CKEditor CDN

Speed up your website by loading CKEditor from CDN:

CKEditor is hosted on servers spread across the globe - scripts are loaded faster because they are served from the nearest locations to the end user.
If the same version of CKEditor has already been downloaded (even on a different website), it is loaded from cache.
CDN reduces the number of HTTP requests handled by your server so it speeds it up as well!

CKEditor 5

To start using CKEditor 5 Builds on your website, add a single <script> tag to your HTML page:

<script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/38.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js"></script>

Quick example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
        <head>
                <meta charset="utf-8">
                <title>CKEditor</title>
                <script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/38.0.1/classic/ckeditor.js"></script>
        </head>
        <body>
                <div id="editor">This is some sample content.</div>
                <script>
                        ClassicEditor
                                .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ) )
                                .then( editor => {
                                        console.log( editor );
                                } )
                                .catch( error => {
                                        console.error( error );
                                } );
                </script>
        </body>
</html>

URL Structure

The URL structure for CKEditor 5 is as follows:

<script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/ckeditor5/[version.number]/[distribution]/ckeditor.js"></script>

The following distributions (see CKEditor 5 Builds overview) are available:

classic - the Classic editor
inline - the Inline editor
balloon - the Balloon editor
balloon-block - the Balloon block editor
decoupled-document - the Document editor
multi-root - the Multi-root editor
superbuild - the Superbuild

When choosing a different build than Classic editor, make sure in the example above to change not only the URL to a build but also the initialization code as each build comes with a different editor class (ClassicEditor, InlineEditor, BalloonEditor (used by Baloon editor and Balloon block editor), DecoupledEditor, MultiRootEditor).

CKEditor 4

To start using CKEditor 4 on your website, add a single <script> tag to your HTML page:

<script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.21.0/standard/ckeditor.js"></script>

Quick example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
        <head>
                <meta charset="utf-8">
                <title>CKEditor</title>
                <script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.21.0/standard/ckeditor.js"></script>
        </head>
        <body>
                <textarea name="editor1"></textarea>
                <script>
                        CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1' );
                </script>
        </body>
</html>

URL Structure

The URL structure for CKEditor 4 is as follows:

<script src="https://cdn.ckeditor.com/[version.number]/[distribution]/ckeditor.js"></script>

The following distributions (see comparison table) are available:

basic - the Basic preset
standard - the Standard preset
standard-all - the Standard preset together with all other plugins created by CKSource*
full - the Full preset
full-all - the Full preset together with all other plugins created by CKSource*

* Plugins not included in a preset need to be enabled with config.extraPlugins.

Note: Due to a human error to use CKEditor 4.4.5, you should specify 4.4.5.1. The path that points to 4.4.5 actually points to an older version of CKEditor (4.3.5). To avoid issues on existing installations, we decided to keep the (invalid) old version under that path.

Enabling Local Plugins

To enable an extra plugin from a local folder while using CKEditor CDN, CKEDITOR.plugins.addExternal() must be called first so that CKEditor knew from where to load the plugin.

The CKEDITOR.plugins.addExternal() method accepts three parameters:

The name of the plugin.
The location of the plugin. Make sure that the path starts with a slash character ("/").
File name (usually "plugin.js").

// Enable local "abbr" plugin from /myplugins/abbr/ folder.
CKEDITOR.plugins.addExternal( 'abbr', '/myplugins/abbr/', 'plugin.js' );

// extraPlugins needs to be set too.
CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1', {
        extraPlugins: 'abbr'
} );

Enabling Local Skins

Enabling skins from a local folder is even easier than enabling plugins. To use a custom CKEditor skin while using CKEditor CDN, use config.skin and provide both, the skin name and the full URL after a comma:

// Enable "moonocolor" skin from the /myskins/moonocolor/ folder.
CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1', {
        skin: 'moonocolor,/myskins/moonocolor/'
} );

Local Configuration Files

Some features in CKEditor are configured through JavaScript files by default. Since all files are loaded from remote CDN, there is no way to modify them directly. You can however instruct CKEditor to load local files instead, if you need to:

config.customConfig - The path to CKEditor configuration file. For more details, see Setting CKEditor Configuration.
config.contentsCss - The CSS file(s) to be used to apply style to the content.
config.stylesSet - The "styles definition set" to use in the styles dropdown list. For more details, see Setting Styles.
config.templates_files - The list of template files to use in the templates dialog window.

In case of setting any of the options above, it is highly recommended to download locally the same CKEditor package that is loaded from CDN in order to copy included configuration files and use them as base files for adding additional changes.

// Always provide paths that start with a slash character ("/").
CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1', {
        customConfig: '/ckeditor_settings/config.js'
} );