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RichTextEditor vs TinyMCE
Looking for a TinyMCE alternative? Perpetual license vs metered editor loads. A factual comparison for teams shortlisting a rich text editor in 2026 — pricing model, AI, collaboration, and when each option is the right call.
3-year cost
$2,844+ (Essential, 3 yrs, no overage) vs $129 once
TinyMCE pricing modelRecurringFree tier (1,000 editor loads/mo), then usage-based subscription from $79/mo - overage billed per 1,000 loads
RichTextEditor pricing modelPerpetualFrom $129 one-time per domain. Free community edition. No metering, no AI add-on.
Side by side
| RichTextEditor | TinyMCE | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Perpetual, per-domain, from $129 one-time | Subscription; usage metered by editor loads |
| AI features | Built-in AI Toolkit (Ask AI, AI Chat, AI Review) with BYOK - no add-on fee | AI Assistant is a paid add-on with vendor-managed credits |
| Real-time collaboration | Per-node Yjs CRDT engine included | No real-time co-editing - the RTC plugin was retired; v8 offers asynchronous Suggested Edits whose state you persist yourself |
| Self-hosting | Fully self-hosted; no phone-home, no load counting | Self-hosting available, but cloud key + load counting on paid tiers |
| Open-source core | No (free community edition instead) | Yes (GPL2+ core) |
| Track changes / comments | Included | Premium plan features |
| Content accessibility checker | Included - scans for missing alt text, empty and skipped headings, tables without header cells, and language of parts | Accessibility Checker Plugin is a premium add-on |
| Paginated page view | Included - live A4/Letter/Legal page view with headers, footers and page numbers | Not available - Page Embed inserts an iframe; there is no page view |
| Multi-level / legal list numbering | Included - 1, 1.1, 1.1.1 legal numbering | No multi-level list feature |
| Footnotes | Included - auto-numbered markers and notes that renumber on insert, delete and reorder | Premium plugin - available only on paid subscriptions |
| Table of contents | Included - self-updating contents block, with page numbers in page view | Premium plugin - available only on paid subscriptions |
| Format painter | Included | Premium plugin - available only on paid subscriptions |
| Change case | Included - UPPER, lower, Title, Sentence and tOGGLE case | Premium plugin - available only on paid subscriptions |
| Autocorrect & typography | Included - typo correction, sentence capitalisation, smart quotes, dashes and symbols | Two premium plugins (Autocorrect + Advanced Typography), paid subscriptions only |
| Merge fields / mail merge | Included - atomic placeholders, sample-data preview, and render-to-HTML per record | Merge Tags is a premium plugin - paid subscriptions only |
| Link checking | Included - broken anchors, unsafe schemes, mixed content, unlabelled and deceptive links, all with no service to run | Premium plugin, and self-hosting requires you to deploy their link-checking service |
| Table sorting & row numbering | Included - type-detecting sort (numbers, dates, text) and numeric/alpha/roman row numbering | Enhanced Tables is a premium plugin - paid subscriptions only |
| Permanent pen | Included - keep typing in a fixed annotation format until switched off | Premium plugin - paid subscriptions only |
| Cross-references | Included - references to headings, clauses, footnotes, tables and figures that renumber themselves | No cross-reference feature documented |
| Margin line numbers | Included - numbers every visual line, restarting per page in page view, as court filing rules require | No line-numbering feature documented |
| Word (.docx) import | Included - runs in the browser with no upload; keeps links, images, numbered/nested lists, tables, alignment, footnotes/endnotes, text boxes, SmartArt outlines, tracked changes and equations (OMML converted to LaTeX and back) | Import from Word is a premium plugin backed by a conversion service - that server-side path does cover some exotic constructs ours does not yet map |
| Word (.docx) export | Included - writes a real OOXML package in the browser with no upload; headings, formatting, nested lists, tables, links, images, footnotes, tracked changes and equations, and it re-imports losslessly | Export to Word is a paid service that uploads the document for conversion - a server-side converter does handle some constructs ours does not yet map |
| PDF export with selectable text | Included - writes the PDF in the browser with no library and no upload; text is selectable and searchable, links stay clickable, and the file carries a full accessibility tag tree (headings, lists, table header cells, figure alt text, running headers marked as artifacts) | Export to PDF is a paid service that uploads the document for conversion - a server-side converter does handle some constructs ours does not yet map |
| Formatting marks | Included - pilcrows, block outlines, and highlighting for non-breaking/zero-width/soft-hyphen characters | visualchars and visualblocks are in the free core |
| Right-to-left text | Included - per-block and document direction, first-strong auto-detection, alignment swap, and bidi isolation | The directionality plugin is in the free core |
| Watermark | Included - DRAFT/CONFIDENTIAL behind the content, unselectable, excluded from print by default | No watermark feature documented |
| Diagrams | Mermaid diagram blocks included - render with your own Mermaid build or a server-side resolver | No diagramming feature |
Choose TinyMCE when…
- You want a GPL open-source core and accept the copyleft terms.
- Your traffic is tiny and stays under the free tier's 1,000 loads/month.
- You are already invested in the Tiny Cloud ecosystem.
Choose RichTextEditor when…
- Your pages load the editor more than ~1,000 times a month - metered pricing compounds fast.
- You want AI in the editor without an add-on subscription: bring your own OpenAI/Anthropic/Ollama key.
- You want a price that never changes after purchase.
Frequently asked
Is RichTextEditor cheaper than TinyMCE?
For most production sites, yes over time: RichTextEditor is a one-time perpetual license from $129 per domain, while TinyMCE's paid plans start around $79/month metered by editor loads - about $2,844 over three years before overage.
How hard is migrating from TinyMCE?
Both are config-driven classic WYSIWYG editors, so the concepts map one-to-one: toolbar strings, setup callbacks, and upload handlers. The migration guide at richtexteditor.com/migrate has a TinyMCE cheat sheet; most teams finish in under a day.
Does RichTextEditor have an accessibility checker like TinyMCE?
Yes - and it's included in every license rather than sold as a separate add-on. It scans the document being authored for missing alt text, empty and skipped heading levels, tables without header cells, and unmarked language changes, and offers one-click repair, alongside the editor's own WCAG 2.2 AA conformance work.
Competitor details reflect public pricing pages and documentation at the time of writing and may change; see source notes. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners.