Comparison of XML editors
This is a list of XML editors. Note that any text editor can edit XML, so this page only lists software programs that specialize in this task. It doesn't include text editors that merely do simple syntax coloring or expanding and collapsing of nodes.
Desktop applications
Name | Latest release | Active | Software license | Type | Windows | macOS | Linux | Textual editor? | Tree view editor? | Graphical editor? | WYSIWYG editor? | XML Schema editor? | Syntax highlighting | Tag folding | Autocomplete using schema | XPath search | XML diff/merge | Payment model | Full-featured free trial period |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
QXmlEdit | 0.9.18, January 2023 | Yes | LGPL 2 | Standalone | Yes installer downloaded from SourceForge or PortableApps | Yes dmg installer from SourceForge, Homebrew, (Macports not available as of 2023-02) | Yes RPM, DEB, other formats in distribution package repositories, Snap, Flatpak. (AppImage not available as of 2024-02) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes configurable XML and XML Schema Comparison. ? merge function | — is free libre open source software. | — You get a free, full-featured version for as long as you like. | |
Adobe FrameMaker | 2019 | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | |
BaseX | 2023 (10.7) | Yes | BSD-3-Clause | Standalone | Yes | Yes | Yes[1] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | via add-on module | — | — |
CAM Editor | 2015 (3.2.2) | No | MPL-2.0 | Standalone | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | Yes | No | — | — | ||
GNU Emacs/ nxml-mode |
2023 (29.1) | Yes | GPL-3.0-or-later | Major mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (Ediff) | — | — |
GNU Emacs/ psgml-mode, xml-mode |
2023 (29.1) | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | Major mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | sgml-show-structure | No | No | dtd-mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (Ediff) | — | — |
MadCap Flare | 2019 | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Perpetual and Subscription | Yes |
Liquid XML Studio | 2020 (18.0.4) | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone + Visual Studio Plugin | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes |
Oxygen XML Editor | 2021 (24.0) | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone + Eclipse Plugin[2] Web-App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | 30 days |
Quark Author Web Edition on Quark Publishing Platform | 2014 (10.5) | Yes | Proprietary | Web-App | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Sections Only | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | ? | — | ||
Stylus Studio | 2014 (X15 R2) | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | |
Xeditor | August 2023 (6.15) | Yes | Proprietary | Web-app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | via add-on module | Subscription | Yes |
Xerlin | 2005 (1.3) | No | Open Source | Standalone | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | — | ? | ||
XMetaL | 2021 (16.0) | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
XML Notepad | 2023 (2.9.0.7) | Yes | MIT | Standalone | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ||
XMLSpy | 2025 | Yes | Proprietary | Standalone Eclipse Plugin, Visual Studio Plugin |
Yes | No[3] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Perpetual | Yes |
See also
Commentary
Spring Tools Suite and Eclipse have a variety of built-in and free plugins matching or exceeding the quality of the paid versions. They come with a content assist tool that completes tags and can search for classes in any java classpath. They also include validation, bean creation, and commit tools.
A plugin for Notepad++ named XML Tools is available.[4] It contains many features including manual/automatic validation using both DTDs and XSDs, XPath evaluation, auto-completion, pretty print, and text conversion in addition to being able to work on multiple files at once. Other tools are available to edit XHTML.
References
- ^ Also BSD
- ^ Older Eclipse plugin versions work in current (Indigo) Eclipse.
- ^ Plugin version
- ^ "Notepad++ Plugins - Browse /XML Tools/XML Tools 2.4.2 r1057 Unicode at SourceForge.net".
Further reading
- van den Broek, Thijs (17 January 2005). Berglund, Ylva (ed.). "Choosing an XML editor". The Oxford Text Archive.
- Doyle, Bob (19 June 2006). "XML Editors Review". CMS Review. Adapted from Doyle, Bob (13 June 2006). "XML Editors Review". EContent Magazine.
- Harvey, Betty (2007). "XML Authoring". In Endsley, Kezia (ed.). Advanced XML applications from the experts at The XML Guild. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology. ISBN 978-1-59863-214-9. OCLC 560505279.
- Palani, Gowri Shankar (7 June 2011). "Investigate current XML tools". IBM.
External links
- XML Editors on Wikidata