On that note when we talk about free code editors for Windows and Mac to use in the year 2021, 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. VLC is the best free, open-source media player for the Mac. With it, you can play nearly any media file, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, WMV, and much more. It has a number of customizable features so you can create your ideal viewing situation or set up your music listening experience the way you want. Another free screen recording software for Mac is Jing by Techsmith that has been very popular on the market for a long time. This program is very simple and easy to use that are the pillars of its popularity. Swift Playgrounds is a revolutionary app for iPad and Mac that helps you learn and explore coding in Swift, the same powerful language used to create world.
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 2021, 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 2021
Best Code Editors of 2021:
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
Check out the best task management tools for Mac:
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
Free Coding Software For Mac
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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Great editors can help you code faster, find syntax errors, and much more. Below is a roundup of code editors that will help your web development without breaking the bank.
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Editors Choice: Atom.io
Now over the years, many text editors have been created, but only a few have stayed and improved over the years. Atom.io right now is used by all my programmer friends, myself include.
If you want to use the best WYSIWYG HTML editor, that will save you tons of time when coding or doing any editing use Atom. Just try it, you’ll thank me later. Oh and watch their demo video, it’s super cool as well. Best of all.. Atom.io is free and it’s made by Github!
If you don’t love it – come back here and you can call me the meanest words, but I know that will never happen!
1. Aptana Studio (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) (FREE)
Aptana Studio is a complete web development environment that combines powerful authoring tools for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with thousands of additional plugins created by the community.
Features of Aptana Studio:
- Unified Editing for Web Apps
- Ajax and JavaScript Libraries
- Ruby on Rails, Python and PHP
- Desktop Ajax
- Free, Open Source and Cross Platform
2. SlickEdit (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)
SlickEdit is the multi-platform, multi-language code editor that gives programmers the ability to create, navigate, modify, build, and debug code faster and more accurately.
Features of SlickEdit:
- Display symbol details with List Members, function/method argument help, and formatted Javadoc/XMLdoc/Doxygen comments
- Analyze symbols and hierarchy with a rich set of tools including Symbols, Class, References, and Find Symbol tool windows
- Check in and check out from version control
- Diff files and directories
- Preview the definition for the symbol under the cursor automatically without lifting a finger. The Preview tool window shows the definition and formatted Javadoc/XMLdoc/Doxygen comments.
- Edit files up to 2 GB
3. jEdit (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) (FREE)
jEdit is a mature programmer’s text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it.
Features of jEdit:
- Built-in macro language
- Plugins can be downloaded and installed from within jEdit using the “plugin manager” feature.
- Auto indent and syntax highlighting for more than 130 languages.
- Supports a large number of character encodings including UTF8 and Unicode.
- Folding for selectively hiding regions of text.
- Word wrap.
- Highly configurable and customizable.
4. IntelliJ IDEA (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)
IntelliJ IDEA is a code-centric IDE focused on developer productivity. IntelliJ IDEA deeply understands your code and gives you a set of powerful tools without imposing any particular workflow or project structure.
IntelliJ IDEA is your dream pair-programmer who knows its way around the codebase, makes great suggestions right when you need them, and is always ready to help you shape your code.
Features of IntelliJ IDEA:
- Advanced Code Editing
- Supported Languages
- Technologies & Frameworks
- Teamwork Facilitation
- Code Quality Features
- Integrated Environment
- Customization & Extensibility
5. Notepad++ (Windows) (FREE)
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.
Features of Notepad++:
- Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
- WYSIWYG
- User Defined Syntax Highlighting
- Auto-completion
- Multi-Document
- Multi-View
- Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
- Full Drag ‘N’ Drop supported
- Dynamic position of Views
- File Status Auto-detection
- Zoom in and zoom out
- Multi-Language environment supported
- Bookmark
- Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting
- Macro recording and playback
6. SCREEM (Linux)
SCREEM is a web development environment. It’s purpose is to increase productivity when constructing a site, by providing quick access to commonly used features. While it is written for use with the GNOME desktop environment in mind it does not specifically require you to be running it, just have the libraries installed.
