9 Best WYSIWYG HTML Editors

As an example, Wikipedia has multiple ways that users can edit their content. Originally, editors had to preview their changes to make sure that everything worked as it should. For example, if you wanted to bold text on Wikipedia, you would have to put a total of six apostrophes around the text you wanted to bold (three on the left, three on the right). Even a small error could result in possibly even the entire article being "damaged" by the changes.

Thankfully, such changes are easily reversed on Wikipedia, but it is a frustrating experience to have to figure out what went wrong after you did all that work on an article, right? Well, that is where Wikipedia's visual editor comes in.

By using a visual editor, the editing screen you are viewing looks about the same as the article itself will look, helping to ensure that whatever mistakes you make will make themselves known before all your other work is done as well.

Picking out the best WYSIWYG editor may be a complicated process, especially when it comes to picking between WYSIWYG HTML editors that seem similar. Take a closer look at the nine of the most common editors in the market today.

Froala

For people who are just starting out with editing HTML and want to try a WYSIWYG editor, Froala is a solid choice. It is user-friendly, especially for relative newbies, particularly thanks to its JavaScript-designed clean user interface (UI). The process is rather simplified, even to the point that for someone whose knowledge in HTML is lacking, a program like Froala really helps not only do their HTML work but also work as a good stepping stone if they intend to move on to a new type of HTML editing.

Froala allows HTML editors to use their services in the web browser for free, but it has multiple subscription tiers as well. Subscription prices start at $199 per year (Basic), with the next at $899 (Pro), and finally, at $1,999 per year (Enterprise). All three of these subscription tiers allow for unlimited active users per month, free updates for the latest version, and self-hosted content.

The two more expensive tiers allow for unlimited domains, whereas Basic only allows three at once, and offers support from the company, where Basic only offers community-based support.

We have been gushing over this, and we tried to come up with any cons to account for, but to no avail. The only cons you could actually come up with, to be honest, are to do with WYSIWYG editors in the first place. If you are down to try a WYSIWYG editor though, this is one of your best bets.

Brackets

If you are looking into getting an open source WYSIWYG editor, Brackets is one of the best editors you can go with. It's very lightweight and has a sleek, modern design, which does a world of good to help you get used to the program. A great thing about this is that it is completely free. Thus, you can easily try it out without any worry of buyer's remorse.

Kompozer

If you are looking to get a website made that looks particularly stunning, Kompozer is a perfect fit for your needs. Kompozer allows for a wide variety of customization, using tools like an extended color picker and easy creation of style sheets. The best part of all this is that you do not need to put in that much effort or code to actually make a website that looks professional. Not only that, but you can switch between WYSIWYG editing and regular HTML editing on Kompozer. Much like Brackets, it is also completely free to use.

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

Just because you are using WYSIWYG HTML editing, that does not mean that you are necessarily a novice. As such, having a more basic editor is not going to do much for people who want to get the most out of their editing. That's where CoffeeCup HTML Editor comes in.

It is a full-featured program, and one of the best features in our opinion is the ability to use template code to accelerate what you are trying to make. If you are just starting out, CoffeeCup HTML Editor may not be the best fit, as it could potentially overwhelm new or inexperienced users. If you want to try it out, it has a limited free version, but if you want to do more with it, you can pay $29 per month to unlock it.

NicEdit

This cross-platform editor has a lot of praises that can be sung about it, but one of the best compliments we can give it is probably just how seamless it can be integrated into any app or website, with only a little time to get it done. One of the features of NicEdit is that you can easily convert HTML to text, and vice versa. It's a particularly convenient and well-designed HTML editor, which stands out, particularly thanks to the fact that it is completely free to use.

TinyMCE

Open source editors are a popular tool among HTML editors, and an editor that has a lot of features is going to be that much more popular than other, less feature-rich platforms. In addition to being able to watch the HTML editing change the page as you edit, but you can also get documentation to help ensure that you can monitor your changes in a more in-depth fashion. Not only that, but you are allowed to deploy TinyMCE in self-hosted, cloud-based, and/or hybrid methods, making it that much more versatile as a result. TinyMCE has a solid free version, but if you want to expand your toolset and functionality, you can go for the Professional version, for $80 per month.

Setka Editor

Setka Editor is yet another tool designed especially for people who are just learning to code and serves as a perfect stepping stool for those who want to move on to more complex HTML coding in the future. Setka allows its users to edit the HTML of their project in a real-time collaborative process with others rather easily, with each person able to make comments on various aspects of the project. This tool is better used for people looking to edit HTML seriously; the cheapest tier starts at $150 per month, while Pro moves up to $500 per month. You can also look into customized price points for their Enterprise plan.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Versatility is a naturally important thing for any HTML editor, even if they are just learning the ropes (so long as it's not overwhelming, anyway). Being able to do a wide variety of things, such as paste in HTML among other things, is important, as it prevents them from feeling limited and unable to do what they want with their website. Adobe Dreamweaver is a great WYSIWYG HTML editor, but it does so much more as well. You can use it to edit code in JavaScript, CSS, PHP, and more. On top of that, Adobe Dreamweaver allows you to use layouts and templates to make the process simpler.

In order to use Adobe Dreamweaver, you have two options at your disposal. You can either subscribe to it as an individual item for $20.99 per month, or you can get it as part of your subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud. This second subscription costs $54.99 per month, and comes with dozens of additional Adobe products.

Is an HTML WYSIWYG Editor the best choice for editing?

The important thing to know is that there is not only one way to edit HTML. Some things work for some people better than others, and you should try to figure out which type of HTML editing works for you. Going with a WYSIWYG HTML editor is a good choice for people who are just starting out with HTML editing, if only because they are able to see what their HTML editing is doing as they edit it. In viewing the changes as they occur, you can spot HTML mistakes as they happen.

One issue that you have to consider with using WYSIWYG editors is the level of control you get out of an HTML WYSIWYG editor is often lower than the level of control you get elsewhere. A good way to get control back for people who do know HTML would be to use an HTML WYSIWYG editor in conjunction with a notepad editor. However, if you are just doing HTML editing as a hobby, it shouldn't really matter which kind of editor you choose, so long as you get results. Doesn't really matter if you're looking at plain text or HTML.

Should I pay for an HTML WYSIWYG editor?

Typically, picking the best HTML editor, WYSIWYG or otherwise, will depend on what you want out of your HTML editor. Even if you are picking the best WYSIWYG editor, if you are just editing HTML for fun, you would probably be best served by going with a free HTML editor, like Froala or TinyMCE.

Yet, even editors like Froala have a subscription if you are hoping to get more out of it. So if you are using Froala (for example) and feel like you are not getting enough out of it, you can look into picking one of the subscription tiers available.

Choose the best WYSIWYG editor

No matter if you are picking out an HTML editor for fun, or you actually want to use it for your business, you still want to get the best overall result for your time and possibly financial investment into the editor. Having the most ideal HTML editor for your needs and experience makes creating a web page on places like Mailchimp that much easier to do. If you are ready to look into HTML editing and website creation, Mailchimp has a lot of tools to make the process that much easier for you to handle.