Comparison of layout engines (HTML)

The following tables compare HTML compatibility and support for a number of layout engines. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.

Only HTML 4 and XHTML 1.0 served as  (so called "HTML compatible" XHTML) are considered. XHTML 1.0 Strict is necessarily XHTML 1.1 with fewer elements and attributes deprecated. XHTML 2.0 is not considered as it is a redefinition of XHTML, which is not backward compatible. For more XHTML-related comparisons, please refer to comparison of layout engines (XHTML).

Version number, if possible, is provided for feature that is fully supported (based on HTML 4.01). Proprietary extensions are not included.

W3C deprecated tags and attributes and proprietary tags are compared in comparison of layout engines (Non-standard HTML).

Global structure elements
The global structure of the document.

Text elements
Elements that represent text.

List elements
Elements that represent lists of information.

Table elements
Elements that represent tabular information.

Link elements
Hyperlinks, one of the primary forces driving the success of the World Wide Web.

Multimedia elements
Multimedia features including images, applets, video clips, and other HTML documents.

Frame elements
Elements to present documents in multiple views, which may be independent windows or subwindows. Frame layout is only available in the frameset profiles. All frames are not available in XHTML 1.1 (use generic object elements instead for inline frames).

Form elements
The user interface controls for interacting with the web server.

Presentational elements
Elements that specify presentational information. Although not all elements are deprecated, their use is discouraged in favor of stylesheets. Deprecated elements are not available in the strict profiles and XHTML 1.1.

Stylesheet elements
The ways to apply stylesheets (CSS) to the document.

Script elements
Elements for embedding client-side script (JavaScript). See also DOM Events for a list of attributes used to attach an event handler to an element.

Language elements
Elements related to language information.

Generic attributes
Attributes that can be used in any elements.