Free Coding Editor For Mac

Our idea of a best code editor is a tool to help you compile programs like a pro. Here are 9 best apps to boost your coding skills in no time!

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4 of the Best Free Code Editors for Windows and Mac There are numerous code editors available, but we have shortlisted the best ones that are available for free to use with the most efficient. Download and install the best free apps for Coding Utilities on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android from CNET Download.com, your trusted source for the top software picks.

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It is always exciting for developers from all over the world whenever they get to showcase their best code editor at computer expos and tech conferences. On that note when we talk about free code editors for Windows and Mac to use in the year 2020, we cannot help but wait in anticipation for brand-new features to use right away.

In this write-up, we will talk about the best coding software for multiple platforms. However, we will lay extra emphasis on Windows OS and Mac OS because they are popular operating systems out there right now.

Most of these best code editors are free; you do not have to buy any expensive licenses or whatever to start working on them. Just download a trial version of the said software and see if it fulfills your requirements. Afterward, you can convert to paid software for yourself or the company you are working for.

In addition, we will also fill you in on the most amazing code editors that you and your development team can use feature-wise. Since not all code editors are alike, some of them cannot be used for wide-scale projects.

Likewise, a basic version code editor can be used as a standalone application. If the app itself allows, it can be integrated into an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Let’s take look at our best code editor list and see what we have handpicked so far.

9 Free Best Code Editors for Windows & Mac to Use in 2020

1. Notepad++

One of the most well-known code editors that developers all over the world have been using for quite a while is Notepad++. This amazing application was developed in C++. The initial launch version was very simple. It didn’t have a lot of functions back then, but Notepad++ garnered tons of positive reviews.

Not only developers but casual users also prefer using this tool over Windows’ native notepad application.

Using the pure win32 API, the Notepad++ has an amazing execution speed, which is great for the modern gen machines. Thanks to improved execution times, code compilation spans over a matter of few seconds. This helps programmers to get things done right away.

This application is only compatible with the Windows platform at the moment. It uses a GPL license to work. If you are a Mac fan, don’t worry. We have a couple of code editors appended down the list. Just keep glossing over it.

Key Features

Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion
User-defined Syntax highlighting and folding
Multi-view and Multi-Language support
Support syntax highlighting for languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
Macro recording and playback
Entirely customizable GUI
Autosave
Guided indentation
Macros
Split-screen editing and synchronized scrolling

Pricing

Free

2. Atom

One of the most famous and useful code editors on this list is Atom. Used by millions of developers all over the world, it is an amazing application with a very simple UI that increases its usability.

One of the cool features of this best free code editor is that the developers can submit packages straight from the application. Atom is available for download at multiple platforms: Windows, Linux, and Mac devices. If you are a Mac OSX user, this is the perfect time for you to give this app a shot.

Key Features

Package Manager Integrated for Plugins support
Supports Command Palette
The feature of smart autocompletion
Cross-platform editing
Built-in package manager
File system browser
Find and replace tool
Smart autocompletion
Multiple panes
Packages and themes

Pricing

Free

3. Visual Studio Code [VS Code]

Belonging from the Family of software developed by the tech giant Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is an excellent code editor we have on the list. The application is an amazing piece of software that offers deep built-in support for Node.js, TypeScript, and JavaScript.

One of the most effective and time-saving features of this application is its infusion with A.I.

That means that all of the code that the developer writes in the application is read by the software. As a result, it generates auto-responses for code writing. These responses are based on variable types, function definitions, and essential modules.

This application is available for download on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.

Key Features

Code refactoring & debugging
Easy working with Git and other SCM (Software Configuration Management) providers
Easily extensible and customizable
Visual Studio Code CLI
Live Share
Helpers (Intellisense, Context Menus)
Plugins and Themes
Debugging
Split Views, Zen Mode
Integrated Terminal

Pricing

Free

4. Brackets

Although this list recommends some of the best code editors in the market, there is still no comparison to Brackets code editor. Yes, it is free, but what makes it really useful is the full barrage of extensive new features.

This application has a lightweight framework designed by the people over at Adobe. Believe me, those people know what they are doing. It is one of the best code editors that is completely open-source and you can modify it to your liking.

One of the most amazing features of this application is that you can choose between a browser view to look at how your code is doing or you can view the source code in its original form and modify it from there.

This application is available to be used on Windows, Linux, and Mac devices.

Key Features

Offers live preview, pre-processor support, and inline editors
Especially developed tool for macOS
Quick Edit UI feature puts context-specific code and tools inline
Pleasant looking UI
It comes with the inbuilt extension manager for fast & effective extension management
Quick Docs
JSLint
Live Preview
LESS support

Pricing

Free

5. NetBeans

Another code editor on this list that as one of the most famous code-editors is NetBeans. It is open-source software that the developers can use to develop applications using programming languages like PHP, Java, and C++, among many others.

This software also contains features like code analyzers that can debug your code for you and also convertors to change anything that needs modification.

