Tiptap

What is Tiptap?

Tiptap stands out as a powerful, headless, open-source editor framework designed for developers to build highly customizable content editing experiences. Often compared to building editors "like Notion in weeks, not years," it powers rich text editing with over 100 extensions and premium add-ons. At its core, Tiptap leverages ProseMirror under the hood, providing a robust foundation for web-based editors that integrate seamlessly into React, Vue, Svelte, or vanilla JavaScript applications. With 33.7k GitHub stars, 6k Discord members, and 14M monthly NPM downloads, it's a battle-tested solution trusted by platforms like GitLab for their DevSecOps needs.

Whether you're crafting a simple text editor or a full-fledged collaborative workspace, Tiptap's modular architecture lets you pick and choose features, ensuring scalability from startups to enterprise deployments.

What are the Key Features of Tiptap?

Tiptap's feature set is modular and expansive, blending core editing capabilities with cutting-edge AI integrations. Here's a breakdown:

Core Editor (Open Source)

• Headless Design: No built-in UI—full control over rendering and styling to match your app's design language.
• 100+ Extensions: From basic formatting (bold, italic, lists) to advanced nodes like tables, embeds, and mentions.
• Customizable UX: Build user-centric interfaces with minimal overhead, perfect for tailored content creation.

AI Toolkit (Add-on)

This is where Tiptap shines in the AI era. Build AI agents that edit documents directly:

• Real-time streaming for live edits.
• Track-changes review for auditing AI modifications.
• Context-aware selections for precise interventions. Use cases include chatbots that rewrite sections, proofreaders that suggest improvements, or multi-document workflows that synthesize content across files.

AI Generation (Start Plan)

One-shot AI commands for everyday tasks:

• Grammar fixes and tone changes.
• Translation and summarization.
• GitHub Copilot-style autocompletion with streaming previews. Ideal for boosting productivity in content-heavy apps.

Collaboration (Paid)

• Live carets and cursors to show who's typing.
• Offline editing with seamless sync.
• Supports documents and media for team workflows.

Other Premium Features

• Conversion: One-click import/export for DOCX, ODT, Markdown.
• Comments: Inline and document-level discussions for feedback loops.
• Documents: Self-host or use scalable cloud storage with full CRUD control.

These features make Tiptap scalable to max, deployable on-premises or via their platform, with enterprise-ready security like SOC 2 Type II compliance and GDPR support.

How Does Tiptap Work?

Tiptap operates as a headless framework, meaning it handles the document model, transactions, and state management without dictating your UI. Developers define nodes (content blocks like paragraphs or images) and marks (styles like bold), then render them using your preferred framework.

For AI integration:

1. Integrate the AI Toolkit via extensions.
2. Send document state to AI models (e.g., via APIs like OpenAI).
3. Stream responses back as edits, with track-changes for review.

Example workflow for an AI proofreader:

• User selects text.
• AI analyzes context.
• Edits apply with diff visualization.

Its ProseMirror roots ensure predictable state and undo/redo out of the box, while Hocuspocus (their collaboration server) handles WebSocket-based syncing.

How to Use Tiptap?

Getting started is developer-friendly:

1. Install via NPM: npm install @tiptap/core @tiptap/starter-kit.
2. Set up basic editor:

   import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
   import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'
   
   const editor = new Editor({ extensions: [StarterKit] })
   

3. Add extensions: Import AI or collaboration modules.
4. UI Components: Use free templates like Simple Editor or paid ones like Comments/Notion-like to launch faster.
5. Deploy: Self-host documents or use Tiptap Cloud.

Comprehensive docs, examples, and a Discord community accelerate onboarding. Recent updates like bidirectional Markdown support and AI Toolkit beta (Oct 2025) keep it evolving.

Why Choose Tiptap?

In a crowded editor market (vs. Quill, Slate, or TinyMCE), Tiptap wins with:

• AI-Native Focus: Unlike legacy editors, it's built for agentic workflows—edit documents via AI seamlessly.
• Production Metrics: Trusted by GitLab for custom UI at lower cost; Y Combinator-backed (Batch S23).
• Cost-Effective: Free core + modular paid features (try for free).
• Flexibility: Headless, fully customizable, scalable.

Customer quote: "Tiptap gives us the opportunity to actually build the software product that we've been brainstorming about for a long time now." – Website builder team.

Who is Tiptap For?

• Developers & Product Teams: Building CMS, note-taking apps, or wikis.
• SaaS Founders: Need Notion-like editors without years of dev time.
• Enterprises: Secure, compliant collaboration (e.g., GitLab).
• AI Innovators: Creating agent-driven tools like auto-proofreaders or content generators.

Best for teams prioritizing custom UX over off-the-shelf solutions. If you're tired of rigid editors, Tiptap empowers you to ship AI-enhanced editing experiences that delight users and scale effortlessly.

Explore pricing, demos, or start with the free Simple Editor template today. With MIT licensing for core and Pro/Enterprise options, it's ready for your next project.