jq vs JSONZen

jq is a free command-line processor for selecting and transforming JSON data. A jq filter takes an input and produces output; filters can be combined to access nested attributes, construct objects, gather results into arrays, or make other transformations. It reads whitespace-separated JSON values and writes serialized results separated by whitespace. Each expression runs on each input value and may produce zero or more outputs. For very large inputs, the --stream option parses incrementally. Output options include compact, raw, ASCII, sorted-key, and colored forms. Written in portable C, jq has no runtime dependencies, and a standalone binary can be copied to another machine of the same type. Standalone executables are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with packages listed for Linux distributions and package managers including Homebrew, MacPorts, winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey. A Docker image is also available. Release binaries have SHA-256 checksums, and signed release artifacts use jq release keys. The code is licensed under MIT; the documentation uses CC-BY-3.0.

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.