Vim Alternatives for Mac

There are many alternatives to Vim for Mac if you are looking for a replacement. The best Mac alternative is Visual Studio Code, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Vim and loads of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Vim are Sublime Text, VSCodium, Zed and Kate.

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Most Vim alternatives are Text Editors, but you can also narrow the list to Code Editors or IDEs. Other popular filters are Windows, Linux and Mac.
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Alternatives
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Alternatives list

  1. Visual Studio Code icon
     1541 likes

    Free and extensible code editor with built-in Git support, smart IntelliSense, integrated debugger, 30,000+ extensions, works offline, supports markdown and syntax highlighting for numerous languages.

    258 Visual Studio Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2015

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • Online
    • Snapcraft
    • Chocolatey
    Good alternative?
     
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    4
  2. Sublime Text icon
     2088 likes

    Powerful editor blending code, markup, and prose editing with enhanced features like multi-tab selection, side-by-side definition viewing, and multiple selection tools for swift code navigation.

    228 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Flatpak
    Good alternative?
     
  3. VSCodium icon
     470 likes

    This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.

    230 VSCodium alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2018

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Electron
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    Good alternative?
     
  4. Zed icon
     163 likes

    Blazing fast code editor offering real-time multi-user collaboration, language-aware syntax highlighting, integrated terminal, multi-buffers for tab-free editing, built-in Vim mode, searchable outline, AI coding assistance, advanced keyboard commands, and cross-platform support.

    137 Zed alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2023

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • US flagUnited States
    Zed screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
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    1
  5. Kate icon
     340 likes

    The Kate project develops two main products: KatePart, the advanced editor component which is used in numerous KDE applications requiring a text editing component, and Kate, a MDI text editor application.

    172 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Flatpak
    Good alternative?
     
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    1
  6. Neovim icon
     209 likes

    Refactored version of Vim, simplifying maintenance, improving developer contributions, and enabling new user interfaces. Features extensible plugin architecture, lightweight resource usage, syntax highlighting, no registration, ad-free, and distraction-free mode.

    129 Neovim alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2015

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Chocolatey
    Good alternative?
     
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    8
  7. Google Antigravity is an agentic IDE and coding environment designed to support real world software projects through autonomous development workflows. It provides an agent first workspace where developers set direction while AI agents carry out tasks such as coding, debugging...

    103 Google Antigravity alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2025

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Visual Studio Code
    • Microsoft Visual Studio
    • JetBrains IDE
    • Xcode
    • Zed
    Good alternative?
     
  8. Geany icon
     589 likes

    Geany is a powerful, stable and lightweight programmer's text editor that provides tons of useful features without bogging down your workflow.

    178 Geany alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • PortableApps.com
    • Haiku
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    • Flatpak
    Good alternative?
     
  9. GNU Emacs icon
     393 likes

    GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing. The features of GNU Emacs include:

    216 GNU Emacs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Debian
    • Android
    • Haiku
    • F-Droid
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • MacPorts
    Good alternative?
     
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    1
  10. gedit icon
     703 likes

    Extensible text editor with UTF-8 support, syntax highlighting for several programming and markup languages, remote editing, file reverting, print preview, clipboard operations, powerful search, customizable fonts and colors, line numbering, and plugin support.

    219 gedit alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2009

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • GNOME
    • OpenSolaris
    • Flathub
    • US flagUnited States
    The Default look under GNOME with Adwaita
    Good alternative?
     
  11. Gram icon
     19 likes

    Gram is a powerful and modern source code editor. It features solid performance and is highly configurable, yet comes with batteries included out of the box. Gram supports many popular programming languages and file formats, and can use Zed extensions to support additional...

    70 Gram alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2026

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Gentoo
    • Homebrew
    Good alternative?
     
  12. GNU nano icon
     299 likes

    GNU nano is a small and friendly text editor. Besides basic text editing, nano offers many extra features like an interactive search and replace, go to line and column number, auto-indentation, feature toggles, internationalization support, and filename tab completion.

    171 GNU nano alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Since

    • Since 2010

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    Good alternative?
     
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    1
12 of 123 Vim alternatives