor for composing messages, comments, articles, and lists in web applications. It uses an internal document model that turns editing into operations and renders the result as terse, consistent HTML. Default formatting covers bold, italic, links, strikethrough, headings, quotes, code, and bulleted or numbered lists. Users can drop or paste files; the host application must upload them and supply permanent URLs. GIF, PNG, WebP, JPG, and JPEG attachments receive automatic previews. Trix supports unlimited undo and redo, form integration through a changing hidden input, and toolbar customization through events and data attributes. It sanitizes content with DOMPurify, while its documentation warns that directly inserted untrusted HTML can execute before sanitization. The editor supports accessible names through label, aria-label, and aria-labelledby attributes. It runs in evergreen desktop and mobile browsers and is available through npm, npm CDN, ESM, and UMD.