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Start with GrapesJS
Tell us what the editor has to do and which application it lives in, and get a concrete integration plan back.
Start with GrapesJSEditor framework comparison
GrapesJS vs Craft.js
Compare two open-source approaches to building visual editors, page builders, and SaaS editing experiences.See how GrapesJS and Craft.js differ in architecture, React integration, editor infrastructure, customization, extensibility, storage, and production development.
Both are open source and both are frameworks — neither is a hosted productCraft.js is React-first by design; GrapesJS runs as a library in any pageEvery claim below is dated and linked to the project's own documentation
Craft.js
React-first editor foundation
- Your applicationYours
- Craft.jsFramework
- Your editor UIYours
The editor is a React application you design.
GrapesJS
More complete visual-editor foundation
- Your applicationYours
- GrapesJSFramework
- Canvas
- Blocks
- Style Manager
- Layers
- Your backendYours
The editor arrives assembled; you extend it.
Two minutes
Which framework fits your product?
Five questions about your stack, your output and how much of the editor you want to own. The result names the answers that drove it, so you can disagree with it on the specifics rather than on the conclusion.
0 of 5 answered
Quick answer
The short version, before the detail
Both projects are open-source frameworks you install into an application you already own. The difference is where they start you.
Choose Craft.js when
Your application is React, and the editor is a React application too.
Signals
- Your application is deeply React-centric
- Your editor is fundamentally based on React components
- You want maximum control over the editor architecture
- You are comfortable building significant parts of the editor UX
- Your output is closely tied to React
You trade time-to-first-editor for an editing model that is your component model.
Read the Craft.js docsChoose GrapesJS when
You want a working visual editor to extend rather than a set of primitives to assemble.
Signals
- You need a more complete visual editor foundation
- You want built-in editor infrastructure
- You need blocks, components, styles, layers and assets
- You want to support multiple frontend environments
- You want to extend the editor with plugins
- You are building a SaaS visual editor
- You need an embeddable page builder
- You need email and page editing in one engine
You trade some architectural freedom for an editor that already works on day one.
Start with GrapesJSArchitecture
Craft.js vs GrapesJS: what are you actually building?
This is the decision the rest of the page falls out of. Both frameworks hand you a node tree, drag-and-drop and serialization. They differ in how much of the editor around that tree already exists.
Craft.js
React → Craft.js → your components → your editor UI
- Your applicationCode you write and own
- ReactCode you write and own
- Craft.jsOpen-source framework
- Your componentsCode you write and own
- Your editor UICode you write and own
- Your backendCode you write and own
Craft.js supplies the node tree, the drag-and-drop behaviour, the history and the serialization. Everything a user sees — the panels, the toolbars, the property controls, the block palette — is React you write, using your own components. That is the point of the design, not a gap in it.
GrapesJS
Your app → GrapesJS → your backend
- Your applicationCode you write and own
- GrapesJSOpen-source framework
Editor subsystems the framework already includes
- Canvas
- Components
- Blocks
- Style Manager
- Layers
- Assets
- Commands
- Storage
- Your backendCode you write and own
GrapesJS supplies a working editor: a canvas, a component model, a block palette, a visual style manager, a layer tree, an asset manager, a command registry and a storage layer. You restyle it, replace panels, and add plugins — but you do not start by writing them.
Who writes it
- Code you write and own
- Open-source framework
Craft.js gives you a React-first foundation. GrapesJS gives you a broader visual-editor foundation.
Neither framework is a platform. Neither provides a CMS, hosting, authentication, user accounts, billing, permissions, multi-tenancy or a publishing pipeline. Those belong to the application on both sides, and any comparison that puts them in one column is measuring the wrong thing.
Feature comparison
GrapesJS vs Craft.js, capability by capability
Read the cells, not a tick or a cross. "Requires your editor implementation" is not the same as "missing", and "your application" is not the same as "unsupported" — most of the bottom third of this table is identical for both, because both are frameworks rather than products.
