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Why choose Sqwig vs TinyMCE?

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 TinyMCE alternatives, here is the comparison, with links to the sources.

Your savings, every year

$15,420

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

Sqwig, one application$720 / year, flat
Sqwig, unlimited applications$8,000 / year, flat
TinyMCE Professional, metered$16,140 / year

TinyMCE Professional is $145 a month plus 30 × $40 in overage, about $1,345 a month, before any premium plugin. 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 TinyMCE'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

    TinyMCE's Spell Checker Pro is, in their words, “only available for paid TinyMCE subscriptions”.

  2. Cost

    $720 a year against $16,140 for the same traffic

    $720 a year for one application, or $8,000 flat for unlimited applications. TinyMCE meters every plan including Free, at $40 per additional 1,000 loads, with Suggested Edits and AI 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 TinyMCE more than one domain means Enterprise, which is quote-only.

  5. Privacy

    Zero network calls carry your users’ text

    A WASM engine and a local dictionary run on the device. TinyMCE checks against its spelling service or a Docker service you run, 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. In TinyMCE 8 the editor is disabled outright when no key is provided.

Side by side

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

#SqwigTinyMCE
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, API key required
  • Essential: $79/month billed annually, 5,000 loads
  • Professional: $145/month, 20,000 loads
  • Enterprise: 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 $40 per 1,000 loads
  • Suggested Edits ($79/month) and AI ($133/month and up) billed separately
  • Four plans, an overage rate and paid 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 domain plus its subdomains on Free, Essential and Professional
  • Multiple domains means Enterprise, which is quote-only
  • Self-hosting is Enterprise or the GPL build
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
  • Spell Checker Pro, a paid plugin: “only available for paid TinyMCE subscriptions”
  • Checks against Tiny's spelling service, or a Docker service you run
  • 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
  • Sold as PowerPaste, from Professional 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
  • In TinyMCE 8 the editor is disabled when no license key is provided
  • MIT for v5 and v6, then GPLv2+ or commercial from v7
  • The MIT-licensed v6 reached end of life in October 2024
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 plugins or add-ons at TinyMCE

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

TinyMCE also sells Suggested Edits, AI and spellcheck in 20+ languages, each priced on top. If you need those, buy the suite and price the plugins in. Sqwig is built for the other job.

You are being metered for a text box

Every editor load counted, $40 for each additional thousand, spellcheck sold as a paid plugin that checks on a server, and a second domain that means a quote-only Enterprise plan. 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

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