If your applications were developed in the recent past, be advised that NetBeans allows you to upgrade all your applications to benefit from the new and improved Java 8 language constructs.

This application is ready to be used on Windows, Linux, and Mac devices.

Key Features

Offers fast & Smart Code Editing
Helps you to write bug-free code
Easy & Efficient Project Management
Rapid User Interface Development
Cross-platform support
Visual debugger
Static analysis tools
Code editor
Code converters
Multiple language support
NetBeans Profiler
Project management
Batch code analyzers

Pricing

Free

6. Bluefish

If you are a fan of working on dozens of different software at once and not wasting time for the code editor to take its sweet time to run your code, then Bluefish is the code editor that was designed with you in mind.

It is an excellent cross-platform editor that can handle many files of code at once and run them simultaneously. One other feature that the developers love about this application is that they can edit their code from their remote working station, which can be anywhere in the world.

This application contains many different options for web developers and programmers that can help them write code, websites, and scripts for quality testing of their software.

This application is available to be used by Windows, Linux, and Mac device owners.

Key Features

Auto-recovery of changes in modified documents after a crash, kill or shutdown
Unlimited undo/redo functionality
Loads hundreds of files within seconds
Project support feature helps you to work efficiently on multiple projects
Dialogues for many HTML tags, with all their attributes
User-customizable toolbar for quick access to often-used functions
Fully featured image insert dialogue
Multi-thumbnail generation for easy creation of photo albums or screenshot pages

Pricing

Free

7. Vim

Another software that is reportedly comprehensive and can be considered an IDE within itself is called: Vim. It is an extremely advanced code editor that is open-source which gives you the ability to modify the application to your liking as a developer.

With the help of Vim editors and UNIX systems embedded in the software, the application can manage all of the text-editing activities of the developers in no time at all, whether the application is used online or on the premises.

This application is available to be used by Linux Devices.

Key Features

It is command centric which lets you perform complex text related task with few commands
There are many plug-in available for Vim. Its functionality can be extended in a great manner using these plug-in
Same as multiple windows, it also supports multiple buffers
It supports recording features which allow to record and play Vim commands in a repeated manner
Its memory footprint is exceptionally low
It is highly configurable and uses a simple text file to store its configuration
It supports multiple windows. Using this feature screen can be split into multiple windows
It supports multiple tabs which allow you to work on multiple files

Pricing

Free

8. Geany

Next on this list of amazing code-editors, we have the software Geany. This application is quite effective because it uses the GTK+ toolkit to accommodate all of the code that the developers push on the software.

An amazing feature of this application is that it has all of the necessary basic components that make up an effectively integrated development environment or (IDE).

The developers can use this application to produce applications thanks to the software’s library that is full of different filetypes and other important features.

Geany supports Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

Key Features

Navigating through the source code is easy
Show status message on attempt to execute empty context action
Allows you to add a note for applying the indent settings in the project preferences
Allows popup menu on message window notebooks and sidebar
Syntax highlighting
Autocompletion of symbols/words
Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
Many supported filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl, Pascal, and others
Code navigation
Simple project management
Code folding for an overall organized approach to coding huge programs
Construct completion/snippets
Call tips
Symbol lists
Build a system to compile and execute your code
Plugin interface

Pricing

Free

9. Komodo Edit

The software Komodo Edit is an intuitive but immensely powerful code editor that can easily run those long codes that you spent your sprints on.

The application allows you to perform the following functions straight from the application. These functions are integrations with other technologies like Docker, Grunt, Vagrant, PhoneGap, and many others like them.

You can also perform unit testing for all your quality assurance processes, debugging to make your code error-free and code refactoring.

This application is available to be used by Windows, Linux, and Mac device owners from all over the world.

Key Features

A lot of contemporary color schemes
Easily integrates into the desktop environment
Multi-Language Editor
Native Unicode support and Unicode compatibility checking
Track Changes
Multiple selections
Quick bookmarks
Smart language detection
Split view and multi-window
Variable highlighting
Symbol browser
Autocomplete and call tips
Soft characters and matching braces

Pricing

A free trial is available

Conclusion

There you have it; these are the 9 best code editors available right now. They are free to download and use. They are designed and loaded with the best functionalities that developers need regularly.

Of course, our standard of a “best” free/ paid code editor may not be the same as yours. If you have a favorite software that wasn’t on this list, feel free to share your input through the comments section below. We will add that program for you in a follow-up extension write up.

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Published at DZone with permission of Fred Wilson, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

You can make writing code as complicated as you want, but at the end of the day, all you really need is your favorite, trusty text editor. You can use a simple one like Microsoft’s Notepad, but oftentimes it’s helpful to have a text editor that has syntax highlighting/coloring, support for multiple languages, a robust find and replace feature, and other features and options that make writing code just a tad bit easier.

If you’re in search of a good, free text editor – you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find 12 first-class free text editors that are designed with coders’ needs in mind. Whether you use a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine – you’ll find a few options here that will satisfy your code-authoring needs.

