What are some common text editors?
Updated October 19, 2022
From basic plain text editors to advanced word processing applications, many programs can view and edit text documents. Some are designed for general writing and editing, while others — such as source code editors — are targeted towards developers. Several options for Windows, macOS, and Linux are listed below.
Windows
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| Atlantis | Atlantis Word Processor | $35 | Customizable word processor designed for creating rich text documents and eBooks; supports RTF, MS Office, and OpenOffice formats; also available in a free "lite" version. |
| Carolina Road Software | Jarte | Free | Free word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad word processing engine; expands beyond the WordPad feature set; saves documents in a format compatible with both Word and WordPad. |
| CodeLobster | CodeLobster PHP Edition | Free | IDE that supports syntax highlighting and autocomplete for PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS; also includes a PHP debugger for locally validating PHP code. |
| ConTEXT | ConTEXT | Free | Freeware text editor developed for software developers; includes syntax highlighting for many programming languages. |
| Corel | WordPerfect | $299 (w/ WP Office) |
Advanced word processor developed by Corel Software; can be used to create reports, letters, resumes, and brochures; included as part of WordPerfect Office. |
| ES-Computing | EditPlus | $30 | Text editor, HTML editor, and programmer's editor; syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, and scripting languages. |
| Flo's Freeware | Notepad2 | Free | Basic text editor based on Microsoft's Notepad application; includes programming features such as custom syntax highlighting, regular expression search/replace, and bracket matching. |
| Fookes Holding Ltd. | NoteTab | $39.95 | Versatile text editor designed to be a replacement for Notepad; can be used for text-processing and well as editing HTML5 and CSS3 files; includes a real-time word counter for SEO purposes. |
| Geany | Geany | Free | Lightweight text editor that also serves as an integrated development environment (IDE); supports syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, and auto-closing of tags. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| Helios Software | TextPad | $30 | Supports custom commands and macros and efficient find and replace commands. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform editor that can be used for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; includes FTP and SSH/Telnet support, code folding, syntax highlighting, and Ctags support. |
| Just Great Software | EditPad Lite | Free | Compact general-purpose text editor; has a tabbed interface for working with multiple files; includes an advanced search and replace feature that supports regular expressions. |
| Microsoft | Notepad | Free | Plain text editor included with Windows XP that can open and create new text files; does not support any text formatting. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Microsoft | Word | $229 | The most common word processor in the world; part of Microsoft Office. |
| Microsoft | WordPad | Free | Basic text editor included with Windows XP; supports text formatting and rich text (RTF) files. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| Notepad++ | Notepad++ | Free | Source code editor that supports several programming languages; designed as a Notepad replacement; based on the Scintilla edit component. |
| PSPad | PSPad | Free | Freeware programmer's editor that supports HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, JavaScript, C, Perl, and other languages; includes syntax highlighting and rich text formatting. |
| Orangeline | Araneae | Free | Text editor designed primarily for Web development; supports syntax highlighting for HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby; also includes a browser preview feature. |
| SciTE | SciTE | Free | Free source code editor based on the Scintilla source code editing component; supports key commands for navigation and editing. |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Brackets.io | Brackets | Free | Open-source, extensible code editor intended for web and front-end developers. |
macOS
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| Apple | Pages | Bundled with macOS | Word processing and page layout program that supports text and document formatting; included in the iWork suite, along with Numbers and Keynote. |
| Apple | TextEdit | Free | Included with macOS; can edit documents in plain text or rich text mode; supports HTML and Microsoft Word formats. |
| Bare Bones Software | BBEdit | $49 | Professional HTML and text editor; supports syntax coloring and function navigation; AppleScript, Perl, and Unix scripting support. |
| Bean | Bean OS X | Free | Free, open-source text editor for Mac OS X; designed to make writing convenient, efficient and comfortable; supports rich text styles and various types of page formatting. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform text editor that can be used for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; supports syntax highlighting, FTP and SSH/Telnet, code folding, and Ctags. |
| MacroMates | TextMate | $51 | Advanced text editor for the Mac developed primarily for programmers; includes customizable syntax highlighting, foldable code blocks, word completion, and search and replace. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Microsoft | Word | $229 | The most common word processor in the world; part of Microsoft Office. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| NeoOffice | NeoOffice Writer | Free | Word processor included with the NeoOffice application suite; based on OpenOffice.org, but designed specifically for Mac OS X; can open Word, WordPerfect, StarWriter, and other types of documents. |
| Panic | Nova | Free | Fast and flexible text editor designed for macOS with light, dark, and custom themes; includes built-in support for Build, Run, and Clean tasks; supports extensions API for new languages and UI customizations |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Brackets.io | Brackets | Free | Open-source, extensible code editor intended for web and front-end developers. |
Linux
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbiSource | AbiWord | Free | Cross-platform, open source word processing program similar to Microsoft Word; supports advanced page layouts and text formatting. |
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| BSD | Vi | Free | Basic text editor included with nearly all Unix and Linux distributions; operates in either insert mode (for text entry) or normal mode (for typing commands). |
| Codebrainz | Mousepad | Free | A simple text editor for the Xfce desktop environment; designed for quickly editing text files; has a graphical interface based on the GTK platform |
| Geany | Geany | Free | Lightweight text editor that also serves as an integrated development environment (IDE); supports syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, and auto-closing of tags. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| GNOME Project | gedit | Free | Official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment; supports internationalized text, syntax highlighting, search and replace, bracket matching, line numbers, and configurable colors. |
| GNU Project | Emacs | Free | Extensible and customizable editor that includes syntax coloring; includes an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language. |
| GNU Project | Nano | Free | Simple text editor for Linux; supports go to line / column number, interactive search and replace, and auto-indent; installed by default on most Linux distributions. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform text editor designed for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; includes FTP and SSH/Telnet support, code folding, syntax highlighting, and Ctags support. |
| Kate | Kate Editor | Free | Text editor for KDE that includes window splitting and a multi-document interface (MDI); also supports multiple text encodings and regular expression search and replace; includes programming features such as line numbers, syntax highlighting, and auto indentation. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| Tarot Osuji | Leafpad | Free | Simple text editor based on the Gimp Toolkit (GTK+) that runs on Linux and BSD; included as the default text editor in Raspberry Pi's wheezy OS; supports line numbers, unlimited undo/redo, and auto-indent. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Vim Online | Vim | Free | Highly configurable text editor based on the standard vi editor; designed to make text editing more efficient for programmers; includes a basic Notepad-like mode called evim or Easy Vim. |
* Prices listed are estimated retail prices and may change.
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