GNU Emacs AlternativesOnly apps categorised as IDEs

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

filter to find the best alternatives

GNU Emacs alternatives are mainly IDEs, but if you're looking for Code Editors or Text Editors you can filter on that. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to GNU Emacs.
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Alternatives list

  1. Visual Studio Code icon
     1367 likes
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    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.

    199 Visual Studio Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Chrome OS
    • Snapcraft
     
    • Most users think Visual Studio Code is a great GNU Emacs alternative.

    • Visual Studio Code is the most popular Web-based alternative to GNU Emacs.

    • Visual Studio Code is Free and ProprietaryGNU Emacs is Free and Open Source
  2. Sublime Text icon
     2037 likes
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    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.

    189 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  3. VSCodium icon
     390 likes
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    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.

    193 VSCodium alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Electron
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
     
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    1
    7
    Comments about VSCodium as an Alternative to GNU Emacs
    ThomasSankara
    Positive
    0

    It is also a FOSS development program; however, emacs is far lighter, so depending on what you are looking for, VSCodium might not be the best alternative.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    GNU Emacs Icon
    VSCodium icon
    • Almost everyone thinks VSCodium is a great GNU Emacs alternative.

    • VSCodium is Free and Open SourceGNU Emacs is also Free and Open Source
  4. Vim icon
     1340 likes
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    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.

    211 Vim alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    • AmigaOS
    • OpenSolaris
    • MorphOS
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
     
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    3
    14
    Comments about Vim as an Alternative to GNU Emacs
    TheBlueRuby
    Positive
    1

    More lightweight, preinstalled on most Linux distros and follows the Unix philosophy

    Guest
    Negative
    1

    Vim is nowhere near as extensible as Emacs. Vim is designed to do 1 thing and do 1 thing well. In comparison, Emacs is supposed to do everything.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    ThomasSankara
    Positive
    -2

    Vim is the best overall alternative to emacs in my opinion because they share a lightweight and keyboard-focused development experience. However, it is not nearly as extensible as VSCodium, for example.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    GNU Emacs Icon
    Vim icon
    • Most users think Vim is a great GNU Emacs alternative.

    • Vim is Free and Open SourceGNU Emacs is also Free and Open Source
  5. Eclipse icon
     1146 likes
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    Eclipse is an extensible development platform with runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle. Many people know Eclipse as a Java IDE, but it is much more than that- Eclipse actually consists of over 60...

    146 Eclipse alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  6. Zed Editor icon
     100 likes
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    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.

    84 Zed Editor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  7. Kate icon
     310 likes
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    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.

    141 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
     
  8. Geany icon
     575 likes
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    Geany is a powerful, stable and lightweight programmer's text editor that provides tons of useful features without bogging down your workflow.

    149 Geany alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • PortableApps.com
    • Flatpak
    • Haiku
     
  9. Neovim icon
     186 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.

    103 Neovim alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chocolatey
    • Flathub
    • Snapcraft
     
  10. Pulsar Editor icon
     47 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Electron
     
  11. Lite XL icon
     52 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.

    57 Lite XL alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
12 of 42 GNU Emacs alternatives