Atom AlternativesOnly apps categorised as IDEs

The best IDE alternative to Atom is Visual Studio Code, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Atom and loads of them are IDEs so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting IDE alternatives to Atom are Sublime Text, Vim, VSCodium and Zed Editor.

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Alternatives list

  1. Visual Studio Code icon

    Visual Studio Code

     1377 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.

    204 Visual Studio Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Chrome OS
    • Snapcraft
    Visual Studio Code screenshot 1
     
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    9
    Comments about Visual Studio Code as an Alternative to Atom
    Top Positive Comment
    David
    1

    VS Code has arguably better defaults than Atom especially with the pre-configured minimap. Atom's themes use HTML/CSS so visuals are fully configurable but that also makes it a bit slower with drawing operations whereas VS Code draws everything fast, very noticeable with the minimap which reacts practically instantly to changes. VS Code also loads faster and just feels faster in general. Otherwise, both editors offer a massive list of great features and droves of extensions.

    Dwayne Mitchell
    Positive
    -3

    The best of the best, at least right now.

    someone last
    Positive
    0

    Makes everything easier, faster.

    3 of 9 comments
    Visual Studio Code icon
    Visual Studio Code icon
    • Visual Studio Code is Free and ProprietaryAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
  2. Sublime Text icon

    Sublime Text

     2046 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.

    193 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Sublime Text screenshot 1
     
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    5
    Comments about Sublime Text as an Alternative to Atom
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    4

    SublimeText is by far my most favorite editor in my 32 years of computing as it has multitude of features found no where else and is extendable with packages. Vertical Selection and Multi-caret editing is two of my most used features.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    David Burns
    Positive
    0

    You wouldn't believe me if I told you the amount of plug-ins available for easy addition.

    Ivan Lopez
    Positive
    1

    It is very similar and easy to understand and use, this program is probably one of the best alternatives to Atom if you are using it for simple text editing and you are not very interested in modifying the program itself, even though both programs are really great, I prefer to use Atom when I'm on linux and Sublime Text when I'm on Windows.

    3 of 5 comments
    Sublime Text icon
    Sublime Text icon
    • Sublime Text is Freemium and ProprietaryAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Sublime Text is LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  4. Vim icon

    Vim

     1345 likes

    Vim ("Vi IMproved") is an advanced text editor that allows syntax highlighting, word completion and has a huge amount of contributed content. It also has a GUI version called GVim.

    215 Vim alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    • AmigaOS
    • OpenSolaris
    • MorphOS
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Vim screenshot 1
     
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    4
    Comments about Vim as an Alternative to Atom
    Guest
    Positive
    11

    Vim offers unlimited customization and consumes very less memory, it supports execution of commands from vim itself and with the right plugins works almost like an ide

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Negative
    5

    While Vim is powerful, it’s not an easy replacement for a GUI-based text editor.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Conner Vieira
    Positive
    0

    Vim is one of the most lightweight text editors on the planet. If you want to edit plain text or code, and you want to do it efficiently, Vim's keyboard-centric design is great.

    3 of 4 comments
    Vim icon
    Vim icon
    • Vim is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Vim is LightweightAtom is not according to our users
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  6. VSCodium icon

    VSCodium

     403 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.

    198 VSCodium alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Electron
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
    VSCodium screenshot 1
     
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    2
    Comments about VSCodium as an Alternative to Atom
    Ernst Went
    Positive
    2

    Has all the famous features of Visual Studio Code but without tracking/telemetry. Updates are coming regularly. Recommendable!

    Sebastian
    Positive
    0

    its better Than most other IDE/Code Editors, even better than Visual studio code.

    VSCodium icon
    VSCodium icon
    • VSCodium is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • VSCodium is Privacy focused and LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  7. Zed Editor icon

    Zed Editor

     108 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.

    90 Zed Editor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Zed Editor screenshot 1
     
  8. Kate icon

    Kate

     312 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.

    146 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Kate screenshot 1
     
  10. Geany icon

    Geany

     575 likes

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

    154 Geany alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flatpak
    • Haiku
    Geany screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Geany as an Alternative to Atom
    Guest
    Positive
    3

    Geany is easy, extremely fast, and reliable. Has a good console. Has good interaction with the shell. Is very customizable. Can be extended with lua. Has good selection of plugins. Snippets. Block editing. Code folding. Syntax highlighting. Tab completion. Everything works. File browser. Object browser. Configurable compilation and execution. Project managment. etc. Everuthing without bloating.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Geany icon
    Geany icon
    • Geany is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Geany is Lightweight, Minimalistic and Privacy focusedAtom is not according to our users
  11. GNU Emacs icon

    GNU Emacs

     387 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:

    181 GNU Emacs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • F-Droid
    • Haiku
    • Debian
    • MacPorts
    • Homebrew
    The GNU Emacs Manual calls Emacs the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor
     
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    1
    Comments about GNU Emacs as an Alternative to Atom
    cycroenerugi
    Positive
    4

    Its more than just a text editor, its an list interpreter and an shell. Good for computer setups without mouse

    GNU Emacs icon
    GNU Emacs icon
    • GNU Emacs is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • GNU Emacs is Privacy focused and LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  12. Neovim icon

    Neovim

     187 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.

    106 Neovim alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chocolatey
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
    Neovim screenshot 1
     
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    1
    Comments about Neovim as an Alternative to Atom
    downshifter
    Positive
    0

    Lightweight, customisable, terminalbased, extensible to full IDE

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Neovim icon
    Neovim icon
    • Neovim is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Neovim is LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  13. Pulsar Editor icon

    Pulsar Editor

     48 likes

    A Community-led Hyper-Hackable Text Editor, built on Electron. and based on everything we love about our favorite editors.

    78 Pulsar Editor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Electron
    Welcome tab
     
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    4
    Comments about Pulsar Editor as an Alternative to Atom
    Mark
    Positive
    2

    Pulsar is the spiritual successor to Atom.

    Buster_Blue
    Positive
    1

    It's the community-run direct successor (it's a fork) of Atom. If you really liked Atom and wish you could keep using it, this is the obvious choice, because it IS Atom, just with a new name and new maintainers.

    tuva-hayabi
    Positive
    0

    Atom is dead and gone, Pulse is alive and well.

    3 of 4 comments
    Pulsar Editor icon
    Pulsar Editor icon
    • Pulsar Editor is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Pulsar Editor is Lightweight and Privacy focusedAtom is not according to our users
  14. Lite XL icon

    Lite XL

     52 likes

    Lite XL is a lightweight text editor written mostly in Lua — it aims to provide something practical, pretty, small and fast, implemented as simply as possible; easy to modify and extend, or to use without doing either.

    61 Lite XL alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Lite XL screenshot 1
     
12 of 64 Atom alternatives