RegexPilot vs The Regex Coach

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.

The Regex Coach is a graphical application for experimenting interactively with Perl-compatible regular expressions. It shows whether a pattern matches a target string and updates the interface when changes are made. Users can highlight captured groups or selected parts of a pattern in the target text. The application can attempt a plain-English explanation of a regex, show its parse tree graphically, and step through the matching process. It also simulates Perl split and substitution operations. Written in Common Lisp, it uses CL-PPCRE as its regex engine. The current Windows download is version 0.9.2; the maker says the program has not changed since 2008. Linux is no longer maintained, though an unsupported 0.8.5 release is available and also runs on FreeBSD. There is no Mac version planned. The program is provided as-is without warranty, and the maker says not to expect support for older Windows configurations or the unsupported Linux release. The engine may overflow its stack with relatively long regular expressions. The listed plan is free, with conditions for commercial use and redistribution.