| Capability | GrapesJS | Craft.js |
|---|---|---|
| Primary architecture | Visual editor framework | React editor framework |
| React dependency | Optional | Required |
| Framework flexibility | Framework-agnostic | React only |
| Canvas | Built in | Framework feature |
| Drag and drop | Built in | Built in |
| Components | Built in | Framework feature |
| Blocks | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Layers | Built in | Official companion package |
| Style management | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Assets | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Commands | Built in | Custom implementation |
| Device preview | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Responsive editing | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Undo / redo | Built in | Built in |
| Custom editor UI | Built in, fully customizable | Yours end to end |
| Custom components | Built in | Framework feature |
| Custom blocks | Built in | Requires your editor implementation |
| Templates | Via plugin | Custom implementation |
| Storage integration | Built in | Application responsibility |
| JSON / project data | Built in | Built in |
| HTML/CSS output | Built in | Custom implementation |
| React component rendering | Editor UI in React; canvas renders HTML | Native to the model |
| Email workflows | Via plugin | Custom implementation |
| MJML | Via plugin | Not applicable |
| Plugin ecosystem | Plugins plus a marketplace | Small ecosystem |
| API extensibility | Built in | Framework feature |
| Self-hosting | Supported | Supported |
| White-labeling | Built in, fully customizable | Yours end to end |
| SaaS embedding | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Custom backend | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Custom database | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Authentication | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Permissions | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Publishing | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
| Multi-tenancy | Application responsibility | Application responsibility |
Every row above was read off each project's own documentation, repository and npm registry entry on 2026-09-03. Where a capability is reachable through a framework's own ecosystem, the cell says so rather than marking it absent.Sources: Craft.js overview · Craft.js editor API · Craft.js layers package · Craft.js on npm · GrapesJS documentation · GrapesJS on npm
Ecosystem signals
Current releases and community size
Popularity is not a technical argument, and this table is not a verdict. It is here because release cadence and community size affect how long you wait for an answer when something breaks — which is a real engineering cost, unlike a star count on its own.
| Package | Latest version | License | Published | Repository stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| grapesjs | 0.23.6 | BSD-3-Clause | 2026-08-25 | 26,185 |
| @craftjs/core | 0.2.12 | MIT | 2025-02-14 | 8,738 |
Read from the npm registry and the GitHub API on the date above. Neither repository is archived. Craft.js remains on a 0.2.x line and its most recent release predates this page by more than a year; a 0.3.0 alpha exists but has not been updated since 2022. That is a fact worth knowing before a multi-year commitment — it is not, on its own, a reason to rule the project out, and teams running it in production today are not stranded. Craft.js declares React as a peer dependency across React 16.8 – 19. Craft.js also publishes two companion packages: @craftjs/layers and @craftjs/utils.
Scope of work
How much editor infrastructure do you need to build?
The most useful column on this page. It is not a list of what each framework lacks — it is a list of where the work lands.
| Capability | Craft.js | GrapesJS |
|---|---|---|
| Editor foundation | Framework | Framework |
| Canvas | Core editor architecture | Built in |
| Component model | React-oriented | Built in |
| Blocks | Requires your editor implementation | Built in |
| Style controls | Requires your editor implementation | Built in |
| Layers | Official companion package | Built in |
| Asset management | Requires your editor implementation | Available |
| Device controls | Requires your editor implementation | Available |
| Commands | Core editor architecture | Available |
| Storage | Application / integration | Storage Manager |
| Custom UI | Full control | Highly customizable |
"Requires your editor implementation" means the framework gives you the state and the APIs, and you render the surface yourself. For a team that wants the surface to be theirs, that is the feature. For a team that needs a working editor this quarter, it is the schedule.
Neither column is a shortcut. One of them just starts further along, and the other starts closer to your own component model.
The trade
Headless editor vs visual editor foundation
Every advantage on this page has a matching cost. Here they are side by side, in the same shape, at the same size.
Craft.js
Best suited for teams that want a React-native architecture and an editor interface of their own design.
What you get
- The editor is React, top to bottom — no second rendering model to reason about
- Your production components are the components on the canvas
- Complete control over the editing UX, because you render all of it
- A small, readable core with a stable API surface
- Serialized state is a plain node tree you can shape to your schema
What it costs
- Panels, property controls, block palettes and device switching are yours to build
- No visual style manager — you design the controls your users get
- No HTML/CSS export path out of the box; you render the tree yourself
- Tied to React, so the editor cannot travel to another frontend
- A small ecosystem: few ready-made extensions to drop in
The cost is engineering the editor interface. The return is an editor that matches your architecture exactly.
GrapesJS
Best suited for teams that want working visual editor infrastructure to extend.
