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	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

• Integrated development environment
• XML
• XForms
• Machine-readable document

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.