We often get asked about what’s the best code editor for modifying WordPress files? Well you can use any plain text editor such as NotePad, however there are better editors out there with features like syntax highlighting, advanced find and replace, FTP integration, etc. In this article, we will show you some of the best code editors available for Mac and Windows users.
- Best Free Programming Editor For Mac
- Best Programmer's Editor
- Best Text Editor On Mac
- Best Programmers Editor For Mac
- Best Free Programming Text Editor For Mac
It claims to have the fastest search engine and offers impressive features. This tool is also considered to be the best text editor for programming on Mac OS. BBEdit is a favorite text editor for programming apps for Mac. I want an all in one integrated development environment or IDE, whether I use Xcode or something else. You can use CodeRunner as an. Best Text Editors for Programmers for Mac and Linux Obviously, GNU Emacs is a popular editor for Linux users. However, if you are using Mac and Linux simultaneously, you should opt for an app that is supported by both platforms.
The best IDE is the IDE that works best for you, so below is a selection of 10 of the most popular choices to help you figure out which one to pick. How is an IDE Different From a Text Editor? An IDE is more than a simple text editor. The Notepad++ is widely used in Windows operating systems, however, the programming software is not available to the Mac OS. There is no need to fret if you move from a Windows environment as the OS X has a native Unix environment that is compatible for html editors, and a simple text editor called TextEdit. Best Text Editors for Programmers for Mac and Linux Obviously, GNU Emacs is a popular editor for Linux users. However, if you are using Mac and Linux simultaneously, you should opt for an app that is supported by both platforms. Bluefish is a more than just a normal editor, it is a lightweight, fast editor that offers programmers IDE like features for developing websites, writing scripts and software code. It is multi-platform, runs on Linux, Mac OSX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris and Windows, and also supports many programming languages including C/C++.
1. Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free and open source code editor for Windows. It is easy to use for beginners and highly powerful for advanced users. It comes with syntax highlighting for many languages including PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It also comes with a built-in FTP plugin that allows you to connect to your server and edit files directly without leaving the editor.
2. TextWrangler
TextWrangler came out of the popular BBEdit text editor. This powerful and feature rich text editor is a freeware. It comes with a very intuitive user interface that makes it super easy to browse files and work on projects. It has advanced search and replace tools, and it can directly edit and save files to FTP, SFTP servers. It offers syntax highlighting for many programing languages, fully supports utf-8, and even allows you to convert character encoding of text documents.
3. Coda
Coda is perhaps one of the most loved web development and programming editor for Mac. It is famous for its ridiculously good looking interface, and smart powerful features. It allows you to edit local or remote files, manage projects, work on multiple files at once with easy switching between tabs. It has built in terminal, debugger, web kit preview and inspector, and so many awesome features.
Code costs $99 for a single license but it is totally worth the price.
4. Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a cross-platform code editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It comes with all the features you would expect from a powerful code editor and then some more. It looks beautiful and you can tweak the appearance to make it more comfortable for you. Sublime Text comes with advanced code editor features which allow you to autofill, autocomplete, reference function in a file, multiple selection, split editing, and many more.
Sublime Text is available on trial and a single license will cost you $70.
5. TextMate
TextMate promises to bring Apple’s approach to operating systems into a text editor. TextMate is a simple yet feature rich code editor for Mac. Easy clip board management, sophisticated find and replace, autocompletion, foldable code blocks, are some of the powerful features of TextMate.
TextMate is available for $60. It is also available as a free download.
6. Atom
Atom is a cross-platform code editor created by developers for developers. It is open source, and much like WordPress, Atom users can submit packages and themes for the software. It looks pretty and you can change the appearance by installing themes. It comes with built-in package manager to extend it, smart autocompletion, file system browser, multiple panes, find and replace.
7. BBEdit
BBEdit is a beautiful code and HTML editor for Mac. It comes with all the advanced features of a powerful code editor. Syntax highlighting, advanced find and replace, autocompletion, quick lookup, multiple tabs, splittable editing windows and much more.
BBEdit costs $49.99, you can also download a free trial version.
8. UltraEdit
UltraEdit is a powerful HTML and Code editor available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It comes with a built-in file comparison utility, autocompletion, advanced layout, multi-tab, multi-pane editors, and syntax highlighting for the most popular programming languages.
UltraEdit costs $79.5 with a limited free trial version available for download.
9. Vim
Vim is an advanced text editor that brings the power of Vi to an equally powerful feature set. Vim is open source and available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Vim is so powerful and advanced that it is considered to be an IDE in its own way.
10. Brackets
Brackets was founded by Adobe to push web editors into the new age. It claims to be an advanced code editor that understands web designs. Brackets can take hints from a PSD file and allows you to write code faster and better. Brackets is open source and available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
11. CoffeeCup HTML Editor
CoffeeCup HTML Editor is an easy to use HTML editor for Windows. It supports PHP, HTML, Markdown, CSS and allows you to use autocomplete, syntax validation, semantic code, among many other features. CoffeeCup HTML editor is not the ideal code editor for many other languages but if you want to learn writing PHP, HTML, and CSS, then Coffee Cup HTML editor is a good place to start.
CoffeeCup HTML Editor costs $69 with a limited free trial version available for download.
12. Espresso
Espresso is a web development tool for Mac. It comes with a powerful code editor and built-in CSSEdit. It comes with beautiful interface and advanced features like drag and drop code snippets, code folding, navigator, live styling and X-ray preview.
Espresso is available for $75.