What you get
- Canvas, blocks, layers, styles, assets and commands already exist and work together
- Responsive device editing and a visual style manager on day one
- Runs as a library in any page, so the editor is not tied to one frontend framework
- A documented plugin API plus a catalogue of ready-made extensions
- Clean HTML and CSS out of the box, plus serializable project data
What it costs
- The canvas is HTML, not your React tree — a React design system has to be mirrored as components
- You inherit an editor architecture rather than designing one
- Deep customization means learning the module APIs before you can bend them
- Matching a very opinionated product design takes real work on the panels
The cost is learning an architecture somebody else designed. The return is an editor that already works.
See it running
Open in a new tabThree editors, one engine
The official demo: drag blocks onto the canvas, edit styles in the style manager, switch device widths, inspect the layer tree. No plugins, no configuration — this is what the core includes.
grapesjs.com/demo.htmlOpen source
Loads from a third-party origin
All three run the same open-source engine. The difference between them is configuration, panels and plugins — which is the practical shape of "extensible visual editor framework". Demos load from third-party origins only after you choose to load them.
React
If your product is React-first
This is the question most readers actually arrive with, and the honest answer splits.
Craft.js is a strong fit when
The editor is not a component in your React app — it is your React app.
Signals
- The editor is fundamentally a React application
- Your content maps directly to React components
- You want React's component model to drive the editor
- Your users are developers or a technical internal team
The canvas renders the same components production renders. Nothing is mirrored, nothing drifts.
GrapesJS is a strong fit when
React is one part of your stack rather than the whole of it.
Signals
- React is only one part of your stack
- You want a framework-independent editor
- You need HTML/CSS visual editing
- You want to reuse the editor across different application environments
The editor UI can be React while the canvas stays HTML — which is what makes it portable.
The canvas is the real distinction. Craft.js renders your React tree inside the editor; GrapesJS edits an HTML document and gives you the resulting HTML and CSS. A React design system can be represented in GrapesJS as editor components, but it is a representation, and keeping that representation in sync with production is work you should plan for.
Framework independence
What if you need more than React?
GrapesJS can serve as an editor foundation across different frontend environments, while Craft.js is specifically designed around React.
GrapesJS
Read that precisely. The engine is a JavaScript library that mounts onto a DOM element, which is what makes it usable from any of the frontend environments above. It does not mean an official wrapper exists for every one of them: there is an official React wrapper, and the Vue and Angular integrations are patterns rather than packages. The per-framework pages below show the actual integration code.
SaaS
Building a visual editor into your SaaS?
The editor is one surface among several, and it is the only one either framework has an opinion about. Everything around it stays yours.
- Authentication
- Organizations
- Billing
- Permissions
- Database
- Visual editor
GrapesJS
This diagram would look the same with Craft.js in the place of GrapesJS. Neither framework supplies authentication, organizations, billing, permissions or a database, and a comparison that implies otherwise is selling something.
Use cases
What teams actually build with it
Six shapes the same editing surface takes once it is inside a product. Each one is covered in depth on its own page.
Website builder
Let customers assemble and publish their own sites inside your product, with your components and your hosting.
See the SaaS builder guideCMS editing surface
Put a visual editing layer over content that already lives in your database or a headless CMS.
See the headless CMS setupLanding page builder
Give marketing teams a constrained canvas of approved sections instead of a design tool with no guardrails.
See the landing page buildCustomer portal editor
Embed the editor inside a dashboard your customers already sign in to, rather than sending them elsewhere.
See the embedding guideMulti-tenant builder
Ship the same editor to many tenants with per-tenant branding, block sets and permissions — implemented in your application.
See white-label optionsEmail builder
Reuse the same engine for marketing and transactional email templates instead of buying a second editor.
See the email setupEmbedding
Embed the editor into your product
The editor can become a native part of your application instead of being a separate hosted service. Both frameworks support this; the difference is how much of the surface you assemble before you can ship it.
Your application
The product your users already sign in to
- Your routing and layout
- Your session and permissions
- Your navigation and shell
- Your design tokens
Editing surface
The editor, mounted inside it
Browse plugins- Canvas and panels
- Your block set
- Your components
- Plugins you add
Owned by you
Application shell
- Auth
- Routing
- Tenancy
- Billing
Open source
Editor engine
- Canvas
- Components
- Styles
- Commands
Owned by you
Data layer
- Your API
- Your database
- Your assets
- Your versions
Request path
- Your dashboard
- Visual editor
- GrapesJS
- Your API
- Your database
Design system
Build around your design system
The right editor framework should make it possible to build the editing experience around the components your users actually work with. Both frameworks do this; they differ in what a component is.
