jless vs JSONZen

jless is a free command-line viewer for reading and exploring JSON and YAML on macOS and Linux. It formats JSON with indentation and syntax highlighting, and lets users open or close objects and arrays using vim-inspired commands. Search supports both full-text and regular-expression queries. jless reads files or standard input, including newline-delimited JSON; it can detect YAML from a file extension or read it with the --yaml flag. YAML comments and anchors are not shown. Users can copy values, keys, and paths to the system clipboard, or print them in the terminal, including a jq-style path for the focused node. It does not provide jq querying. Data mode gives a streamlined view, while line mode shows formatted JSON. Installation choices include Homebrew, MacPorts, Linux package managers, Cargo, downloadable binaries, and building from source with Rust. The project is MIT-licensed and available as a standalone binary. Its maker suggests it for exploring external APIs or debugging request payloads.

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.