Comparison of text editors

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

This article provides basic comparisons for notable text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.

Feature comparisons are made between stable versions of software, not the upcoming versions or beta releases – and are exclusive of any add-ons, extensions or external programs (unless specified in footnotes).

Overview

[edit]
List of text editors
Name Developer Initial release Latest release Program­ming language Cost (US$) License GUI TUI or CLI
Version Date
Acme Rob Pike 1993 Plan 9 and Inferno C No cost MIT
GPL-2.0-only
LPL-1.02 		Yes No
AkelPad Alexey Kuznetsov
Alexander Shengalts 		2003 4.9.9[1] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-10-16 C No cost BSD-2-Clause Yes No
Alphatk Vince Darley 1999 8.3.3[2] Edit this on Wikidata 2004-12-10 $40 Proprietary, with BSD components Yes No
Atom GitHub 2014 1.63.1[3] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-11-23 HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ No cost MIT Yes No
BBEdit Rich Siegel 1992 15.0.3[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-04-08 Objective-C, Objective-C++ No cost for most features, $49.99 for full version Proprietary Yes No
Bluefish Bluefish Development Team 1999 2.2.16[5] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-22 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
Brackets Adobe Systems 2012 2.2.1[6] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-03-22 HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ No cost MIT Yes No
Coda Panic 2007 2.7.7[7] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-11-05 Objective-C $99 Proprietary Yes
ConTEXT ConTEXT Project Ltd 1999 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost BSD-3-Clause Yes
Crimson Editor Ingyu Kang 1999 3.72-r286m[8] Edit this on Wikidata 2011-10-01 C++ No cost Proprietary Yes
CudaText UVViewSoft[a] 2015 1.217.5.1[9] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-05 Object Pascal (Lazarus) No cost MPL-2.0 Yes No
ed Ken Thompson 1970 unchanged from original C No cost ? No Yes
Editra Cody Precord 2007 0.7.20 2013-01-05 Python No cost wxWindows license Yes No
EmEditor Emurasoft, Inc. 1997 21.3.0 2021-11-24 C++ $39.99 Shareware Yes No
epsilon Lugaru Software 1984 14.00[10] 2020-10-20 C $250 Proprietary
FeatherPad Pedram Pourang 2016 1.4.1[11] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-06-12 C++, Qt No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
FocusWriter Graeme Gott 2008 1.8.11[12] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-07 C++, Qt No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
gedit GNU Project 2000 48.0[13] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-14 C No cost GPL-3.0 Yes No
Geany Enrico Tröger 2005 2.0.0[14] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-10-19 C, GTK+ No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
GNU Emacs Richard Stallman 1984 30.1[15] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-23 C, Emacs Lisp No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes Yes
GNU nano Chris Allegretta 1999 8.4[16] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-02 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
IA Writer Information Architects 2010.09.22 5.6 2020-12-07 Objective-C (iOS), Objective-C (macOS), C# (Windows), Java (Android) $29.99 Proprietary Yes No
JED John E. Davis 1992 0.99-19 Edit this on Wikidata 2009-12-13 C, S-Lang No cost GPL-2.0-or-later No Yes
jEdit Slava Pestov 1998 5.7.0[17] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-08-03 Java No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
JOE Joseph Allen 1988 4.6[18] Edit this on Wikidata 2018-01-09 C No cost GPL No Yes
JOVE Johnathon Payne 1983 4.17.5.3[19] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-03-21 C No cost JOVE license No Yes
Kate KDE Project 2000-12 24.12.3[20] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-06 C++ No cost LGPL, MIT Yes No
KEDIT Mansfield Software Group, Inc. 1983 1.6.1 2016-12-05 C $129 Proprietary No Yes
Komodo Edit Activestate 2007 12.0.1[21] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-02-10 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby No cost MPL, GPL, LGPL Yes No
Komodo IDE Activestate 2001 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby $295 Proprietary Yes No
KWrite KDE Project 2000 24.12.1[22] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-09 C++ No cost LGPL Yes No