From design system to canvas
- Your design system
- Editor component
- Block in the palette
- On the canvas
Typical block set
The sections your users actually place
A block set is a product decision, not a framework feature. These are the sections most teams end up shipping first — constrained, branded and safe to hand to a non-technical user.
Hero
Headline, supporting copy and a primary action, with a locked layout.
Pricing
Plan columns driven by your own data rather than free-form text.
Features
A repeatable grid where the count is bounded and the icons come from your set.
Call to action
A single conversion band with brand-approved colour options only.
Navigation
Site navigation your users can populate but not restructure.
Form
Fields wired to your endpoint, with validation you control.
Testimonials
Quotes and attribution pulled from records rather than retyped.
Product card
A commerce tile bound to a real product, not a picture of one.
Constraints your users cannot break are worth more than a canvas on which anything is possible.
Storage
Connect the editor to your own backend
Both frameworks serialize their state and hand it to you. Neither one stores it. GrapesJS provides a Storage Manager with load and store callbacks; Craft.js gives you the serialized node tree and leaves the transport to your application.
Persistence path
- Editor
- Storage layer
- REST / GraphQL
- Your API
- Your database
Common destinations
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- REST
- GraphQL
- Headless CMS
Your application owns the backend architecture. Neither framework provides a database, an API, versioning, publishing or a CDN, and the list above is a list of things you already run — not features either project provides.
Email
What about email editing?
Email is the clearest case where the two frameworks are not interchangeable. GrapesJS can be extended for email editing workflows through presets that swap the block set and the export format; Craft.js has no equivalent path, because its output is a React tree rather than markup.
Email path
- GrapesJS
- Email components
- MJML / HTML
- Your email infrastructure
- Newsletter builder
- CRM email editor
- Marketing automation templates
- Transactional email templates
- Customer-facing email editor
None of this is automatic. An email editor needs a table-safe block set, an export step and testing across clients — the engine removes the canvas problem, not the email problem.
White-label
Make the editor part of your brand
Both frameworks let you own the surface, from opposite directions: with Craft.js you write it, so it is yours by default; with GrapesJS you replace the interface the framework already provides. Three levels, in the order teams usually reach them.
- 01
Surface
The parts a user sees on the first screen.
- Colours, type and spacing from your tokens
- Your logo and product name in the editor interface
- Custom panels and toolbars
- Icons from your own set
- 02
Vocabulary
The words your product already uses for these ideas.
- Rename blocks, sectors and commands
- Translate the interface into your locales
- Replace generic labels with domain terms
- Hide the panels your users have no use for
- 03
Capability
What each user is allowed to do at all.
- Per-tenant block sets
- Locked sections and read-only regions
- Approval and review steps
- Roles and audit — implemented in your application
The last layer is the one no editor framework provides. Roles, approval and audit are application features on both sides of this comparison.
Licensing
Licensing
Verified against each package's current registry entry and licence file on the date below, because this site has published inconsistent licence information in the past.
| Package | License | Source |
|---|---|---|
| grapesjs | BSD-3-Clause | License |
| @grapesjs/react | MIT | License |
| @craftjs/core | MIT | License |
| GJS.Market | Per-product commercial terms | Marketplace |
Marketplace products are licensed individually by their authors; the terms are shown on each product page before checkout. The GrapesJS core and its React wrapper carry different licences — the core is not MIT. Craft.js publishes all of its packages under one licence.
This is a statement of which licence each package publishes, not legal advice. Read the licence files and check them against your own distribution model. Licences re-read on 2026-09-03.
Cost
Compare total engineering cost
There is no hour figure on this page. "Forty hours versus three hundred and twenty" depends entirely on your team, your design and your definition of done, and any page that quotes it is guessing. What follows is the work that exists on each side, so you can price it against your own velocity.
Craft.js
Potential engineering work before you have an editor your users can use.
- Editor interface
- Toolbars, side panels, selection affordances and the layout that holds them.
- Block palette
- A palette UI plus the metadata that decides what can be dropped where.
- Style controls
- Typography, spacing, colour and layout controls, and the props they write to.