Features of SCREEM:
- Broken Link Checking
- CTags Support
- Cut / Paste
- CVS Support
- Document Structure Display
- DTD/Doctype Parsing
- Helper Applications
- Inline Tagging
- Intelliclose
- Link Fixing
- Page Previewing
- Page Templates
- Publishing
- Recent documents / Projects
- Search / Replace
- Select Context
- Spell Checking
- Syntax Highlighting
- Tag Trees
- Task management
- Wizards
7. EmEditor (Windows) (FREE Trial; €32.15)
EmEditor is a lightweight, but extensible, commercial text editor for Microsoft Windows. Although designed for Windows XP, the program is also certified for use with Windows Vista. Available editions of the program include the 32-bit edition and the 64-bit edition, and the program also includes a portability option to set up a removable drive, such as a USB drive, through an Import and Export Wizard.
Feature-wise, the program includes unicode and large file support, a tabbed window design, and is extensible via plugins and scripts (macros), many of which have been written by the users.
Features of EmEditor:
- New Snippets Plugin
- Brackets/Quotation Mark Auto-Complete
- Narrowing
- CSV, TSV and DSV
- Full Screen View
- Clipboard History
- Wildcard Support
- Workspace Including Undo Information
- New External Tools
- Pin to List
- Save in Protected Folder
- Supports Windows 7 Jump List
- New Buttons on Toolbar
8. Programmer’s Notepad (Windows)
Programmer’s Notepad is an open-source text editor targeted at users who work with source code.
Features of Programmer’s Notepad:
- Bookmarks (both numbered and plain)
- Code Folding/Outlining
- Docking tool windows
- Excellent external tool support with user-configurable output matching
- Export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF
- File association manager
- In-file method/definition navigation (using Ctags)
- No limit on file size (although large files may take a while to load)
- Non fixed-width font support
- Projects and Project Groups with multi-level folders and file system mirroring
- Quick Search toolbar with links to Google and Google Groups
- Regular expression search and replace
- Support for unicode files
- Support for windows, unix and macintosh file formats
- Syntax highlighting for many languages through “schemes”.
- Tabbed MDI interface
- Text Clips
- Unlimited number of schemes supported, powerful syntax highlighting supporting both user-defined and built-in schemes
- User-defined schemes (XML)
- Word-wrapping
9. PSPad (Windows)
PSPad editor is a freeware text editor and source editor intended for use by programmers.
Features of PSPad:
- Work with plain text
- Create web pages
- Want to use a good IDE for their compiler
10. HTML-Kit (Windows)
HTML-Kit is an HTML editor for Microsoft Windows. The application is a full-featured HTML editor designed to edit, format, validate, preview and publish web pages in HTML, XHTML and XML -languages.
Features of HTML-Kit:
- Navigate tags and scripts
- Code Folding
- Batch Search and Replace
- Upload Options
- Incremental Search and Go-To
- File Versioning and Auto Backup
- HTML-Kit Shorthand
- Not Lost in Translation
- Remote Editing with Local Copy
- Dockable Plugins
- Paste Plus
- Native Unicode Support
- Multi-Page Templates
- Re-order Document Tabs
11. EditPlus (Windows)
EditPlus is a text editor, HTML editor, PHP editor and Java editor for Windows. While it can serve as a good Notepad replacement, it also offers many powerful features for Web page authors and programmers.
Features of EditPlus:
- Multiple document interface
- Overlappable windows
- Tabbed document interface
- Window splitting
- Spell checking
- Regex-based find & replace
- Encoding conversion
- Newline conversion
- Syntax highlighting
- Multiple undo/redo
- Rectangular block selection
- Bracket matching
- Auto indentation
- Auto completion
- Code folding (Text folding)
- Compiler integration
12. Crimson Editor (Windows)
Crimson Editor is a professional source code editor for Windows. This program is not only fast in loading time, but also small in size (so small that it can be copied in one floppy disk).
Features of Crimson Editor:
- Edit multiple documents
- Syntax highlighting
- Multi-level undo / redo
- Project management
- Directory tree view window
- Find & Replace
- Column mode editing
- Natural word wrapping
- Spell checker
- User tools and macros
- Edit remote files directly using built-in FTP client
- Print & Print preview
13. Coda (Mac OS X))
Coda is a $99 commercial web development application for Mac OS X, developed by Panic.