LE Alexander V. Lukyanov 1997 1.16.8[23] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-02-05 C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
Leo Edward K. Ream 1996 6.7.6[24] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-19 Python No cost MIT Yes No
Light Table Chris Granger 2012 0.8.1[25] Edit this on Wikidata 2016-01-22 ClojureScript No cost MIT Yes No
mcedit Miguel de Icaza 1994 4.8.33[26] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-23 C, Python, PHP, Javascript, Perl, Tcl, Ruby No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
Metapad Alexander Davidson 1999 3.6[27][28] Edit this on Wikidata 2011-05-28 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
mg Dave Conroy 1986 current[b] 2020-07-22 C No cost Public domain No Yes
MinEd Thomas Wolff 1992 2022.27 2022-12-23 C No cost GPL No Yes
MS-DOS Editor Microsoft 1991 2.0.026 Bundled with MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows Proprietary No Yes
ne Sebastiano Vigna
Todd Lewis
Daniele Filaretti 		1993 3.3.4[30] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-06 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
NEdit Mark Edel 1991 5.7[31] Edit this on Wikidata 2017-02-08 C No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
Notepad Microsoft 1985 11.2302.16.0 MASM (originally) Bundled with Microsoft Windows Proprietary Yes No
Notepad++ Don Ho 2003-11-25 8.8[32] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-28 C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
nvi Keith Bostic 1994 1.81.6[33] Edit this on Wikidata 2007-11-18 C No cost BSD-3-Clause No Yes
Pico University of Washington 1992 4.64 C No cost Apache-2.0 No Yes
PimNote Pimtel 2023 1.2.0[34] 2023-04-22 C# No cost Proprietary Yes No
PolyEdit PolySoft Solutions 1998 5.4 2010‑04‑07 $27.95 Shareware Yes No
PSPad Jan Fiala 2002 5.5.1[35] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-05 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost Proprietary Yes No
RJ TextEd Rickard Johansson 2004 15.63[36] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-09-29 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost Proprietary Yes No
Sam Rob Pike 1980s (early) stable C No cost LPL (OSI approved) No Yes
SciTE Neil Hodgson 1999 5.5.4[37] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-12-18 C++ $41.99 for macOS. No cost for others HPND Yes No
SlickEdit SlickEdit, Inc. 1988 28.0.1 2024-01-21 C, Slick-C $299 Proprietary Yes No
Smultron Peter Borg 2004 12.0.6 Edit this on Wikidata 2020-01-03 Objective-C $7.99 Proprietary Yes No
SubEthaEdit TheCoding­Monkeys 2003 5.2.4[38] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-01-08 No cost MIT Yes
Sublime Text Jon Skinner, Sublime HQ 2008 4 (Build 4192)[39] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-20 C++, Python $99 Shareware Yes No
TED Notepad Juraj Simlovic 2001 6.3.1[40] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-12-01 C No cost Proprietary Yes No
Textadept Mitchell 2007 12.6[41] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-01 C, Lua No cost MIT Yes Yes
TextEdit Apple Inc. 2001 1.18 Edit this on Wikidata 2022-10-24 No cost (also bundled with macOS) BSD-3-Clause Yes No
TextMate MacroMates 2004-10-10 2.0.23[42] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-10-12 Objective-C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
TextPad Helios Software Solutions 1992 9.3.0[43] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-08-01 $30.00 (£16.50) Shareware Yes No
TextWrangler Bare Bones Software 2003 5.5.2 2016-09-20 No cost Proprietary Yes
The SemWare Editor Sammy Mitchell 1985-11 4.49[44] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-01 C, SAL No cost BSD-2-Clause
UltraEdit IDM Computer Solutions 1994 25.0 2018-03-12 C++ $99.95 Proprietary Yes No
VEDIT Ted Green, Greenview Data 1980 6.24.2 2015-01-12 Assembly, C $89 standard, $239 Pro64 Proprietary Yes Yes
vi Bill Joy 1976 3.7 C No cost BSD-4-Clause or CDDL No Yes
Vim Bram Moolenaar 1991 9.1[45][46] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-01-02 C, Vim script No cost Vim Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Microsoft 2015 1.99.3[47] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-17 JavaScript, TypeScript No cost Source code: MIT[48]
Binaries built by Microsoft: Proprietary[49][50] 		Yes No
XEmacs Lucid Inc. 1991 21.4.22[51] Edit this on Wikidata 2009-01-30 C, Emacs Lisp No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes Yes
XNEdit Olaf Wintermann 2018 1.5.2 2023-10-05 C No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No

