Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to SimpleSyntaxJs

A lightweight syntax highlighting JS library for textareas

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. SimpleSyntaxJs launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 11J
   1kb JavaScript library for building front end applications▲187

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2AS
   A syntax highlighter for Git and diff output, written in Rust▲261

   2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 31K
   1 KB JavaScript library for building front end apps▲242

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   Rellax.js▲140

   Lightweight, vanilla javascript parallax library

   2016 · its alternatives →

5. 5EA
   Expounder – A small JavaScript library for more engaging tutorials▲134

   2016 · skorokithakis.github.io · its alternatives →

6. 61K
   1 KB JavaScript framework for building front-end applications▲216

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Colorify.js▲179

   The simple, customizable, tiny javascript color extractor

   2015 · its alternatives →

8. 81K
   1 KB JavaScript library for building applications▲116

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Leafjs▲81

   A lightweight web-components based frontend framework

   2022 · its alternatives →

10. 10WA
    WebJSX – A tiny Web Components and JSX library▲26

    2024 · webjsx.org · its alternatives →

11. 11
    simpleParallax.js▲114

    the easiest way to get a parallax effect with javascript

    2017 · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Sketch Syntax Highlighter▲195

    Highlight the syntax of any code snippet in Sketch

    2017 · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Draft.js▲166

    A framework for building rich text editors in React

    2016 · its alternatives →

14. 14WP
    Weekend project - VS2010 CoffeeScript syntax highlighting▲39

    2011 · github.com · its alternatives →

15. 15PC
    Pure CSS/HTML C# syntax highlighting without JavaScript▲53

    C# to HTML converter

    2022 · csharp-colors.xyz · its alternatives →

16. 16
    particles.js▲113

    A lightweight JavaScript library for creating particles.

    2014 · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Code Hike – More than syntax highlighting▲118

    Use Markdown and React to build rich content websites. Documentation, tutorials, blogs, videos, interactive walkthroughs, and more.

    2021 · codehike.org · its alternatives →

18. 18PA
    Polished – A lightweight toolset for writing styles in JavaScript▲106

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19IC
    I created a lightweight JavaScript library to visualize JSON as a graph▲62

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Polished js▲6

    A lightweight toolset for writing styles in JavaScript

    2017 · its alternatives →

21. 21H1
    Hyperapp – 1 KB JavaScript library for building front end apps▲69

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22WB
    Web-based CoffeeScript REPL/console▲36

    2012 · larryng.github.com · its alternatives →

23. 23TJ
    Tiny jQuery alternative with inline Locality of Behavior▲30

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24AJ
    A JavaScript UI library for imperative JSX▲41

    I've been building a web UI library for a side project of mine. I thought it might be useful to others, so I'm releasing it as open source. To put it simply, I realized that most of my pain points with React come from its declarative model ui=f(state). So I'm trying something that I'm calling "imperative JSX." Instead of treating JSX as the source of truth for your UI, it essentially becomes a query interface for DOM manipulation. I first had the idea for it a few months ago, and only began writing it in earnest last week, so it's extremely early and nowhere near production-ready. Still, I'd…

    2024 · npmjs.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →