regex101 vs RegexPilot

regex101 is an online workspace for building, testing and debugging regular expressions. Its editor supports PCRE2, JavaScript, Python, Golang, Java,.NET 10.0, Rust, POSIX ERE, POSIX BRE and legacy PCRE. Explanations show how parts of a pattern match according to the selected flavor, and a step-through debugger helps follow matching. Match results can be exported as JSON, JSON Lines, CSV or plain text. Developer options include HTTP APIs, an MCP server, editor links and a separately licensed parser package. The workspace API stores editor data but does not provide a remote matching endpoint. File loaders read text, bytes and supported documents locally in the browser; saving or sharing workspace input can send it to the workspace service. Free includes core tools, one test string and saved workspaces with an account. Pro costs €4.99 a month, billed yearly, and adds multiple test strings, substitution pipelines, advanced benchmarking, formatting and an ad-free workspace. Enterprise is a self-hosted option with documented deployment on Linux using Docker Compose, MySQL and Redis.

RegexPilot is a Mac-native visual regular-expression builder with AI for composing, inspecting and testing patterns. Users assemble expressions from categorized drag-and-drop blocks, inspect them in a panel and follow a plain-English breakdown tree linked to the pattern. Sample text shows highlighted matches and capture groups, and replacements can be assembled from blocks. The product supports 21 regex flavors and routes patterns to the corresponding language engines. Users can provide API keys for listed AI providers or run AI offline with LM Studio, Ollama, llama.cpp or LocalAI. Its library includes 50 curated patterns and supports folders, tags and JSON import/export. A VS Code extension synchronizes changes between the app and regex literals in the editor. Users can export code for 21 languages, create SVG or PNG railroad diagrams and make browser-openable share links. The desktop app says it sends no usage statistics, telemetry or analytics to a server on its own; patterns and settings remain on-device unless a share link is created. It requires macOS 14 or newer. The free plan covers JavaScript and TypeScript engines; the one-time license costs 19.00 EUR.