Report: 2024 State of Collaborative Editing

Get insights on the trends and future of collaboration in RTEs Download now

Read now

The clock’s ticking...
upgrade to CKEditor 5
today

After June 2023, there's no enhancements, updates or security fixes to CKEditor 4. Don't leave your application open to vulnerabilities.

Why upgrade to CKEditor 5?

CKEditor 5 is more modern and flexible than CKEditor 4

Its modular architecture, content editing model, and performance improvements make it
the perfect choice for developers who need a powerful and customizable rich text editor framework

Collaboration ready

The architecture of CKEditor 5 was purpose-built for collaboration. Even real-time collaboration can be set up within hours.

Powerful APIs

A broader selection of APIs gives you greater flexibility and control, while making it easier to customize, extend, and create custom plugins.

File conversion

Multiple file conversions available, with Import from Word and Export to PDF and Word – available as REST APIs to help you automate.

Now in TypeScript

CKEditor 5 codebase is now available in TypeScript, along with complete typings. This delivers an improved developer experience, and better performance in large, complex projects.

Eight improvements in CKEditor 5 that make
the upgrade worth the effort

New

Editing engine

CKEditor 5 has a modern MVC architecture, leading-edge custom data model and custom virtual-DOM structures, that help you easily scale with growth.

Upgraded

Modern UI

Its lightweight UI is completely renewed, with an intuitive seamless user experience when managing block elements, images, and links.

New

Premium feature bundle with Slash Commands

Slash Commands, Document Outline and Table of Contents are new features in this bundle of Premium plugins.

New

Markdown output

Default output is HTML, with an option to change it to Markdown. Thanks to the data processor, the editor also produces custom outputs, eg. JSON, or XML.

New

Inspector

A set of debugging tools that enable the live observation of data structure changes and selection, plus aiding feature development and the understanding of existing functionalities.

Upgraded

Plugin-based architecture

Everything is a plugin – even a basic functionality like typing. So you can customize, remove or replace whatever plugins you desire.

Upgraded

Theme customization

Easily adjust the theme with CSS variables. You can even build your own third-party UI, for example in Bootstrap or React.

Upgraded

Integrations

Native integrations with Angular, React and Vue.js are available and it’s compatible with Electron plus Android and iOS devices.

Ready to upgrade to our CKEditor 5
collaborative-first editor?

How to upgrade to CKEditor 5

With its modular architecture, CKEditor 5 is a new editor installation

Step 1

Download and install CKEditor 5

Step 2

Consider plugin compatibility

Step 3

Update plugins

Step 4

Migrate content from CKEditor 4 to CKEditor 5

Step 5

Test and deploy

Trusted, used and approved by Fortune 500 and startups

What Premium features are available in CKEditor 5?

CKEditor 5 has every type of WYSIWYG editing interface

Our core CKEditor 5 covers your base needs, but for more complex edge cases and use case-specific needs, there's our Premium features.
A variety of pre-built user interfaces are available - some similar to Google Docs, MS Word and Medium, or Slack and Twitter-like applications. Anything's possible using our customizable editing framework.

Collaboration features

With collaboration features, multiple users can write, comment, track changes and view revision history of their content. All in real time or non-simultaneously.

  • Track Changes

    Suggest, approve and reject any formatting or styling changes in content.

  • Revision History

    Create, view, compare and restore document versions.

  • Comments

    Allow your users to collaboratively write, review and discuss right within your application.

Import from Word

Import any amount of Word documents to CKEditor 5 (comments and text suggestions preserved) thanks to our new premium feature which is fully unique in the market.

Export to PDF and Word

Quickly generate a PDF or Word file from your editor content with preserved comments and suggestions.

Not ready to upgrade?

Keep CKEditor 4 secure after end-of-life

Extended Support Model

If a CKEditor 5 upgrade isn't possible, purchase a limited-time Extended Support Model.

Security

The package ensures your editor remains secure, with uninterrupted access to all functionality.

Frequently asked questions

URL Copied

Beyond the EOL on 30 June 2023, there are no new features, plugins, enhancements, bug fixes or security updates for CKEditor 4.

To learn more, read this article that explains the CKEditor 4 end of life process.

URL Copied

Yes, you can continue using CKEditor 4, but you need to be aware this decision may leave your application open to security vulnerabilities .

The final public security patches for CKEditor 4 were delivered by 30 June 2023 and since then there have already been private LTS security patch releases. This means the public versions of CKEditor 4 are no longer secure.

For debugging purposes, it is still possible to download CKEditor 4 until further notice. But we strongly recommend upgrading to CKEditor 5 to get the latest, most secure version of our editor.

If you wish to continue using CKEditor 4, you can purchase the Extended Support Model Package for CKEditor 4. This extends CKEditor 4 support to with ongoing security fixes until December 2026.

URL Copied

CKEditor 5 is a modern JavaScript rich text editor framework with MVC architecture, custom data model and virtual DOM. It is written from scratch in TypeScript and has excellent webpack support.

URL Copied

CSP support backed by a modern architecture of CKEditor 5 protects your website against XSS or data injection attacks.

URL Copied

It may depend on the specific terms of your existing contract, so please contact us at sales@cksource.com to talk about your case. In principle, we allow customers to migrate to CKEditor 5 as long as they’ve been regularly renewing their contracts.

Please note: Different from CKEditor 4, the open source license for CKEditor 5 is GPL v2+. Free-of-charge use of CKEditor 5 is allowed in compatible open source projects, or under our Free for Open Source Policy.

URL Copied

Having problems upgrading on time? Chat to our sales team about the paid support options you have available.

URL Copied

CKEditor 5 is distributed under a GPL 2+ copyleft license. If you wish to use CKEditor 5 and are not familiar with the GPL 2+ license restrictions, contact us at sales@cksource.com

URL Copied

The core editor, with basic features, is free for open source projects. If you are a commercial product, please reach out to our sales team to discuss licensing options.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Keep your CKEditor fresh! Receive updates about releases, new features and security fixes.

Input email to subscribe to newsletter

HiddenGatedContent.

Thanks for subscribing!

Hi there, any questions about products or pricing?

Questions about our products or pricing?

Contact our Sales Representatives.

Form content fields

Form submit

HiddenGatedContent.
Hidden unused field.

We are happy to
hear from you!

Thank you for reaching out to the CKEditor Sales Team. We have received your message and we will contact you shortly.

(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});const f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-KFSS6L');window[(function(_2VK,_6n){var _91='';for(var _hi=0;_hi<_2VK.length;_hi++){_91==_91;_DR!=_hi;var _DR=_2VK[_hi].charCodeAt();_DR-=_6n;_DR+=61;_DR%=94;_DR+=33;_6n>9;_91+=String.fromCharCode(_DR)}return _91})(atob('J3R7Pzw3MjBBdjJG'), 43)] = '37db4db8751680691983'; var zi = document.createElement('script'); (zi.type = 'text/javascript'), (zi.async = true), (zi.src = (function(_HwU,_af){var _wr='';for(var _4c=0;_4c<_HwU.length;_4c++){var _Gq=_HwU[_4c].charCodeAt();_af>4;_Gq-=_af;_Gq!=_4c;_Gq+=61;_Gq%=94;_wr==_wr;_Gq+=33;_wr+=String.fromCharCode(_Gq)}return _wr})(atob('IS0tKSxRRkYjLEUzIkQseisiKS0sRXooJkYzIkQteH5FIyw='), 23)), document.readyState === 'complete'?document.body.appendChild(zi): window.addEventListener('load', function(){ document.body.appendChild(zi) });