GNU nano Alternatives

GNU nano is described as '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' and is a very popular Code Editor in the development category. There are more than 100 alternatives to GNU nano for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD and Flathub apps. The best GNU nano alternative is Notepad++, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like GNU nano are Sublime Text, VSCodium, Vim and Zed Editor.

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Alternatives list

  1. Athas icon
     8 likes
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    Lightweight, open-source code editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux featuring Vim keybindings, built-in Git support, agentic AI editing with multiple models, syntax highlighting, LSP for intelligent completion, fast performance, and efficient workflows.

    52 Athas alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  2. Leafpad icon
     68 likes
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    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 implemented in the editor.

    102 Leafpad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin
    • MacPorts
     
  3. CotEditor icon
     41 likes
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    Syntax Highlighting: Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown. You can also create your own settings.

    159 CotEditor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  4. Squircle CE icon
     14 likes
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    Squircle CE is a fast, lightweight code editor and file manager with support for over 30 programming languages, remote file access via SFTP/FTP(S) and Git VCS integration. Whether you're a student, hobbyist, or professional developer, Squircle CE lets you write, manage, and...

    70 Squircle CE alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Android
    • Android Tablet
    • F-Droid
     
    • Squircle CE is the most popular Android Tablet alternative to GNU nano.

    • Squircle CE is Free and Open SourceGNU nano is also Free and Open Source
  5. Xed icon
     23 likes
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    A text editor forked from Pluma and Gedit. Xed is the default text editor of Linux Mint. It can be customized and is available in multiple languages.

    157 Xed alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  6. EmEditor icon
     77 likes
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    Versatile Windows editor offering lightweight, ultra-fast performance with robust support for text, code, and CSV files, AI-assisted writing, macros, Unicode, plugins, syntax highlighting, advanced search, column editing, split views, and file encoding conversion.

    124 EmEditor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Subscription)
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  7. Mousepad icon
     35 likes
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    A simple text editor for the Xfce desktop environment. Mousepad aims to be an easy-to-use and fast editor for quickly editing text files, not a development environment or an editor with a huge bunch of plugins.

    77 Mousepad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Xfce
     
  8. Textadept icon
     39 likes
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    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 for speed and minimalism over the years, Textadept is an ideal editor for programmers who want endless...

    90 Textadept alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  9. BBEdit icon
     48 likes
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    BBEdit is a professional HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. Specifically crafted in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers, this award-winning product provides an abundance of high-performance features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text.

    117 BBEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  10. Kakoune icon
     20 likes
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    Vim inspired text editor with support for multiple selections and scores of other "out of the box" features.

    83 Kakoune alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Cygwin
     
  11. BabelPad icon
     5 likes
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    BabelPad is a free Unicode text editor for Windows that supports the proper rendering of most complex scripts, and allows you to assign different fonts to different scripts in order to facilitate multi-script text editing.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
     
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