Kilo Text Editor AlternativesText & Code Editors like Kilo Text Editor

Kilo Text Editor is described as 'A text editor in less than 1000 LOC with syntax highlight and search' and is a Text Editor in the development category. There are more than 10 alternatives to Kilo Text Editor for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, BSD, Windows and Haiku apps. The best Kilo Text Editor alternative is Vim, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Kilo Text Editor are GNU Emacs, GNU nano, Micro and Ox editor.

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A text editor in less than 1000 LOC with syntax highlight and search.

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Kilo Text Editor alternatives page was last updated Jun 14, 2025
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  1. Vim icon
     1325 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.

    206 Vim alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • NL flagNetherlands
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    • AmigaOS
    • OpenSolaris
    • MorphOS
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  Keyboard focused
    3.  Customizable
    4.  Configurable

    Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Syntax Highlighting
    3.  Hackable
    4.  Well documented
    5.  Modal editor
    6.  Command line interface
    7.  Works Offline
    8.  Support for MarkDown
    9.  No registration required
    10.  Portable
    11.  Batch Editing
    12.  Terminal-based

    Vim VS Kilo Text Editor

     
    • Vim is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Kilo Text Editor.

    • Vim is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Kilo Text Editor.

    • Vim is Free and Open SourceKilo Text Editor is also Free and Open Source
    • Vim is Lightweight and CustomizableKilo Text Editor is not according to our users
  2. GNU Emacs icon
     380 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:

    170 GNU Emacs alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

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

    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 Kilo Text Editor

     
    • GNU Emacs is the most popular Android alternative to Kilo Text Editor.

    • GNU Emacs is Free and Open SourceKilo Text Editor is also Free and Open Source
    • GNU Emacs is CustomizableKilo Text Editor is not according to our users
  3. GNU nano icon
     287 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.

    147 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 Kilo Text Editor

     
  4. Micro icon
     79 likes
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    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.

    40 Micro alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • FreeBSD
    • OpenBSD

    Properties

    1.  User friendly
    2.  Intuitive Interface
    3.  Lightweight
    4.  Distraction-free
    5.  Privacy focused
    6.  Support for Themes
    7.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Terminal-based
    2.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    3.  Zero configuration
    4.  Syntax Highlighting
    5.  Works Offline
    6.  No registration required
    7.  No Tracking
    8.  Ad-free
    9.  Portable
    10.  Plugin system
    11.  Color Palette
    12.  Lua scripting

    Micro VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  5. Ox editor icon
     2 likes
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    Ox is a code editor. It was written in Rust using ANSI escape sequences. It assists developers with programming by providing several tools to speed up and make programming easier and a refreshing alternative to heavily bloated and resource hungry editors such as VS Code and...

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux

    Ox editor Features

    1.  Terminal-based

    Ox editor VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  6.  1 like
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    McWig is a modal, Vim-like text editor written in Go.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Go (Programming Language)
    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Support for Themes

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Command line interface
    3.  Autocompletion
    4.  Ad-free
    5.  Modal editor
    6.  Org-mode
    7.  Support for Keyboard Shortcuts

    McWig VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  7.  2 likes
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    Vis aims to be a modern, legacy-free, simple yet efficient editor, combining the strengths of both vi(m) and sam. It extends vi's modal editing with built-in support for multiple cursors/selections and combines it with sam's structural regular expression based command...

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Vis Features

    1.  Console-based
    2.  Support for regular expressions
    3.  Modal editor

    Vis VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  8. Vy icon
     2 likes
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    vy is a modal editor with a very modular architecture. vy is built on top of Tkinter which is one of the most productive graphical toolkits; It permits vy to have such a great programming interface for plugins.

    167 Vy alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Discontinued

    Last update and release on Nov 2020.

    Vy VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  9. 4coder icon
     1 like
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    4coder is a minimalist, cross platform, programmable, code editing environment, catering to the needs of low level programmers. It allows you to use one work flow across Windows, Linux, and Mac (with the exception of your debugger... for now.).

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    4coder Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Portable

    4coder VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  10. vile icon
     1 like
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    vile is a portable vi clone with extra features and other improvements. It's a text editor that attempts to combine the best aspects of the popular Emacs and vi editors.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin

    vile Features

    1.  Portable

    vile VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  11.  1 like
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    This is a portable version of the Mg editor from OpenBSD by an OpenBSD developer who did a bunch of overhaul work on the version of Mg found in the OpenBSD base system.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • CA flagCanada

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin

    mg Features

    1.  Same keymap as Emacs

    mg VS Kilo Text Editor

     
  12. Zee icon
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    Zee is a modern editor for the terminal, written in Rust. It is a highly experimental code. In the old tradition of text editor demos, here's what it currently looks like editing its own source code.

    26 Zee alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    Discontinued

    Last update was in August 2022

    Zee Features

    1.  Command line interface

    Zee VS Kilo Text Editor

     
12 of 17 Kilo Text Editor alternatives