gojq vs JSONZen

gojq is a free, MIT-licensed Go implementation of the jq command, with a library for embedding queries in Go products. The command-line tool applies jq-style queries to JSON, including filtering, field selection, updates, and multiple input values. It reads YAML and can produce YAML output. Integer arithmetic uses arbitrary precision for addition, subtraction, multiplication, modulo, and divisible division. The project describes gojq as portable and supports Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use. Documented installation routes include Homebrew, mise, Zero Install, source builds, and Docker images. Go applications can parse and run queries, compile them for reuse, and configure custom functions and iterators. Environment-variable access and module loading are disabled by default for library queries and require configured loaders. gojq does not preserve object key order and lacks some jq extensions, flags, functions, and regular-expression behavior.

JSONZen is a browser toolkit for formatting, validating, comparing, querying and converting JSON. Its tools also include minification, a tree view, JWT decoding and code generation for TypeScript, Zod, Pydantic v2 and JSON Schema. The site says core tools run in the browser and require no signup. Validation supports JSON Schema drafts 07, 2019-09 and 2020-12, with errors reported by path. Queries can use JSONPath and JMESPath; jq querying is listed as a Pro tool. Share links place their payload in the URL fragment rather than on JSONZen’s servers. Free share links allow up to 32 KB, and Free users can store three snippets locally per browser. Pro adds encrypted cloud-synced snippets, with manual syncing per snippet and a 2 MiB ciphertext limit per snippet. The listed Free plan is free, billed Forever. Pro is listed at $1.00 USD once for 30 days as a launch promotion, with no auto-charge; the pricing note lists paid plans from $5/mo. The CLI is included free.