- Asset management
- Upload, browse, select and replace, wired to your storage.
- Responsive controls
- Breakpoint switching in the canvas and per-breakpoint values in the model.
- Persistence
- Serialize, transport, version and restore — the tree is given to you, the pipeline is not.
- Templates and publishing
- Starting points for users, and whatever "published" means in your product.
GrapesJS
More editor infrastructure is already available, which reduces how much editor-specific infrastructure is implemented from scratch. It does not reduce it to zero.
- Integration
- Mounting the editor in your app, in your framework, with your build.
- Your block set
- Turning your design system into blocks and components — the real work on this side.
- Storage wiring
- Pointing the Storage Manager at your API and handling failures and conflicts.
- Panel customization
- Replacing or restyling the panels that do not match your product.
- Application features
- Roles, approval, versioning, publishing and tenancy — yours on both sides.
Both columns end at the same place: an editor your users can use, inside an application you still have to build. The difference is which of these lines your team writes first.
Marketplace
What do you need to build?
Start with the core editor and add the functionality your product actually needs. Every listing below is a real, currently published product — prices are read live from the catalogue when this page is built.
React page builder
Presets and components for teams mounting the editor inside a React application.
Browse categoryReact UI
React UI for GrapesJS
Editor panels rendered as React components, so the editor interface matches the app around it.
FreeView
Preset
Reactor Preset for GrapesJS
A configured starting point for a React-hosted editor rather than a blank init call.
FreeView
Component
Hero React Component GrapesJS
A worked example of a React component exposed to the canvas as an editable block.
FreeView
Starter
GrapesJS React Demo — Starter Integration for React Developers
A minimal integration to read before wiring the editor into your own React tree.
FreeView
Email blocks
GrapesJS Email Blocky – Premium Responsive Email Blocks
A responsive email block set, so the first email template is not hand-written tables.
$69.00View
MJML preset
MJML Preset
Swaps the canvas to an email component model and exports markup email clients accept.
FreeView
Email preset
Newsletter Preset
A newsletter-shaped block set and export path for marketing email.
FreeView
Document blocks
GrapesJS Document Blocky
Long-form document blocks for editors that produce pages rather than landing pages.
$69.00View
SaaS builder
Persistence and multi-page management — the pieces a product needs once more than one person edits.
Browse categoryStorage
Directus Storage
Persists project data straight into a headless CMS instead of a bespoke endpoint.
FreeView
Storage
Grapesjs Firebase Storage
Storage wiring for teams already running on a hosted document database.
FreeView
Storage
IndexedDB Storage
Local persistence for drafts, offline editing and prototypes before the API exists.
FreeView
Multi-page
Pages Manager
Multi-page projects in one editor session — the point where a demo becomes a product.
$25.00View
Landing page builder
Block libraries, sections and template management for marketing pages.
Browse categoryBlocks
Plugin Blocky for Tailwind CSS
A utility-class block library, so the canvas output matches an existing design system.
$59.00View
Section
Super Header for GrapesJS
A configurable navigation section, which is otherwise the first thing every team rebuilds.
$39.00View
Section
Super Footer for GrapesJS
The matching footer section, with the same configuration model.
$39.00View
Templates
Templates Manager
Saved starting points your users pick from instead of facing an empty canvas.
$39.00View
White-label builder
For a white-label editor the starting point is a preset that replaces the whole shell rather than a plugin that adds to it — the three demos above are exactly those, and each one is a product.
Browse by category
The catalogue has two genuinely AI-powered listings rather than a full AI category. They are named here instead of given their own section: the AI category hub has nothing published behind it, so sending readers there would waste the click.
Start with the core editor and add the functionality your product actually needs.
Catalogue verified 2026-09-03. grapesjs-gpt-plugin · grapesjs-image-ai-thumbai
Implementation
Talk to a GrapesJS expert
If the comparison above lands on GrapesJS and the block set is the work in front of you, this is what we do.
- Mounting the editor inside an existing application
- Turning a design system into editor components and blocks
- Wiring the Storage Manager to your API and database
- Adding an email authoring path to an existing editor
- White-labelling the shell, panels and vocabulary
- Porting an editor built on another framework
Decision
Which framework should you choose?
