Atom Alternatives

Atom is described as 'Open-source, Electron based text editor with a massive ecosystem of plugins and themes that are easily accessible through a built-in package manager. Being built with Electron, it uses web technology (HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Node' and is a leading Code Editor in the development category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Atom for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Linux, BSD and Flathub apps. The best Atom alternative is Visual Studio Code, which is free. Other great apps like Atom are Notepad++, Sublime Text, Vim and VSCodium.

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Atom alternatives are mainly Code Editors but may also be Text Editors or IDEs.  Other popular filters includes Linux + Open Source and Mac + Open Source. Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Atom.
Atom iconAtom
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Atom is an open-source, Electron based text editor with a massive ecosystem of plugins and themes that are easily accessible through a built-in package manager. Being built with Electron, it uses web...

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Atom alternatives page was last updated Dec 24, 2024
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Alternatives
  1. Neovim icon
     175 likes
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    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.

    97 Neovim alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Configurable
    3.  Distraction-free

    Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Lua scripting
    3.  Terminal-based
    4.  Syntax Highlighting
    5.  Asynchronous
    6.  Sane defaults
    7.  Ad-free
    8.  No registration required
    9.  Autocompletion
    10.  Code Formatting

    Neovim VS Atom

     
    Comments about Neovim as an Alternative to Atom
    downshifter
    Positive Feb 3, 2023
    0

    Lightweight, customisable, terminalbased, extensible to full IDE

    Atom Icon
    Neovim icon
    • Almost everyone thinks Neovim is a great Atom alternative.

    • Neovim is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Neovim is LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  2. GNU Emacs icon
     378 likes
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    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:

    171 GNU Emacs alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • F-Droid
    • Haiku
    • Homebrew
    • Snapcraft
    • Debian
    • MacPorts

    Properties

    1.  Customizable
    2.  Lightweight
    3.  Distraction-free

    Features

    1.  Extensibility
    2.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    3.  Org-mode
    4.  Self-documenting
    5.  Terminal-based
    6.  Syntax Highlighting
    7.  Support for scripting
    8.  Command line interface
    9.  No Tracking
    10.  Works Offline
    11.  Spell Checking
    12.  Ad-free

    GNU Emacs VS Atom

     
    Comments about GNU Emacs as an Alternative to Atom
    cycroenerugi
    Positive May 12, 2017
    4

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

    Atom Icon
    GNU Emacs icon
    • Almost everyone thinks GNU Emacs is a great Atom alternative.

    • GNU Emacs is the most popular Android alternative to Atom.

    • GNU Emacs is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • GNU Emacs is CustomizableAtom is not according to our users
  3. Zed Editor icon
     61 likes
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    Zed is a blazing fast, multi-user, productivity-focused text editor. From the creators of Atom, Electron and Tree-sitter, the editor features built-in Vim mode with tooltips for key-bindings, language-aware...

    77 Zed Editor alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Optimal performance
    3.  Support for Themes
    4.  Distraction-free

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Autocompletion
    3.  Dark Mode
    4.  Built-in terminal emulation
    5.  Rust
    6.  Team Collaboration
    7.  Real time collaboration
    8.  Ad-free
    9.  No registration required
    10.  Works Offline
    11.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    12.  Multiple Cursors

    Zed Editor VS Atom

     
  4. gedit icon
     687 likes
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    Official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. Has syntax highlighting and is suitable for programming, with support for several languages. It is extensible with plugins.

    185 gedit alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • GNOME
    • OpenSolaris
    • Flathub

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Privacy focused
    3.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    3.  No Tracking
    4.  Autocompletion
    5.  Works Offline
    6.  Spell Checking
    7.  Ad-free
    8.  Support for Unicode

    gedit VS Atom

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

    70 Pulsar Editor alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Electron / Atom Shell

    Properties

    1.  Customizable
    2.  Clean design
    3.  Support for Themes
    4.  Distraction-free
    5.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Community-based
    3.  Hackable
    4.  Works Offline
    5.  No registration required
    6.  Multiple languages
    7.  Add-ons
    8.  Tabbed interface
    9.  Ad-free
    10.  Support for MarkDown
    11.  Dark Mode
    12. Git icon  Git Support

    Pulsar Editor VS Atom

     
    Comments about Pulsar Editor as an Alternative to Atom
    Most Recent Comment
    Mark
    Positive Dec 14, 2022
    2

    Pulsar is the spiritual successor to Atom.

    Buster_Blue
    Positive Nov 17, 2023
    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 Dec 24, 2024
    0

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

    Show more comments
    3 of 4 comments
    Atom Icon
    Pulsar Editor icon
    • Almost everyone thinks Pulsar Editor is a great Atom alternative.

    • Pulsar Editor is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • Pulsar Editor is CustomizableAtom is not according to our users
  6. GNU nano icon
     286 likes
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    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.

    142 GNU nano alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Terminal-based
    3.  Search and Replace
    4.  No Tracking
    5.  Automatic Indentation

    GNU nano VS Atom

     
    Comments about GNU nano as an Alternative to Atom
    sondrak
    Positive Mar 29, 2018
    2

    Easiest CLI-based text editor for newbies

    Guest
    Positive May 19, 2017
    1

    nano is a great editor when you are in CLI, however, of course, it does not use GUI or has GUI.

    Atom Icon
    GNU nano icon
    • Most users think GNU nano is a great Atom alternative.

    • GNU nano is Free and Open SourceAtom is Free Personal and Open Source
    • GNU nano is LightweightAtom is not according to our users
  7. Lite XL icon
     48 likes
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    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.

    53 Lite XL alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Customizable
    3.  Support for Themes
    4.  Distraction-free
    5.  Privacy focused

    Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Dark Mode
    3.  Syntax Highlighting
    4.  Works Offline
    5.  Multiple Cursors
    6.  Portable
    7.  Hackable
    8.  Support for scripting
    9.  Full-Text Search
    10.  Community-based
    11.  Autocompletion
    12.  Code Completion

    Lite XL VS Atom

     
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