We hope this article helped you find the perfect code editor for your needs. You may also want to take a look at our WordPress theme cheat sheet for beginners
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This article has been updated as of September 2019 to ensure that all the HTML editors listed are still available for free download. Any new information on latest versions has been added to this list.
During the original testing process, over 100 HTML editors for Windows were evaluated against more than 40 different criteria relevant to both professional and beginning web designers and web developers, as well as small business owners. From that testing, ten HTML editors that stood above the rest were selected. Best of all, all of these editors also happen to be free!
NotePad ++
What We Like
Small download and program size.
Loads fast, and runs light.
Auto-completion for words and functions.
Plugin options to extend functionality.
What We Don't Like
No Mac version available.
May be less useful for languages like Java.
Notepad++ is a favorite free note taking app and code editor. It is a more robust version of the Notepad software that you would find available in Windows by default. That being the case, this is a Windows-only option. It includes things like line number, color coding, hints, and other helpful tools that the standard Notepad application does not have. These additions make Notepad++ an ideal choice for web designers and front end developers.
Komodo Edit
What We Like
Extensible through plugins.
Customizable appearance.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
What We Don't Like
No WYSIWYG editor.
Not the best editor for beginners.
There are two versions of Komodo available, Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.
is open source and free to download. It is a trimmed down counterpart to IDE.
Komodo Edit includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Additionally, you can get extensions to add language support or other helpful features, like special characters.
Komodo doesn't outshine as the best HTML editor, but it's great for for the price, especially if you build in XML where it truly excels. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.
Eclipse
What We Like
Plugin design makes adding new languages simple.
Open source with large community makes problem solving easier.
Runs on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux
What We Don't Like
A large program that's not as light as other editors.
Consumes considerable system resources, especially on large projects.
Eclipse is a complex development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on various platforms and with different languages. It is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something you just find the appropriate plug-in and go to work.
If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.
Aptana Studio 3
What We Like
Good for JavaScript.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Plugins expand supported languages.
What We Don't Like
Lack of updates and announcements since 2014.
Bulkier and sometimes slower than some other editors.
Aptana Studio 3 offers an interesting take on webpage development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications. That may not make it the best fit for simple web design needs, but if you are looking more in the way of web application development, the tools offered in Aptana may be a great fit.
One concern about Aptana is the lack of updates that the company has done over the past few years. Their website, as well as their Facebook and Twitter pages, announce the release of version 3.6.0 on July 31, 2014, but there have been no announcements since that time.
Best Free Programming Editor For Mac
While the software itself tested great during initial research (and it was originally placed 2nd in this list), this lack of current updates must be taken into consideration.
NetBeans
What We Like
Version control functionality.
Customizable appearance.
Specialized for Java.
What We Don't Like
Takes some time to learn.
Consumes a lot of system resources while running.
Can be slow to execute commands.
NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications.
Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because it doesn't often work in the same way that web editors work. Once you get used to it you’ll find it very useful, however.
The version control feature included in the IDE is especially useful for people working in large development environments, as is the developer collaboration features. If you write Java and webpages this is a great tool.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community
What We Like
Well supported with updates and the addition of new features.
Wide range of programming languages supported.
Nice design that is beginner-friendly.
What We Don't Like
Premium features come with high price tag.
Heavy program that consumes significant memory and processing power.
Bit of a learning curve for new users.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community is a visual IDE to help web developers and other programmers get started creating applications for the web, mobile devices and the desktop. Previously, you may have used Visual Studio Express, but this is the latest version of the software. They offer a free download, as well as paid versions (that include free trials) for Professional and Enterprise users.
BlueGriffon
What We Like
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
WYSIWYG editor with previews.
Good for beginners
What We Don't Like
Can suffer lag during use.
Lots of options may bewilder new users.
BlueGriffon is the latest in the series of webpage editors that started with Nvu, progressed to Kompozer and now culminates in BlueGriffon. It is powered by Gecko, the rending engine of Firefox, so it does a great job of showing how work would be rendered in that standards-compliant browser.
BlueGriffon is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux and in a variety of languages.
This is the only true WYSIWYG editor that made this list, and as such it will be more appealing for many beginners and small business owners who want a more visual way to work as opposed to a purely code-focused interface.
Bluefish
What We Like
A fast and lightweight program.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Best Programmer's Editor
What We Don't Like
Primarily a code editor without a WYSIWYG interface.
Lacks an easy FTP upload feature.
Best Text Editor On Mac
Bluefish is a full-featured HTML editor that runs on a variety of platforms, including Linux, MacOS-X, Windows, and more.
The latest release (which is 2.2.10 or 2.2.10-2 for High Sierra) fixed some of the bugs found in previous versions.
Noteworthy features that have been in place since the 2.0 version are code-sensitive spell check, auto complete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management and autosave.
Bluefish is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, however, if you’re a designer by nature and you want more of a web-focused or a WYSIWYG interface, Bluefish may not be for you.
GNU Emacs Profile
Best Programmers Editor For Mac
What We Like
Included with most Linux systems.
Powerful with plenty of features.
What We Don't Like
More complicated than other editors.
Not the best choice for beginners.
GNU Emacs is found on most Linux systems and makes it easy for you to edit a page even if you don't have your standard software.
Best Free Programming Text Editor For Mac
Emacs is a lot more complicated some other editors, and so offers more features, but I find it harder to use.
Feature highlights: XML support, scripting support, advanced CSS support and a built-in validator, as well as color coded HTML editing.
This editor, whose latest version is 26.1 which was released in May 2018, can be intimidating to anyone who isn't comfortable writing plain HTML in a text editor, but if you are and your host offers Emacs, it is a very powerful tool.