Fourteen requirements, and the framework each one points at. Three of them point at both, because for those requirements either framework will do and pretending otherwise would make the rest of this table less trustworthy.
| Requirement | Better fit |
|---|---|
| React-first editor | Craft.js |
| Deep React component editing | Craft.js |
| Build your own editor UX | Craft.js |
| Maximum React-native control | Craft.js |
| Editor used only by developers | Craft.js |
| Framework-independent editor | GrapesJS |
| Built-in visual editor infrastructure | GrapesJS |
| HTML/CSS visual editing | GrapesJS |
| SaaS page builder | GrapesJS |
| Email and page editor in one engine | GrapesJS |
| Existing editor ecosystem | GrapesJS |
| JSON project data you store yourself | Either |
| Self-hosting with no vendor | Either |
| Undo and redo out of the box | Either |
Where does your product sit?
The editor has to output a live React component tree
Craft.js
This is the case Craft.js exists for. No GrapesJS plugin changes the fact that its canvas is HTML.
You want to design every panel and control yourself
Craft.js
Craft.js expects you to render the surface, so nothing has to be replaced first.
The editor is used only by developers on your own team
Craft.js
A purpose-built React editor is cheaper to maintain than a general one you have narrowed down.
The editor has to run outside React, now or later
GrapesJS
GrapesJS mounts onto a DOM element, so it is reachable from any frontend environment.
You need a usable editor this quarter
GrapesJS
Canvas, blocks, styles, layers and assets already exist and already work together.
You need both page and email authoring
GrapesJS
One engine covers both through email presets; a React tree does not become email markup.
Questions
GrapesJS and Craft.js, answered
What is the difference between GrapesJS and Craft.js?
Craft.js is a React framework for building custom page and editor experiences: it supplies a serializable node tree, drag-and-drop, an undo/redo history and React APIs, and you render the editor interface with your own React components. GrapesJS is a visual editor framework that arrives with more of the editor already built — a canvas, a component model, a block palette, a visual style manager, a layer tree, an asset manager, a command registry and a storage layer. The practical question is whether you want to build a highly custom React editor from lower-level primitives or start from a more complete visual-editor foundation.
Is GrapesJS an alternative to Craft.js?
For most projects, yes — both are open-source frameworks for building an editor into software you own, and either can be the foundation for a page builder. They are not drop-in replacements for each other, though: the canvas models differ, so moving between them means re-implementing components rather than swapping a dependency. If you are specifically evaluating a replacement or a migration, the dedicated Craft.js alternative page covers that path.
Is Craft.js React-only?
Yes. Craft.js is built on React and declares React as a peer dependency, currently across the 16.8 to 19 range. There is no Vue, Angular or vanilla-JavaScript build, and its component model assumes React throughout. That is a design decision rather than an omission — being React-native is what lets your production components be the components on the canvas.
Is GrapesJS framework independent?
The engine is a JavaScript library that mounts onto a DOM element, so it can run inside a React, Vue, Angular, Next.js or plain-JavaScript application. That is not the same as saying an official wrapper exists for each: there is an official React wrapper package, while the Vue and Angular integrations are documented patterns rather than maintained packages. The per-framework pages on this site show the actual mounting and teardown code for each environment.
Which is better for a React page builder?
It depends on what the builder produces. If the output is a React component tree and your users are editing your own components directly, Craft.js is the closer fit. If the output is HTML and CSS that has to render outside React — a published page, an exported template, an email — GrapesJS fits better, with the editor interface still written in React. Both are viable; the canvas model, not the interface, is what decides it.
Which is better for a SaaS page builder?
Usually GrapesJS, for a scheduling reason rather than a technical one. A SaaS builder goes out to customers who expect style controls, responsive editing, an asset picker and a layer tree on day one, and those exist in GrapesJS already. Craft.js can absolutely power a SaaS builder — it just means building that surface before the first customer sees it. Everything around the editor, including tenancy, roles and billing, is your application's job either way.
Does GrapesJS include a visual editor?
Yes. Installing it gives you a working editor: a canvas with drag-and-drop, a block palette, a visual style manager, a layer tree, an asset manager, device widths, an undo manager and a storage layer, all wired together. You will still configure it, restyle the panels and supply your own blocks before shipping to users, but you are editing an editor rather than assembling one.
Does Craft.js include a complete visual editor?
No, and it does not set out to. Its documentation describes modularising the building blocks of a page editor rather than shipping one: you get the node tree, drag-and-drop behaviour, history and serialization, plus an official layers panel package, and you build the editing interface in React on top. For a team that wants the interface to be theirs, that is the feature.