Operating system support

[edit]

This section lists the operating systems that different editors can run on. Some editors run on additional operating systems that are not listed.

Cross-platform

[edit]
Text editor support for various operating systems
Microsoft Windows macOS Linux BSD Unix OpenVMS
Acme Partial
[c] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No
AkelPad Yes No No No No No
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes Yes No No No
Arachnophilia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
BBEdit No Yes No No No No
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Brackets Yes Yes Yes No No No
Coda No Yes No No No No
ConTEXT Yes No No No No No
Crimson Editor Yes No No No No No
CudaText Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ed Partial
[d] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
EmEditor Yes No No No No No
epsilon Yes Yes
[52] 		Yes Yes Yes No
Geany Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes
[e] 		Yes Yes Yes No
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JOE Yes[dubious – discuss] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JOVE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KEDIT Yes No No No No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LE Partial
[d] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Light Table Yes Yes Yes No No No
Metapad Yes No No No No No
mg No Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
MinEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNU nano Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ne Partial
[d] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No
NEdit Partial
[d] 		Yes
[f] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No No No No
Notepad++ Yes No No No No No
nvi No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Pico Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes No No No No No
RJ TextEd Yes No No No No No
Sam Partial
[c] 		Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SciTE Yes Yes
[f] 		Yes Yes Yes No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
Smultron No Yes No No No No
SubEthaEdit No Yes No No No No
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes No No No
TED Notepad Yes No No No No No
Textadept Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
TextEdit No Yes No No No No
TextMate No Yes No No No No
TextPad Yes No No No No No
TextWrangler No Yes No No No No
The SemWare Editor Yes No No No No No
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No No No
Ulysses (text editor) No Yes No No No No
vi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes No No No
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XNEdit Partial
[d][g] 		Yes
[f] 		Yes Yes Yes No

Natural language (localization)

[edit]
Available languages for the UI
Languages supported
Acme English
AkelPad English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Alphatk English
Atom English
BBEdit English
Brackets English, German, French, Polish(Outdated), Korean, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish(Outdated)
Coda English, German, French, Spanish
ConTEXT English, German, French, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Crimson Editor English
CudaText Main: English. Addons: Japanese, French, Polish, Korean, Hungarian (2018), Greek, German (2017), and 9 others
ed
Editra English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
EmEditor English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish
epsilon English
Geany English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
gedit English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
GNU Emacs English
JED English
jEdit English
JOE[53] English, German, French
JOVE English
Kate[54] English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
KEDIT English
Komodo Edit English
KWrite English, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish
Metapad[55] English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
mined English
MS-DOS Editor English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Nano English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese
NEdit English
Notepad English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
Notepad++ English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
nvi English
Pico English, Italian
PolyEdit English
PSPad English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
RJ TextEd English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Sam English
SciTE[56] English, German, French (Outdated (1.72)), Polish, Japanese (Outdated (1.62)), Italian, Dutch (Outdated (1.67)), Portuguese (Outdated (1.63)), Spanish, Swedish
SlickEdit English
Smultron English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish
SubEthaEdit English
TED Notepad English
TextEdit English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
TextMate English
TextPad English, German, French, Polish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Japanese, Italian(Outdated (4.7.3)), Dutch (Outdated (4.7.3)), Spanish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Portuguese (Outdated (4.7.3))
TextWrangler English
The SemWare Editor English
UltraEdit English, German, French, Korean, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese
VEDIT English
vi English
Vim Afrikaans, Catalan, Chinese(Simplified), Chinese(Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, English(UK), English(US), Esperanto, Finnish, French, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian(Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese(Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Visual Studio Code English, Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
XEmacs English
XNEdit English

Document interface

[edit]
Text editor support for common document interfaces
Multiple instances Single document window splitting MDI: overlappable windows MDI: tabbed document interface MDI: window splitting
Acme Yes Yes No No Yes
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Brackets No No No Yes Yes
Coda Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes No Yes Yes No
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CudaText Yes Yes No Yes Yes
ed Yes No No No No
Editra Yes Yes ? Yes ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes
Plug‑in 		No Yes No
gedit Yes Yes
Plug‑in[h] 		Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in[i]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes
[j][k] 		Yes
JED Yes Yes No No Yes
jEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
JOE Yes Yes No No
[l] 		Yes
JOVE Yes Yes No No Yes
Kate Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KWrite Yes No No No No
LE Yes No No No No
Light Table Yes No No Yes Yes
Metapad Yes No No No No
mined Yes No No
[m] 		Yes No
MS-DOS Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
Nano Yes No No No No
NEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No Yes No
Notepad++ Yes Yes No Yes Yes
2 windows
nvi Yes Yes No No Yes
Pico Yes No No No No
PolyEdit No No Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sam Yes No Yes No No
SciTE Yes No No Yes
[n] 		No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes No Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes No Yes No
TED Notepad ? ? ? No ?
TextEdit Yes No No No No
TextMate Yes No No Yes No
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
vi Yes No No

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