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Why choose Sqwig vs CKEditor?

Sqwig is a drop-in rich text box: dictionary spellcheck that runs on-device at every tier, one flat price per application. If a license change, a metering bill, or a renewal quote has you looking at CKEditor alternatives, here is the comparison, with links to the sources.

Your savings, every year

$13,548

that you stop paying CKEditor, for the same 50,000 editor loads a month.

Sqwig, one application$720 / year, flat
Sqwig, unlimited applications$8,000 / year, flat
CKEditor 5 Professional, metered$14,268 / year

CKEditor Professional is $289 a month billed annually, plus 30 × $30 in overage, about $1,189 a month, before collaboration ($249+/month), AI or spellcheck. Sqwig does not meter, so 50,000 loads and 5,000,000 loads cost the same. Drag the same math to your own traffic →
From CKEditor's published pricing, August 2026. Their site is authoritative; check it before you decide.

Six reasons, if you only have a minute

  1. Spellcheck

    Costs $0 extra, on every tier including Free

    At CKEditor spelling is WProofreader, a paid add-on on the quote-only Custom plan.

  2. Cost

    $720 a year against $14,268 for the same traffic

    $720 a year for one application, or $8,000 flat for unlimited applications. CKEditor meters every plan including Free, with overage from $30 to $60 per 1,000 loads and collaboration, AI and storage billed on top.

  3. Features

    The whole toolbar, on by default

    Headings and fonts through tables, images, code blocks, find and replace and markdown, plus an image upload handler that keeps base64 out of your content and events you can hook. New capability ships into Starter and Enterprise rather than arriving as a separately priced add-on.

  4. Licensing

    Unlimited applications for $8,000, published

    An application is a distinct product or service, identified by its primary domain. Starter covers one, with its subdomains, and staging and test environments do not count as extra. Enterprise covers unlimited applications for a flat $8,000 a year, and that price is on the page. At CKEditor more than one application means the Custom plan, which is quote-only.

  5. Privacy

    Zero network calls carry your users’ text

    A WASM engine and a local dictionary run on the device. CKEditor's checker runs as a cloud service or a server you host, so either way the text makes a round trip.

  6. When it expires

    Nothing stops working when a key expires

    Verification is offline and the editor drops to the Free tier with its content untouched. Since v44 every CKEditor install requires a license key, including GPL self-hosted.

Side by side

Everything below is from CKEditor 5's own pricing page and documentation, checked in August 2026.

#SqwigCKEditor 5
What it costs
  • $0 to try it, on one domain
  • $720 per application per year
  • $8,000 a year for unlimited applications, domains and subdomains
  • Three plans, because there are only three decisions: try it, buy it for one application, or buy it for everything you run
  • Free: 1,000 editor loads a month, with a watermark
  • Essential: $144/month billed annually, 5,000 loads
  • Professional: $289/month, 20,000 loads
  • Custom: quote only, no published price
How you are billed
  • Flat and annual, one payment
  • Nothing metered, no overage line
  • No add-ons: the number on the page is the number you pay
  • Nobody counts your developers
  • Metered by editor load, on every plan including Free
  • Overage $30 per 1,000 on Professional, $45 on Essential, $60 on Free
  • Collaboration, AI and file storage billed separately
  • Four plans, three overage rates and three add-ons
What one license covers
  • Starter: one application: a distinct product or service, identified by its primary domain, including its subdomains
  • Enterprise: unlimited applications, and so unlimited domains and subdomains, at a published $8,000 a year
  • Staging, development and test environments of a licensed application do not count as extra applications
  • Developers are never counted, on any plan
  • One application, with unlimited applications, domains and subdomains inside it
  • The application is the billable unit, so a second product on the same domain is a second license
  • Multiple applications means the Custom plan, which is quote-only
Spellcheck
  • Included on every tier, Free included
  • Runs on the device: text never leaves the browser
  • No spelling server to stand up, and nothing to license separately
  • WProofreader, a paid add-on on the Custom plan
  • Runs as a cloud service, or a server component you host
  • Either way the checking happens on a server
Paste from Word
  • Included on every tier
  • Headings, lists, links, emphasis and tables survive; fonts, colors and Word markup are stripped
  • Reads the RTF flavor, which is how a paste out of Acrobat keeps its formatting
  • Enhanced paste from Essential upward
When a license lapses
  • Keys verify offline, in code. No license server, no phone-home
  • An expired key returns the editor to the Free tier with the badge
  • Your application keeps working and your content is untouched
  • Since v44 (December 2024) every install requires a licenseKey, including GPL self-hosted
  • Dual-licensed GPLv2+ or commercial
  • CKEditor 4 reached end of life in 2023
Left out on purpose
  • Merged or split table cells
  • Comments, track changes, co-authoring and AI
  • Spellcheck beyond en_US, which would mean sending text to a server
  • All of these are paid add-ons at CKEditor

CKEditor 5 figures are from CKEditor 5's pricing page and public documentation, verified in August 2026. Pricing and features change; CKEditor 5's own site is authoritative for both, and it is worth checking before you decide.

CKEditor also sells real-time collaboration, AI, file storage and spellcheck in 20+ languages, each priced on top. If you need those, buy the suite and price the add-ons in. Sqwig is built for the other job.

You are being metered for a text box

Every editor load counted, an overage rate per plan, spellcheck sold as an add-on on a quote-only tier, and a second product on the same domain billed as a second license. None of that buys your users a better place to type.

Sqwig is $720 a year for one application, or $8,000 for unlimited applications. Spellcheck is included on every tier and runs on the device. Nothing is metered, nothing is counted, and the price on the page is the price. Open it and paste something in from Word.

Try it on your own content See pricing

CKEditor is a trademark of its respective owner. Sqwig is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by CKSource or Tiugo Technologies; their marks are used only to identify their products for comparison.