Can GrapesJS work with React?
Yes. There is an official React wrapper package that mounts the editor and exposes its panels as React components, so the editor interface can be part of your React tree. The important nuance is that the canvas itself renders HTML rather than your React components — your design system is represented in the editor as components, and keeping that representation in sync with production is work worth planning for.
Can GrapesJS work with Vue and Angular?
Yes, with the same caveat as any DOM-mounted library: you initialise it after the component mounts and destroy it on teardown, keeping the instance out of the framework's reactivity system. There is no official Vue or Angular package, so these are integration patterns rather than dependencies. The Vue and Angular pages on this site walk through the lifecycle code for each.
Can I build an email editor with GrapesJS?
Yes, by swapping the block set and the export target. Email presets replace the canvas component model with one that produces markup email clients accept, including an MJML path. It is not automatic — you still need a table-safe block set, an export step and client testing — but the engine removes the canvas problem. Craft.js has no equivalent path, because its output is a React tree rather than markup.
Can I self-host GrapesJS?
Yes. It is an open-source library you install from npm and serve from your own application; there is no account, no hosted service and no phone-home. The same is true of Craft.js. Self-hosting is one of the axes on which these two frameworks do not differ, which is worth saying plainly on a comparison page.
Can I connect GrapesJS to my own database?
Yes. The Storage Manager exposes load and store callbacks, so you decide the endpoint, the payload shape and the transport — REST, GraphQL or anything else your application already speaks. Project data is JSON, so it can live in PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB or a headless CMS. Craft.js serializes its node tree the same way and leaves the transport entirely to you.
Can I build a white-label editor?
Yes, and the two frameworks arrive at it from opposite directions. With Craft.js the surface is yours by default because you wrote it. With GrapesJS you replace the interface it provides: restyle the panels, rename blocks and sectors, translate the interface and hide what your users have no use for. Capability-level branding — per-tenant block sets, locked regions, approval steps — is application work on both sides.
Can I create custom components?
Yes, in both, and this is the closest the two get to each other. In Craft.js a custom component is a React component annotated with editor settings. In GrapesJS a custom component is a type registered with the component model plus a block that places it. Both let you constrain what users can change; the difference is whether the thing on the canvas is a React element or a DOM element the editor manages.
Does GrapesJS provide a CMS?
No. It provides the editing surface and hands you serialized project data. Content models, workflow, versioning, scheduling, roles and delivery are your application's or your CMS's job. If you already run a headless CMS, the editor can sit on top of it as an editing layer — that is a common setup, but it is an integration you build rather than a feature you enable. The same is true of Craft.js.
Does GrapesJS provide hosting?
No. Neither framework hosts anything. There is no vendor infrastructure in either architecture: the editor runs in your page, the data goes to your API, and publishing means whatever your application decides it means. If you want a hosted visual content platform instead of a framework, that is a different category of product and a different comparison.
How much does it cost to build a GrapesJS-based editor?
The framework costs nothing — it is open source, with no licence fee and no per-seat pricing, and the same goes for Craft.js. The real cost is engineering: translating your design system into blocks and components, wiring storage, customizing panels and building the application features around the editor. This page deliberately does not quote an hour or dollar figure, because it depends entirely on your team and your definition of done. Marketplace plugins reduce specific pieces of that work and are priced per product.
Next step
Build the visual editor your product needs
Craft.js gives React teams a flexible foundation for building custom editors. GrapesJS gives teams a broader visual-editor foundation that can be integrated, customized, and extended for production applications.
Explore GJS.Market plugins
Presets, block libraries, storage adapters and email components — the pieces most teams would otherwise write first.
Explore pluginsTalk to a GrapesJS expert
Design systems turned into blocks, storage wired to your API, panels rebuilt to match your product.
Talk to an expertChoose the editor foundation that matches your architecture — then build the product around it.
Replacing Craft.js in an existing productMounting the editor in a React applicationDesigning a page builder for React teamsThe same engine inside a Vue applicationEditor lifecycle in an Angular appServer rendering and the editor in Next.jsPutting the editor inside your dashboardPackaging a builder as a commercial productBranding, tenancy and approval workflowsAuthoring email on this engineHow drag-and-drop email builders workThe open-source page builder landscapeImplementation and migration help