Software Alternatives & Startups
Register | Login

HTMLAsText VS html2text

Compare HTMLAsText VS html2text and see what are their differences

HTMLAsText

convert HTML documents to simple text files, by removing all HTML tags and formatting the text according to your preferences.

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
html2text

html2text is a command line utility, written in C++, that converts HTML documents into plain text.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Alternatives Is it good?
DocRaptor
As the only API powered by the Prince HTML-to-PDF engine, DocRaptor provides the best support for complex PDFs with powerful support for headers, page breaks, page numbers, flexbox, watermarks, accessible PDFs, and much more sponsored
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Text Tools popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
8 vs 10

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

HTMLAsText
html2text
Website nirsoft.net mbayer.de
Pricing —
Open source
Listed in
Writing Tools Text Tools Text Editors Data Cleansing +1
HTML To PDF PDF Conversion API PDF Tools PDF Creator +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

HTMLAsText 0 features
html2text 4 features

No features have been listed yet.

  • Preservation of Content Structure
    html2text retains the logical structure of HTML documents, converting them into plain text while preserving headings, lists, and emphasis, making the text easier to read and understand.
  • Compatibility
    The tool is compatible with various systems and can be easily integrated into workflows, as it is available as a standalone tool and a Python package.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source tool, html2text allows developers to modify and improve the code according to their needs, fostering community contributions and transparency.
  • Ease of Use
    html2text provides a simple and straightforward interface for converting HTML to text, requiring minimal setup and configuration, which makes it accessible to users of different skill levels.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Formatting
    While it preserves the overall structure, html2text does not retain complex styles and formatting found in HTML, which may lead to loss of visual appeal and usability for documents relying on intricate layouts.
  • Performance
    For very large HTML files, the performance of html2text can be suboptimal, leading to slower processing times compared to some more optimized tools.
  • Dependency on Python
    The tool requires a Python environment, which might add additional steps for users who do not already have Python installed or who are operating in environments where installing Python is not feasible.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

HTMLAsText
html2text

No analysis of HTMLAsText yet.

Overall verdict

  • html2text is a mature, reliable command-line utility and Python library that converts HTML into clean, readable Markdown or plain text. Originally created by Aaron Swartz and now maintained by Alir3z4 (with the mbayer.de reference pointing to the same lineage of tools), it remains a solid, well-tested choice for straightforward HTML-to-text conversion tasks.

Why this product is good

  • Free and open source with a permissive license
  • Produces clean, readable Markdown-formatted output rather than just stripped text
  • Available both as a command-line tool and an importable Python library
  • Highly configurable with numerous options for controlling links, images, line wrapping, and formatting
  • Lightweight with minimal dependencies, making it easy to integrate into scripts and pipelines
  • Mature and stable codebase with a long history and active community maintenance

Recommended for

  • Developers who need to convert HTML content into Markdown or plain text programmatically
  • Data processing and web scraping pipelines that require readable text extraction
  • Content migration projects moving from HTML-based systems to Markdown
  • Automated documentation and email-to-text conversion workflows
  • Python projects needing a lightweight, dependency-light HTML conversion library
  • Users comfortable with command-line tools for batch HTML processing

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
HTMLAsText
html2text
100% 100%
Text Tools
0% 0%
0% 0%
HTML To PDF
100% 100%
100% 100%
Text Editors
0% 0%
0% 0%
PDF Conversion API
100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using HTMLAsText and html2text. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Log in or Post with

Alternatives to HTMLAsText and html2text

When comparing HTMLAsText and html2text, you can also consider the following products.

Loading...