Windows Notepad Alternatives

Windows Notepad is described as 'Fast, lightweight editor bundled with Windows since 1985. Supports plain text, UTF-8, Linux newline, over 100 languages, with improved features' and is a very popular Text Editor in the os & utilities category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Windows Notepad for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Web-based apps. The best Windows Notepad alternative is Notepad++, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Windows Notepad are Sublime Text, Vim, Kate and gedit.

filter to find the best alternatives

Windows Notepad alternatives are mainly Text Editors, but if you're looking for Code Editors or IDEs you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Windows + Free, Text Editors, Windows, Linux and Windows + Lightweight. 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 Windows Notepad.
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Windows Notepad alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. PSPad icon
     204 likes
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    PSPad is a freeware programmers editor in 8 languages for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some features are highlighted syntax, ftp, projects and so on. Code explorer for Pascal, C/C++, INI, HTML, XML, PHP and more in development, internal web browser with APACHE support.

    170 PSPad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
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    2
    Comments about PSPad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    hCommon
    0

    Saying 11 MB is large is like saying you use a single gameboy cartridge for your main computer syorage

    Guest
    Negative
    -2

    11 MB is not lightweight for an editor. It's like saying: You need 763 full pages in A4 to write the word "hello".

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Windows Notepad Icon
    PSPad icon
    • PSPad is Free and ProprietaryWindows Notepad is also Free and Proprietary
  2. UltraEdit icon
     161 likes
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    UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and HEX editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later).

    209 UltraEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once or Subscription
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    • UltraEdit is the most popular commercial alternative to Windows Notepad.

    • UltraEdit is Paid and ProprietaryWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
  3. SciTE icon
     150 likes
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    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 programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations - I use it for building test and demonstration...

    155 SciTE alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Xfce
     
  4. 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.

    103 Leafpad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin
    • MacPorts
     
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    2
    Comments about Leafpad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    ibn Muhammad
    Negative
    -1

    Leafpad is not a good alternative as it relies on the GTK library, unless you're looking for non-Windows apps, and you don't mind if the application has external dependencies.

    Guest
    Positive
    1

    Very similar to Windows Notepad.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Windows Notepad Icon
    Leafpad icon
    • Most users think Leafpad is a great Windows Notepad alternative.

    • Leafpad is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
  5. 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.

    160 CotEditor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  6. Notepad 4 icon
     4 likes
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    A lightweight Scintilla based text editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion and API list for many programming languages and documents, bundled with file browser plugin matepath.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    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
     
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    2
    Comments about Mousepad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    danielmichel
    Positive
    0

    It really is Notepad for Linux.

    Mahdy Abdelmotaleb
    Positive
    0

    It's simple, minimalistic and stable.

    Windows Notepad Icon
    Mousepad icon
    • Mousepad is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
  8. 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.

    158 Xed alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  9. Antinote icon
     3 likes
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    Antinote provides beautiful temporary notes, calculations, and custom calculators with lifetime updates. Features swipe navigation, plain text support, instant conversions including crypto, and one-click export functionality. Includes screenshot-to-text conversion, global hotkey access, and more.

    35 Antinote alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  10. Notepad.js icon
     11 likes
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    An offline capable notepad powered by ServiceWorker. It's quick, distraction-free, dark mode enabled, mobile compatible (Android, iOS) and minimalist in nature.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
    • Notepad.js is the most popular Web-based alternative to Windows Notepad.

    • Notepad.js is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
    • Notepad.js is Privacy focusedWindows Notepad is not according to our users
  11. wxMEdit icon
     28 likes
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    wxMEdit is a cross-platform text and hex editor, derived from MadEdit . It adds automatic updates, bookmarks, selecting lines with a tripple click, a FreeBASIC syntax file, more supported encodings (L1, CP850, CP437 etc, KOI8, UTF-x), better...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  12. metapad icon
     43 likes
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    Metapad is a small, fast (and completely free) text editor for Windows 9x/NT/XP/Vista with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepads features and much...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
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