Tiptap open-sources 10 formerly Pro extensions under MIT license

Hi HN, as of the end of June, we’re open-sourcing a bunch of extensions that used to be part of our paid tier. They’ll be available for free under the MIT license. These include things like emoji support, drag handles, invisible characters, math, file handling, and more. Full list is at the bottom.

We started Tiptap a few years ago because we were frustrated by the state of rich text editors for modern apps. Most were either too limited, too rigid, or tried to solve everything with a monolithic setup. We wanted something more composable and framework-friendly, so we built it.

We originally monetized by selling individual “Pro” extensions. That worked early on, but over time we realized these smaller pieces weren’t where our value was. They were common needs, but not really our moat. In the meantime we’re focusing on larger feature bundles (like collaborative editing, AI-assisted content, documents, etc) that solve complete problems and include backend infra, UI components, and integration logic.

At the same time, we’ve sunset the free tier of Tiptap Cloud (where those extensions were included) and switched to a time-limited free trial. That wasn’t an easy call, but it helps us keep things sustainable while still supporting the open source side of the project and build the ecosystem and platform around.

We chose MIT over more restrictive licenses because we don’t want developers to worry about using these extensions in commercial work or side projects. That freedom is important to us. We’ll keep our core editor and these extensions open. The paid features now live in well-defined bundles tied to real product outcomes.

Here’s what’s free and open:

  - Details, DetailsContent, DetailsSummary
  - Emoji
  - DragHandle (React and Vue)
  - FileHandler
  - InvisibleCharacters
  - Mathematics
  - TableOfContents
  - UniqueID

Happy to answer questions, or just hear what you think. Curious how other folks have handled licensing shifts like this, or if you’ve had similar tradeoffs in open source vs. business goals.

Thanks, Philip