Features of Coda:
- Plugins
- Open quickly
- Smart Spelling
- Subversion
- Find across files
14. BBEdit (Mac OS X) (FREE Trial; From $49 to $125)
Whenever you need to work with text, whether you want to create or maintain a website, write a program or shell script, search log files and extract data, or write a few paragraphs (or pages, or books), BBEdit offers what you need to make accomplishing your task quicker and easier.
Best Coding Programs For Mac
BBEdit 9 adds over one hundred new features and over one hundred improvements over the previous version.
Features of BBEdit:
- Text Handling
- Web Development
- Programming
- File Handling
- Display
- Search
- UNIX & Admin
Free Coding App For Mac
15. TextMate (Mac OS X)
TextMate brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike.
Features of TextMate:
- Ability to Search and Replace in a Project
- Auto-Indent for Common Actions Like Pasting Text
- Auto-Pairing of Brackets and Other Characters
- Clipboard History
- Column Selections and Column Typing
- Completion of Words from Current Document
- CSS-like Selectors to Pinpoint the Scope of Actions and Settings
- Declarative Language Grammars for Graceful Mixing and Hacking
- Dynamic Outline for Working With Multiple Files
- Expand Trigger Words to Code Blocks With Tab-able Placeholders
- File Tabs when Working With Projects
- Foldable Code Blocks
- Function Pop-up for Quick Overview and Navigation
- Plug-able Through Your Favorite Scripting Language
- Recordable Macros With No Programming Required
- Regular Expression Search and Replace (grep)
- Run Shell Commands from Within a Document
- Support for Darcs, Perforce, SVK, and Subversion
- Support for More Than 50 Languages
- Switch Between Files in Projects With a Minimum of Key Strokes
- Themable Syntax Highlight Colors
- Visual Bookmarks to Jump Between Places in a File
- Works As External Editor for (s)ftp Programs
- Works Together With Xcode and Can Build Xcode Projects
16. SubEthaEdit (Mac OS X)
SubEthaEdit is a powerful and lean text editor. And it’s the only collaborative one that is a joy to use. By combining the ease of Bonjour with the world’s best text collaboration engine, it makes working together not only possible but even fun…
Features of SubEthaEdit:
SubEthaEdit includes various advanced features: A UNIX command line utility to enable complex and interactive pipe workflows with your terminal. Overhauled printing, including all bells and whistles, even with collaborative metadata.
Exporting to HTML, again with metadata. Completely user customizable syntax highlighting through styles. Support for editing files as administrator. Improved AppleScript support to allow control of sharing features.
17. CSSEdit (Mac OS X)
Design beautiful, innovative and fast-loading web sites… with a beautiful, innovative and fast app. CSSEdit’s intuitive approach to style sheets and powerful previewing features will make you deliver awesome standards-based sites in no time!
Features of CSSEdit:
With CSSEdit, you see changes to your style sheet applied in real-time. Without saving. Without uploading. Without hassle. For any Web App or HTML file. You can edit style sheets for absolutely any site, on- or offline.
Thanks to our innovative Override technology, you can even apply your open style sheets to any site and see it change instantly! Styling a Web App used to be a cycle of type — upload — refresh. CSSEdit destroys this waste of time. Making your Web 2.0 App beautiful is now easy and productive.
18. Taco HTML Edit (Mac OS X)
Taco HTML Edit is the premier HTML editor and PHP editor for the Mac. As an HTML editor, Taco HTML Edit empowers its users to rapidly create their own web sites. It is designed exclusively for Mac OS X and has many advanced features including spell checking, live browser previewing, PHP previewing, syntax checking, and much more.
Features of Taco HTML Edit:
- Component Library
- Code Coloring
- Preview
- Code Completion
- Syntax Checking
- Live Preview
- Code Clips
19. skEdit (Mac OS X)
skEdit is a text editor for Mac OS X, aimed at web designers and programmers.
Features of skEdit:
- Tabbed interface
- Project based site management
- Code hinting and completion
- Code folding
- Code snippets
- Syntax highlighting
- File uploading and remote editing (using FTP, SFTP or WebDAV)
- HTML Tidy integration
- Search and replace with support for regular expressions
Which software for coding is your favorite? Do you use any of these code editors? If you haven’t got one, now you certainly have some promising programs to choose from!
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