Alternatives to GNU Emacs for all platforms with any license

Notepad

Most simple text editor. Just plain text, saves in .txt format. Not available for download; bundled with all versions of Windows.

Free Windows
Lightweight Support for Unicode Bundled with Windows Add a feature

156 Like
SciTE

SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running...

Free Open Source Windows Linux BSD Xfce
No features added Add a feature

136 Like
AkelPad

A simple notepad-like text editor with many features. It is designed to be a small and fast. User interface in 20 languages. Features * Single window (SDI)...

Free Open Source Windows PortableApps.com
Code format coloring Portable Add a feature

83 Like
Light Table

Light Table is a new interactive IDE that lets you modify running programs and embed anything from websites to games. It provides the real time feedback we need to not...
- Discontinued Appears to be abandoned. Last release was Jan 2016
Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Electron / Atom Shell
Clean design Extensible by Plugins/Extensions Lightweight Add a feature

51 Like
Leafpad

Leafpad is a lightweight text editor that emphasizes simplicity. As development focuses on keeping weight down to a minimum, only the most essential features are...

Free Open Source Mac Linux BSD Cygwin MacPorts
Drag n drop Lightweight Add a feature

61 Like
Micro

Micro is a terminal-based text editor that aims to be easy to use and intuitive, while also taking advantage of the full capabilities of modern terminals.

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux
Beginner friendly Add a feature

20 Like
Lime Text

Experimental Sublime Text clone. The Backend is written in Go (Programming Language). If you are fluent in go, go ahead fork the projekt.

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Go (Programming Language)
Distraction-free UI Syntax Highlighting Add a feature

31 Like
Notepad3

Notepad3 is a fast and light-weight Scintilla-based text editor with syntax highlighting. It has a small memory footprint, but is powerful enough to handle most...

Free Open Source Windows
Lightweight Portable Support for regular expressions Search and replace ... Syntax Highlighting Support for Unicode Add a feature

12 Like
CotEditor

Syntax Highlighting: Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown. You can also create your own settings. Scriptable:...

Free Open Source Mac
macOS-like Colored Text File Versioning Add a feature

23 Like
Caret

Professional text editing for Chrome and Chrome OS. Caret is a graphical text editor modeled on http://alternativeto .

Free Web Chrome OS Chrome
Code completion Customizable Works Offline Syntax Highlighting Add a feature

27 Like
Textadept

Textadept is a fast, minimalist, and ridiculously extensible cross-platform text editor for programmers. Written in a combination of C and Lua and relentlessly optimized...

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD
Command line interface Syntax Highlighting Add a feature

27 Like
wxMEdit

wxMEdit is a cross-platform text and hex editor, derived from MadEdit .

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD
Portable Add a feature

21 Like
Spacemacs

Spacemacs is an beautiful Emacs distribution designed for both GNU Emacs and Vim users. ...

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux
Powerful key based menu system Vim key mapping Add a feature

14 Like
slap

slap is a Sublime-like terminal-based text editor that strives to make editing from the terminal easier. It has: * first-class mouse support * GUI editor-like...

Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Node.JS
Command line interface Portable Syntax Highlighting Add a feature

21 Like
Code

Code (formerly known as Scratch) is an advanced text editor built for and bundled with elementary OS. A very intuitive interface...

Free Open Source Linux
Extensible by Plugins/Extensions Lightweight Scripting Syntax Highlighting ... Tabbed interface Add a feature

18 Like