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Migrate from Quill to Tiptap

Editor

Tiptap is a popular Quill alternative and migrating from Quill to Tiptap is straightforward. This guide will help you transition smoothly from Quill's Delta format to Tiptap's extension system.

Content migration

HTML content compatibility

Quill uses the Delta format for content storage, which needs to be converted to HTML for Tiptap:

// Convert Quill Delta to HTML first
const quill = new Quill('#temp-editor')
quill.setContents(existingDeltaContent)
const htmlContent = quill.root.innerHTML

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

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

// Your existing Quill 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 Quill initialization with Tiptap:

// Quill (before)
const quill = new Quill('#editor', {
  theme: 'snow',
  modules: {
    toolbar: [
      ['bold', 'italic', 'underline'],
      ['link', 'image'],
      [{ list: 'ordered' }, { list: 'bullet' }],
      [{ header: [1, 2, 3, false] }],
    ],
  },
})

// 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 Quill's module system. Each feature is an independent extension that can be configured and customized.

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 Quill module equivalents

Quill FeatureTiptap ExtensionNotes
BoldBoldIncluded in StarterKit
ItalicItalicIncluded in StarterKit
UnderlineUnderlineIncluded in StarterKit
LinkLinkIncluded in StarterKit
ImageImageAvailable separately
List (bullet/ordered)BulletList, OrderedList, ListItemIncluded in StarterKit
HeaderHeadingIncluded in StarterKit
BlockquoteBlockquoteIncluded in StarterKit
Code BlockCodeBlockIncluded in StarterKit
StrikeStrikeIncluded in StarterKit
ColorTextStyle, ColorAvailable separately
BackgroundTextStyle, HighlightAvailable separately
AlignTextAlignAvailable separately

Extension configuration 

import { Editor } from '@tiptap/core'
import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'
import Image from '@tiptap/extension-image'
import TextAlign from '@tiptap/extension-text-align'
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,
    }),
    TextAlign.configure({
      types: ['heading', 'paragraph'],
    }),
    TextStyle,
    Color.configure({
      types: [TextStyle.name, ListItem.name],
    }),
  ],
})

Custom extensions

For Quill custom modules or blots, create custom Tiptap extensions. See our custom extensions guide for detailed instructions.

UI implementation

Toolbar implementation

Quill's toolbar configuration translates to custom UI components in Tiptap:

// Quill toolbar config
toolbar: [
  ['bold', 'italic', 'underline'],
  ['link', 'image'],
  [{ list: 'ordered' }, { list: 'bullet' }],
  [{ header: [1, 2, 3, false] }],
]

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

  return (
    <div className="toolbar">
      <div className="toolbar-group">
        <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>

      <div className="toolbar-group">
        <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>
        <button
          onClick={() => {
            const url = window.prompt('Image URL')
            if (url) {
              editor.chain().focus().setImage({ src: url }).run()
            }
          }}
        >
          Image
        </button>
      </div>

      <div className="toolbar-group">
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleOrderedList().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('orderedList') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Numbered List
        </button>
        <button
          onClick={() => editor.chain().focus().toggleBulletList().run()}
          className={editor.isActive('bulletList') ? 'active' : ''}
        >
          Bullet List
        </button>
      </div>

      <div className="toolbar-group">
        <select
          onChange={(e) => {
            const level = parseInt(e.target.value)
            if (level === 0) {
              editor.chain().focus().setParagraph().run()
            } else {
              editor.chain().focus().toggleHeading({ level }).run()
            }
          }}
          value={
            editor.isActive('heading', { level: 1 })
              ? 1
              : editor.isActive('heading', { level: 2 })
                ? 2
                : editor.isActive('heading', { level: 3 })
                  ? 3
                  : 0
          }
        >
          <option value={0}>Normal</option>
          <option value={1}>Heading 1</option>
          <option value={2}>Heading 2</option>
          <option value={3}>Heading 3</option>
        </select>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

Pre-built UI components

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

Bubble toolbar (Quill's bubble theme)

Replicate Quill's bubble theme using Tiptap's BubbleMenu:

import { BubbleMenu, useEditor } 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>
    </>
  )
}

Migration checklist

Next steps