Welcome to a list of free code editors for Windows, Linux, and Mac. As a supporter of open source myself, I believe that learning how to code should be free. Also, we shouldn’t be made to pay for a tool to earn a living. So this is a list of free code editors that I have collected from all over the Internet. Take your time to choose the best code editor for yourself – Read on!
P.S. This list is in “kind of recommended” order, whichever came to my mind first.
1) VISUAL STUDIO CODE (VSCODE)
Not to be confused with the “professional Visual Studio”, VSCode is an open-source editor offered by Microsoft (you can download the source code on GitHub). Being free and open source does not make this “less professional” by any means… VSCode is mature, capable, and has a library of extensions that you can use.
2) NETBEANS
NetBeans is an oldie that has been around since the late 1990s, it has a long history and has been “passed” from company to company. Notably – Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and now it is with Apache Software Foundation. This used to be one of my favorites until it got way too bloated… It’s still a good mature IDE though, worth taking a look into.
3) ECLIPSE
Eclipse is another oldie that has been around since the 2000s. It is a project started by IBM and has enjoyed “a moment of fame” as the preferred IDE to develop Android apps – Until it was officially taken over by the official Android Studio. Still, this is a very mature and capable IDE worth trying out.
4) ATOM COMMUNITY
Atom used to be another of my favorites. It was GitHub’s “official code editor”, with a ton of features – Plugins, Git integration, themes, and fully customizable. But ever since Microsoft took over, they decided to shelf Atom in favor of VSCode. But nope, Atom is not entirely gone. It is open source, and the community has now taken over.
5) PULSTAR
Pulstar is another code editor that rose from the ashes of Atom. It is pretty much based on Atom, so yep, it has the same essence of “good usability” as Atom.
6) BRACKETS.IO
Brackets.io is a code editor that was once backed by Adobe… Adobe then decided to pull out, and the community has now taken over.
7) PHOENIX CODE EDITOR
To keep the long story short, Phoenix is an online code editor by the same Brackets community team. Welcome to platform-independent web apps, no need to install anything. Just access the website.
8) LAPCE
Lapce is an editor that I stumbled upon on GitHub. It is built on Rust, and touts itself to be “lightweight and lightning fast”. There is already quite a buzz on their GitHub page, so take a look if you are interested.
9) LITE XL
Lite XL is another “lightweight and lighting fast” editor. But I have to say – This one stays true to that statement. There’s literally no installer, just download and launch; Very portable, and good for you guys who are working off low-powered PCs.
10) NOTEPAD++
Notepad++ is a lightweight “better than the default Windows Notepad” editor. It runs fast, supports a ton of different programming languages, and there’s really nothing much to complain about this nifty free tool. The sad part, however, is that Notepad++ is only available for Windows.
11) NOTETAB LIGHT
Notetab, as they claim, is a multiple award-winning editor. Personally, I just think that it is a good improvement over the “default Windows Notepad”… Plus a few useful functions. Well, if you want a fuss-free and straightforward editor, this one is for you.
12) JSFIDDLE
When it comes to online code playgrounds, JSFiddle is one of the oldies. Experiment with your HTML, CSS, and Javascript – Then share it with the community. You can also embed the code on your own website, tidy it up, and do code collaborations with a friend in real-time. JSFiddle is definitely one of the better-featured ones.
13) CODEPEN
CodePen is an online code playground that is very much like JSFiddle. But they are slightly different, with a touch of social media. Go ahead and check it out – I have also shared plenty of “Pens” on CodePen.
14) JS BIN
Yet another online code playground. Nope, JSBin does not have a lot of those “advanced features”, but this one is simple and straightforward.
EXTRAS – “ABANDONWARE”
Here is a list of editors that have not been updated “in a while”… Just in case you are interested.
WHICH IS THE BEST?
We have come to the end of the guide, and I hope that it has helped you to choose a good code editor. But just which is the fairest of them all? Well, some people like it simple, while some prefer to have a lot of features. Everyone has a different take, so choose whichever catches your eye and stick with whichever works best for you.
With that, if you have anything to share with this guide, please feel free to comment below. Best of luck, and happy coding!
I think an alternative to notepad++ for some linux platforms is kwrite.
It functions under Kubuntu and Lubuntu, others I don’t know.
What I really like about it is the “comment/uncomment” function. I do
small projects and I have some rather long pages containing css, html
and javascript. Kwrite knows what I’m doing, if I select a line and tell it
“comment out”, it adds the proper code, even though what the proper
code is depends on what part of the page I’m editing.
W.S. Toh, thank you very much for your site. I wish I had found it before.
Two weeks ago I ended up thinking easyappointment was the only open
source appointment scheduler there was, and this thing has over 15000
files, over half of them belonging to the vendor/google directory… Ha,
that’s one method you could add to your page about “hiding your code”,
“write so many files that the flow of control becomes impossible to follow
for a human”.
I use the EditPlus. It’s lightweight and fast. =LINK REMOVED=
EditPlus also works on Windows only, is not free, and promoted by a shameless spam muppet called “Mike”.
P.S. I use ATOM. It is fast, lightweight, free, open-source, cross-platform, has hundreds of free themes, thousands of free extensions, and fully customizable.
Well … perhaps you may want to tell the crew which is your preferred one … 🙂
As above – I prefer Netbeans and ATOM. ATOM is open source, has a ton of themes, extensions, and very customizable.