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Regex Forge VS regular expressions 101

Compare Regex Forge VS regular expressions 101 and see what are their differences

Regex Forge logo Regex Forge

An Ultimate Regex Editor for macOS

regular expressions 101 logo regular expressions 101

Extensive regex tester and debugger with highlighting for PHP, PCRE, Python and JavaScript.
  • Regex Forge
    Image date //
    2024-03-27

Simplify regex pattern creation with real-time previews, detailed explanations, AI-powered assistance, and a library of community-contributed patterns, all within an intuitive macOS-native interface.

  • regular expressions 101 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30

Regex Forge

$ Details
paid Free Trial $19.0 / One-off
Platforms
MacOS
Release Date
2025 January

Regex Forge features and specs

  • Instant Visual Feedback
    Craft and refine your regex patterns with real-time visual feedback, instantly showcasing matches and replacements as you type.
  • Visual Pattern Inspector
    Deconstruct complex regular expressions with the Pattern Inspector, which breaks down each token and presents an easy-to-follow visual representation of your regex.
  • Regex Replace with Live Preview
    Modify text effortlessly using regex replace, with a real-time preview that ensures your patterns produce the intended results.
  • Built-in Regex Cheat Sheet
    Quickly reference key regex syntax with the built-in cheat sheet, giving you instant access to essential regular expressions and their usage.
  • AI-Powered Regex Assistance
    Interact with an AI chat assistant (API key required) to get real-time help with regex. This integrated chat can guide you through pattern creation, answer questions, and troubleshoot issues, making regex more approachable.
  • Community-Contributed Pattern Library
    Speed up your workflow with a curated collection of regex patterns shared by the community, covering common tasks like email validation, date extraction, and more.

regular expressions 101 features and specs

  • Interactive Learning
    Regex101 provides an interactive environment where users can test and learn regular expressions in real-time, making the learning process more engaging and practical.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The site offers extensive documentation and references for different regular expression flavors (PCRE, JavaScript, Python, and Golang), facilitating easy access to syntax and usage examples.
  • Error Highlighting
    Regex101 highlights errors in your regular expressions and provides explanations, which helps users quickly identify and correct mistakes.
  • Quick Reference
    A quick reference guide is available on the platform, which helps users look up common regular expression tokens and their meanings without leaving the page.
  • Saved Workspaces
    Users can save their regular expressions and test cases in workspaces, making it convenient to revisit and continue working on them at a later time.
  • Community Support
    The platform has community features wherein users can share their regular expressions and get feedback or suggestions from others.

Possible disadvantages of regular expressions 101

  • Limited to Browser
    Regex101 is a web-based tool, and its usage is restricted to browsers with internet access, limiting its offline availability and performance in a development environment.
  • User Interface Complexity
    For beginners, the user interface can be somewhat overwhelming due to the numerous options and features available, leading to a steeper learning curve.
  • Performance Limitations
    While sufficient for most use cases, Regex101 may struggle with very large datasets or extremely complex regular expressions, causing performance issues.
  • Dependency on External Product
    Relying on an external service means users are dependent on the platform's availability and continued maintenance, which can be a risk if the service goes down or changes significantly.
  • Potential Overreliance
    Frequent use of Regex101 for developing regular expressions may lead to an overreliance on the tool, potentially hindering the development of strong, intrinsic regex skills.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Regex Forge and regular expressions 101)
Regular Expressions
7 7%
93% 93
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Programming Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, regular expressions 101 seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 881 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Regex Forge mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Regex Forge yet. Tracking of Regex Forge recommendations started around Mar 2024.

regular expressions 101 mentions (881)

  • Regex Isn't Hard (2023)
    In practice, the first unpaired ] is treated as an ordinary character (at least according to https://regex101.com/) - which does nothing to make this regex fit for its intended purpose. I'm not sure whether this is according to spec. (I think it is, though that does not really matter compared to what the implementations actually do.) Characters which are sometimes special, depending on context, are one more thing... - Source: Hacker News / 10 days ago
  • Regex Isn't Hard (2023)
    > unreadable once written (to me anyway) https://regex101.com can explain your regex back to you. - Source: Hacker News / 10 days ago
  • Catching Trailing Spaces - A Superhero's Story!
    To try out our newfound regex, I will use the website called RegEx101. It's a superhero favourite, so you better bookmark it for later 🔖. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How I accidentally wrote a simple Markdown editor
    Let's break it down a bit. You can use Regex101 to follow me. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 22 Unique Developer Resources You Should Explore
    URL: https://regex101.com What it does: Test and debug regular expressions with instant explanations. Why it's great: Simplifies regex learning and ensures patterns work as intended. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Regex Forge and regular expressions 101, you can also consider the following products

RegexBuddy - RegexBuddy is your perfect companion for working with regular expressions.

RegExr - RegExr.com is an online tool to learn, build, and test Regular Expressions.

Patterns - Patterns is a simple yet powerful tool for working with regular expressions.

rubular - A ruby based regular expression editor

Expressions - An app to play with regular expressions. Easily and nicely.

Expresso - The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions.