An editor for huge text files Freeware: iA Writer: Proprietary: jEdit: A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed. Free software: JOVE: Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs Free software: JuffEd: A lightweight text editor written in Qt4. Free software: Kate: A basic text editor for the KDE desktop. Free software: Kedit. Coda is a veteran in the web development space, and it presents as a fairly powerful text editor for web development. At $99 for the first licence—with subsequent licences getting a discount—it is a premium text editor software that Mac users will find familiar. 15 Best Free Code Editors for Windows & Mac 2020 Update 1) Notepad. Notepad is a popular free to use code editor written in C. It uses pure win32 API which offers greater execution speed and small. 3) Visual Studio Code VS Code 4) Brackets.
Text editors used to be the domain of experienced developers. But now, newbie developers, publishers, and writers are realizing the value of these tools, too.
Whether you use your text editor for writing PHP, taking notes, or collaborating with your team, there really is something for everyone.
If you’re trying to make your workflow more efficient, you need to be working with a powerful text editing software.
And as luck would have it, we’re unpacking 15 of the best right here.
In the list below we included text editors for both Windows and MAC operating systems, and also options which are free or paid, so let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Notepad++
We’ll start with Notepad++, since it is arguably one of the most well-known text editors available. This is a 100% free text editor software, with zero fees—but that doesn’t make it basic. This is jam-packed full of powerful editing components, and has a surprisingly small footprint.
Notepad++ is accessible worldwide, too. It has already been translated into 80+ languages.
With extensive customization, a multi-view editor, and auto-completion settings that you can set for yourself, Notepad++ is an industry leader for very good reason.
At a glance
- Free to use
- Available in 80+ languages
- Multi-document interface
- Solid range of plugins
- Basic and advanced find-and-replace functionality
- Predefined file types such as BAT, C++, HTML, Java, python etc.
- Powerful text editing features.
Atom
This is a free offering specifically for developers. Thanks to a community of contributors, it offers a long list of themes and plugins—similar to WordPress and countless other open source tools.
Atom is easy to work with, straightforward to use, and sleek. It’s also a solid project management organizer, for developers and collaborators who need help keeping the projects in order.
Atom lets you share your projects and edit them in real time, so it’s ideal for remote teams who need a dedicated workspace.
At a glance
- Totally free to use
- Specifically designed for developers
- Includes a GitHub package to build out your project from branch to stage
- Regular updates
- Find-and-replace function
- Works across all major operating systems
- Strong collaboration tools (Teletype)
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is the first paid text editor software to make this list. It is also one of our favorites. You can secure a free trial, but it will cost USD$80 to use Sublime Text long-term.
In our opinion—and according to millions of users—the price is worth it. This software allows you to use it across multiple devices and all major operating systems. It has a minimal footprint, but that hasn’t limited the text editor’s features.
Sublime Text offers customizable shortcuts and search tools, allowing users—from developers to writers and collaborators—to change multiple lines of code simultaneously. You can also navigate to specific lines with ease, and find functions fast.
At a glance
- Free trial available
- Paid software
- Lightweight, sleek, and responsive
- Works across all major operating systems and multiple computers
- Powerful Find-and-replace function
- Customize anything
- Great for software development
Brackets
Brackets is Adobe’s free contribution to the text editor scene. In what is clearly an attempt to offer a relevant text editing solution, Brackets allows for live collaboration and previewing, inline editors, and exceptional file organization.
Brackets also offers minimal integration with PSD files, to help visual developers generate code for their projects.
At a glance
- Free to use
- Beautiful user interface with extensive functionality
- Integration with PSD files
- Designed with web developers in mind
- Minimal learning curve for users familiar with Adobe products
- Works across multiple platforms
EMEditor
This is an ultra-fast text editor specifically for the Windows platform. It offers native 64- and 32-bit builds, and extensive documentation.
EMEditor is often hailed as the fastest text editor software in the world. It supports an extensive list of powerful, functional macros, and even the largest file sizes.
Brought to the market by Emurasoft, it lives up to its goal pretty comfortably: achieve clients’ needs by listening to them with empathy and expertise.
One area that sets EMEditor apart from the competition in the text editor software field is its customer service.
Their support infrastructure is responsive and helpful, and they offer the added reassurance that they are the text editor of choice for educational institutions, corporations, and national governments.
It’s a paid software with two options:
- Annual subscription for $39.99 for the first year and then $19.99 /year thereafter.
- $179.99 lifetime once-off payment.
At a glance
- Ultra-fast
- Both Free and Paid Professional product available
- Steep learning curve for new developers
- Large file handling
- Excellent user support
- Powerful editing tools and plugins
- Windows 10 certification from Microsoft
UltraEdit
To get your hands on the basic UltraEdit text editor is going to cost you $119 or you can get an All-access subscription (UltraEdit plus all the other tools of this company) for $100 per year.
This includes free upgrades for future releases, and a fair amount of power for simple projects across Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
The UltraEdit software has find-and-compare tools, and an FTP program, but if you need them—you’ll need to pay for them with the All-access subscription.
At its core, UltraEdit has solid performance and versatility. It allows you to customize your most used functions, and it is really flexible.
At a glance
- More expensive compared to other tools
- Premium customer support
- Allows for editing large files without freezing or crashing
- Sleek user interface
- Excellent customization options to streamline workflow
Windows Notepad
This is the place we all started. Windows Notepad is a fast, basic text editor that lets you view, edit and search with ease through plain text documents.
It isn’t the most powerful text editor software on the market, but it is ideal for simple source code editing or text note taking.
For developers who are confident in their coding abilities, Notepad is a great back-up plan. For anything more than emergency use, it makes sense to upgrade to Notepad++ for more functionality.
At a glance
- Free for Windows
- Small footprint
- Customizable view options
- Allows files to be encoded as UTF-8, UTF-16, and ANSI
- Installed on all Windows machines by default.
- Good for quick note taking.
Emacs
GNU Emacs is essentially a free interpreter for Emacs Lisp—the Lisp programming language. It is 100% free, open source software, designed to be compatible with all major operating systems.
For a dedicated text editor software, we’d recommend looking to one of the other offerings on this list, but for a language-parsing software that supports text editing—Emacs is golden.
At a glance
- Syntax coloring and other content-aware editing functions
- New user tutorial
- Ultra-customizable
- Excellent for project planning, news readers, debugging, and calendar function.
Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is an effective text editor software if you want powerful features but need a flatter learning curve. Even complete novice developers will be able to take advantage of Komodo Edit’s extensive functions.
Available for Mac or Windows operating systems, Komodo Edit is free and open source. It gets a lot of support from contributors, has multi-language features and extensive Komodo IDE-supported frameworks.
If you work on small projects, Komodo Edit has everything you need for solid coding and project management.
For more advanced projects, or developers coming from a different text editor platform, it will pay to trial the software first. It is powerful—but it has its limitations. If it doesn’t offer enough, Komodo IDE may be more your speed.
At a glance
- Small footprint
- Multi-language
- Free and open source
- User interface can be customized with skins and icons
- Beautiful interface
TextMate for Mac
TextMate is another free offering for basic editing. The premium version will set you back around $60 per licence, meaning collaborative teams will need to purchase multiple licences.
This text editor software is only available on the Mac operating system, and it offers a feature rich editing platform in a tiny package.
From find-and-replace functions to auto-completion, TextMate also offers board management and a tool for Xcode.
Programming Text Editor For Mac Windows 8
TextMate for Mac also lets you build in insertion points and swap out large chunks of code simultaneously—whilst still maintaining previous versions. This is a valuable function when you need to undo major editing missteps.
At a glance
- Free and paid versions
- Lightweight and sleek
- Multiple languages and a fully customizable user experience
- Macros to reduce repetitive work
- Only available for Mac users
jEdit
As the name suggests, jEdit is a text editor written in Java, specifically for programmers. The GUI is built on the Swing toolkit, and offers users the ability to build their own ultra-powerful IDE—thanks to open source plugins. As a Java-scripted editor, it runs across Windows, Mac, Unix, and VMS.
At a glance
- Free and open source
- Steep learning curve—not recommended for beginners
- Built-in macros and comprehensive plugins
- Plugin manager feature to help you build a solid, personalized IDE
- Selective fold feature allows you to hide large chunks of text
Espresso
Espresso is a fully-fledged web editor for Mac users. Writing, coding, designing, building, and publishing are all a part of Espresso’s sophisticated software—making web design easy for the masses.
With a sleek Live Preview feature, extensive CSS editing tools and navigation, Espresso is ideal for any developer or designer starting from scratch.
This is an ideal text editor software for beginners and advanced users alike. With multi-panel viewing, customizable toolbars, and an auto-indent feature to tidy up messy code, Espresso is a delight to use.
At a glance
- Shortcuts to combine or expand abbreviations
- Customizable toolbar for snippets, menu items, and contextual actions
- Re-indent feature to apply custom spacing in HTML, CSS, and Java
- Extensive plugin library
- Only available for Mac users
Coda 2
Coda is a veteran in the web development space, and it presents as a fairly powerful text editor for web development.
At $99 for the first licence—with subsequent licences getting a discount—it is a premium text editor software that Mac users will find familiar. It offers unique features for local indexing and over-riding CSS, and also allows users to publish live through the app.
At the $100 price point, Coda is great value, and delivers strong customer support and documentation. It has some proprietary features—like wildcard tokens—that let developers generate customized styles with a few keystrokes.
At a glance
- $99 for the first licence
- Available for Mac users only
- Clean, streamlined interface
- Wildcard tokens for quick styling
- Live preview feature for iPhone and iPad
- Web development oriented.
BBEdit
BBEdit uses the same infrastructure as the now defunct TextWrangler—and is used by mostly the same core group. Exclusive to Mac users, it has a basic user interface that hides a glut of powerful features.
It integrates seamlessly with GitHub, and offers simple auto-complete functionality, syntax highlighting, and quick lookups. For effective, side-by-side editing, you can split your screens.
At a glance
- $49.99 for one licence, with paid upgrades
- Code folding
- Auto-complete for cleaner, faster coding
- Mac only
BlueFish
Last on the list—and by no means least—is Bluefish. Available across all major operating systems, this is a powerful little text editor designed for programmers and web developers. It offers all the functionality needed to write website code and scripts, and supports all major programming and markup languages. It’s also free.
At a glance
- Lightweight and agile—able to load hundreds of files in seconds
- Allows users to run hundreds of documents simultaneously
- Available across Windows, Mac, and Linux OS
- Nifty snippets sidebar to specify custom dialogs and patterns, or draft shortcut keystrokes
Programming Text Editor For Mac Free
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