NOTEPAD++

(Windows)

NOTEPAD++ is the premier replacement for Microsoft’s Notepad. It has an auto-completion feature (for most supported languages) that guesses what you’re trying to write, a tabbed interface which is great for working with multiple files without cluttering your task bar, a powerful RegEx find-and-replace feature, code folding, support for a large array of languages (even Assembler!) and much more. These are just some of the features that make NOTEPAD++ my personal default text editor.

Bluefish Editor

(Mac, Linux)

Bluefish Editor is a robust, open source text editor geared towards programmers and web designers. It’s known as being a fast, lightweight text editor that can open 500+ documents with ease. It has a built-in function reference browser (for PHP, Python, CSS, and HTML) so you can quickly learn about with particular syntaxes. Check out the Screenshots section to find movies/screencasts (such as learning about working with remote files) and screen shots of Bluefish Editor.

TextWrangler

(Mac)

TextWrangler is a multi-purpose text editor for the Mac OS. It is a programmer-friendly text editor and Unix/Server Admin text editor. It has a useful “plugin” system allowing developers a way for extending TextWrangler’s built-in features. It also has a function browser so that you can quickly find and jump to the function you’re looking for (very helpful for those really long files).

Smultron

(Mac)

Smultron is an easy-to-use text editor. Its simple interface makes it perfect for the minimalist coder. It has the basic features you’d expect from a text editor such as syntax highlighting/coloring but also has cool, helpful features such as the ability to split the viewing pane in two so that you can view files side-by-side, a code snipplet library to allow you to store your often-used code blocks, and a full-screen mode that’s intended to make you focus on the task at hand.

Caditor

(Windows)

Caditor is an open source portable text editor written in the .NET framework (C#) that puts speed and performance at the forefront of its design. It has a convenient search box built into the tool bar of the text editor’s interface so that you don’t have to open another dialog box to perform a search. It has other handy features common to developer-oriented text editors such as line numbering, a compiler feature to allow you to hook it up with your compiler, and FTP feature.

gedit

(Linux)

gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop. Unlike Microsoft’s built-in text editor (Notepad), gedit is a more feature-packed text editor geared towards usage for programming and mark-up. With its syntax highlighting, tabbed interface for editing multiple files, and spell-checking feature – gedit is an excellent, free text editor for coders.

GNU Emacs

(Windows, Mac, Linux)

GNU Emacs (more commonly referred to simply as Emacs) is a cross-platform, extendable text editor geared towards programmers. One of its defining features is Emacs’s ability to be extended – offering you the ability to use it as your project planner and debugger, among other things. It has a file-comparison feature (M-x ediff) that highlights differences between two files (useful for figuring out changes in a file made by coders who don’t document/comment their revisions).

Crimson Editor

(Windows)

Crimson Editor is a lightweight text editor for Windows that supports many languages. It has a “Macros” features which lets you record a sequence of tasks so that you can reuse the sequence with a click of a button. It has a built-in FTP feature, allowing you to upload/download files from your FTP server. Crimson Editor is a solid option for Windows users.

ConTEXT

(Windows)

ConTEXT is another excellent, light-weight, freeware (meaning it’s free – but close-sourced) text editor for Windows. It has countless of handy features such as text sorting (helpful when you need to sort things in alphabetical order, for example), the ability to export configuration options so that you can share your configuration or import it into several machines, and a macro recorder for repeating a sequence of tasks. In 2007, ConTEXT development was turned over to David Hadley but continues to be freeware.

SciTE

(Windows, Linux)

SciTE, written on top of the open source Scintilla code-editing component, is a speedy text editor aimed for use in source code editing. It has a standalone .exe version which you can use for portable storage drives (i.e. USB flash drives) so that you can conveniently carry it around and use it on any computer without having to install it. SciTE is compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems and has been tested by the developer on Windows XP and on Fedora 8 and Ubuntu 7.10.

Komodo Edit

(Windows, Mac, Linux)

Komodo Edit is a freeware, cross-platform text editor created by ActiveState. It is a simple text editor based on the popular integrated development environment – Komodo IDE. It has a convenient and flexible Project Manager feature to help you organize and keep track of your project files.

jEdit

(Windows, Mac, Linux)

jEdit is a text editor that specifically caters to programmers. It’s written in Java and runs on any operating system that supports You can download a ton of plugins (check out the Plugins Central on jEdit’s website) to extend its built-in features. jEdit was designed to combine the best features of Windows, Mac, and Unix text editors.

Additional Resources

Comparison of text editors (Wikipedia)
Hive Five: Best Text Editors (Lifehacker)

Best Free Coding Editor For Mac

What do you think?

Find one that you like the best and stick to it, as everything down to the text can influence your clients’ web reputation whether they are a golf course or a restaurant. There’s a ton of text editors out there so be sure to share your experiences and opinions on the text editors above, and if your favorite isn’t on the list – please tell us about it in the comments.

Free Code Editor Mac