Migrate from Lexical to Tiptap

Editor

Replace your Lexical editor with a better alternative like Tiptap. Migrating from Lexical to Tiptap is straightforward. This guide will help you transition from Lexical's node-based architecture to Tiptap's extension system.

Content migration

HTML content compatibility

Lexical uses its own JSON structure that needs to be converted for Tiptap. You can serialize Lexical content to HTML:

// Convert Lexical JSON to HTML
import { $generateHtmlFromNodes } from '@lexical/html'
import { $getRoot } from 'lexical'

// Assuming you have a Lexical editor instance
const htmlContent = editor.update(() => {
  const root = $getRoot()
  return $generateHtmlFromNodes(editor, root)
})

// Use HTML content in Tiptap
const tiptapEditor = new Editor({
  content: htmlContent,
  extensions: [StarterKit],
})

If you already have HTML output from Lexical, you can use it directly:

// Your existing Lexical HTML content
const existingContent = '<p>Hello <strong>world</strong>!</p>'

// Use directly in Tiptap
const editor = new Editor({
  content: existingContent,
  extensions: [StarterKit],
})

While HTML works perfectly, we recommend converting it to Tiptap's JSON format for better performance and readability. For batch conversion of existing content, use the HTML utility to convert HTML to JSON programmatically.

Editor setup

Installation

First, install Tiptap and its dependencies:

npm install @tiptap/core @tiptap/starter-kit

Tiptap supports all modern frontend UI frameworks like React and Vue. Follow the framework-specific installation instructions in our installation guides.

Basic editor setup

Replace your Lexical editor with Tiptap:

// Lexical (before)
import { createEditor } from 'lexical'
import { LexicalComposer } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposer'
import { RichTextPlugin } from '@lexical/react/LexicalRichTextPlugin'
import { ContentEditable } from '@lexical/react/LexicalContentEditable'

const initialConfig = {
  namespace: 'MyEditor',
  theme: {},
  onError: console.error,
}

function MyLexicalEditor() {
  return (
    <LexicalComposer initialConfig={initialConfig}>
      <RichTextPlugin
        contentEditable={<ContentEditable />}
        placeholder={<div>Enter some text...</div>}
      />
    </LexicalComposer>
  )
}

// Tiptap (after)
import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'

const editor = new Editor({
  element: document.querySelector('#editor'),
  extensions: [StarterKit],
  content: '<p>Hello World!</p>',
})

Extensions

Understanding Tiptap's extension system

Tiptap uses a modular extension system that resembles Lexical's node and plugin architecture. Each feature is an independent extension with clear APIs.

The StarterKit is a bundle of all the basic extensions, and you can add or remove other extensions as needed.

Explore all available extensions in our extensions guide, or create your own to support custom functionality and HTML elements.

Common Lexical plugin equivalents

Lexical Plugin/Node	Tiptap Extension	Notes
`@lexical/rich-text`	`Bold`, `Italic`	Included in StarterKit
`@lexical/link`	`Link`	Included in StarterKit
`@lexical/list`	`BulletList`, `OrderedList`, `ListItem`	Included in StarterKit
`@lexical/code`	`Code`, `CodeBlock`	Included in StarterKit
`@lexical/table`	`Table`	Available separately
`HeadingNode`	`Heading`	Included in StarterKit
`QuoteNode`	`Blockquote`	Included in StarterKit
`ImageNode`	`Image`	Available separately
`@lexical/history`	`History`	Included in StarterKit
`@lexical/text`	`TextStyle`, `Color`	Available separately

Extension configuration

import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'
import Image from '@tiptap/extension-image'
import Table from '@tiptap/extension-table'
import TableRow from '@tiptap/extension-table-row'
import TableHeader from '@tiptap/extension-table-header'
import TableCell from '@tiptap/extension-table-cell'
import { Color } from '@tiptap/extension-color'
import TextStyle from '@tiptap/extension-text-style'

const editor = new Editor({
  extensions: [
    StarterKit,
    Image.configure({
      inline: true,
      allowBase64: true,
    }),
    Table.configure({
      resizable: true,
    }),
    TableRow,
    TableHeader,
    TableCell,
    TextStyle,
    Color.configure({
      types: [TextStyle.name],
    }),
  ],
})

Custom extensions

For Lexical custom nodes or plugins, create custom Tiptap extensions. See our custom extensions guide for detailed instructions.

UI implementation

Lexical's toolbar plugins translate to custom UI components in Tiptap:

// Lexical toolbar (before)
import { useLexicalComposerContext } from '@lexical/react/LexicalComposerContext'
import { FORMAT_TEXT_COMMAND } from 'lexical'

function ToolbarPlugin() {
  const [editor] = useLexicalComposerContext()

  return (
    <div>
      <button
        onClick={() => {
          editor.dispatchCommand(FORMAT_TEXT_COMMAND, 'bold')
        }}
      >
        Bold
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

// Tiptap equivalent (React example)
function Toolbar({ editor }) {
  if (!editor) return null

  return (
    <div className="toolbar">
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleBold().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('bold') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Bold
      </button>
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleItalic().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('italic') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Italic
      </button>
      <button
        onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleUnderline().run()}
        className={editor.isActive('underline') ? 'active' : ''}
      >
        Underline
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}

Pre-built UI components

For faster development, use Tiptap's pre-built UI components:

Explore our UI components for ready-to-use components
Check out practical examples in our default text editor example

Replicate Lexical's floating toolbar using Tiptap's BubbleMenu:

import { BubbleMenu } from '@tiptap/react'

function MyEditor() {
  const editor = useEditor({
    extensions: [StarterKit],
  })

  return (
    <>
      <EditorContent editor={editor} />
      <BubbleMenu editor={editor}>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleBold().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('bold') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Bold
        </button>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleItalic().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('italic') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Italic
        </button>
        <button
          onClick={() => {
            const url = window.prompt('URL')
            if (url) {
              editor.chain().focus().extendMarkRange('link').setLink({ href: url }).run()
            }
          }}
          className={editor.isActive('link') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Link
        </button>
      </BubbleMenu>
    </>
  )
}

Node views (custom nodes)

Lexical's custom nodes can be replaced with Tiptap's Node Views:

// Lexical custom node (before)
class ImageNode extends DecoratorNode {
  static getType() {
    return 'image'
  }

  createDOM() {
    const img = document.createElement('img')
    img.src = this.__src
    return img
  }
}

// Tiptap Node View (after)
import { Node } from '@tiptap/core'
import { ReactNodeViewRenderer } from '@tiptap/react'

const ImageComponent = ({ node }) => {
  return <img src={node.attrs.src} />
}

const CustomImage = Node.create({
  name: 'customImage',

  addNodeView() {
    return ReactNodeViewRenderer(ImageComponent)
  },
})

Migration checklist

Next steps

Explore the extension overview to discover all available extensions
Learn about custom extensions for advanced customization
Check out our examples for implementation inspiration
Review the performance guide for optimization tips