Free HTML Encoder/Decoder – Escape & Unescape HTML Entities Online
HTML encoding (also called HTML escaping) is the process of converting special characters into their corresponding HTML entities. For example, the less-than sign (<) becomes < and the ampersand (&) becomes &. This is essential for displaying code snippets on web pages and preventing cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
Our free HTML encoder and decoder tool handles both directions: encode raw HTML into safe entities for display, or decode HTML entities back into their original characters. This is a daily need for web developers, technical writers, and anyone working with HTML content.
When you embed user-generated content in a web page without encoding it, you open the door to XSS vulnerabilities. An attacker could inject malicious JavaScript through a comment field or form input. Encoding ensures that all special characters are displayed as text rather than interpreted as HTML or script code.
The tool handles all five critical HTML entities: & (ampersand), < (less than), > (greater than), " (double quote), and ' (single quote/apostrophe). It also decodes numeric character references (<) and hexadecimal references (<), covering all standard HTML entity formats.