Protégé

Visit site Alternatives

Score7.3

Rank#3 of 33

PriceFree

Free planYes

Runs onLinux, macOS, Web, Windows

Summary

Protégé is a free ontology editor for building and managing ontologies, available as the desktop application Protégé Desktop and the browser-based WebProtégé. Both editions support OWL 2 and are described as cross-compatible. WebProtégé supports collaborative viewing and editing, with sharing, permissions, threaded discussions, watches, email notifications, and revision history. Ontologies can be uploaded and downloaded in formats including RDF/XML, Turtle, OWL/XML, and OBO. Protégé Desktop connects directly to description logic reasoners such as HermiT and Pellet. It can hold multiple ontologies in one workspace and offers structure visualization, inference explanations, and refactoring operations. Desktop is written in Java and supports plug-ins. The project offers free support through mailing lists monitored by team members and experienced community users; users must subscribe before posting. Its documentation includes FAQs, tutorials, user guides, and developer documentation. The project says it is used by researchers, organisations, and governments worldwide.

Who it is for

Protégé suits researchers and other users who need to create or manage ontologies with OWL 2. WebProtégé is suited to collaborative editing, while the desktop edition offers direct connections to description logic reasoners.

What is good

Both editions support OWL 2.
WebProtégé includes collaborative editing and revision history.
Desktop connects to HermiT and Pellet reasoners.
Desktop supports plug-ins.
Free support and documentation are available.

What to know first

Mailing-list users must subscribe before posting.
WebProtégé and Desktop have different feature sets.

Verdict

Protégé offers both a collaborative browser editor and a desktop ontology workspace, with free access and support. Choose an edition based on whether collaboration or desktop reasoning tools matter more.

Protégé plans and pricing

All plans

Protégé Desktop and WebProtégé Free Free and open source · OWL 2 support protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026

Compared on knowledge graph software

Free plan: Yesprotege.stanford.edu
Ontology modeling: Yesprotege.stanford.edu
Semantic reasoning: Yesprotege.stanford.edu
RDF/SPARQL support: Yesprotege.stanford.edu
Graph visualization: Yesprotege.stanford.edu
Import formats: RDF/XML, Turtle, OWL/XML, OBOprotege.stanford.edu
Deployment: bothprotege.stanford.edu
Query languages: SPARQLprotege.stanford.edu

Facts

Purpose: Protégé is an ontology editor used to build and manage ontologies.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Editions: Protégé is available as the desktop application Protégé Desktop and the browser based editor WebProtégé.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
OWL support: Both editions support the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Collaboration: WebProtégé supports collaborative viewing and editing of OWL 2 ontologies, with sharing, permissions, threaded discussions, watches, email notifications, and revision history.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
File formats: WebProtégé ontologies can be uploaded and downloaded in RDF/XML, Turtle, OWL/XML, OBO, and other formats.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Desktop reasoning: Protégé Desktop connects directly to description logic reasoners including HermiT and Pellet.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Desktop tools: Protégé Desktop supports multiple ontologies in one workspace, ontology structure visualization, inference explanations, and refactoring operations.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Extensibility: Protégé Desktop is written in Java and uses a plug-in architecture for extensions.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Cross compatibility: WebProtégé and Protégé Desktop are described as cross compatible with each other.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Users: The project says it is used by researchers, organisations, and governments worldwide.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Support: Free support is offered through mailing lists monitored by team members and experienced community users, and users must subscribe before posting.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Documentation: Protégé documentation includes FAQs, tutorials, user guides, and developer documentation.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Maintainer: Protégé Desktop is community maintained, with Damien Goutte-Gattat identified as its current primary maintainer.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026
Origin: Protégé was developed by the Stanford Division of Computational Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.protege.stanford.edu · 30 Sept 2026