Windows Notepad Alternatives for Mac

Windows Notepad is not available for Mac but there are plenty of alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best Mac alternative is Sublime Text, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Windows Notepad and loads of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Windows Notepad are Vim, Kate, gedit and GNU Emacs.

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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Alternatives list

  1. Thunderpad icon
     10 likes

    Thunderpad (formerly Textpad) is a simple, general-purpose and cross-platform text editor written in C++ using the Qt libraries. Thunderpad aims to be faster and more lightweight than most text editors, but as useful as them.

    111 Thunderpad alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  2. FoldingText icon
     8 likes

    FoldingText makes you productive in easily formatted plain text. Turn your ideas into plans. Your to-dos into results. Your writing into clear, focused documents.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  3. Jottr icon
     2 likes

    A simple, opinionated plain text editor designed for writers, journalists and researchers. Jottr is not meant to be a full-featured text editor, but rather a simple and easy to use tool for writing. It's not aimed at developers.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
     
  4. Moped icon
     2 likes

    If you come from the Windows world, you may be missing a small utility: Notepad, a simple but essential tool for editing plain text files. While macOS counts on its own built-in text editor: TextEdit, it is actually more like a Rich Text Editor with full images, fonts and layout...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  5. TEA icon
     7 likes

    TEA is free text editor for Linux, *BSD, OS/2, Windows, Haicu. It depends on Qt 4.6+ or Qt 5 or Qt6, zlib and, optionally, on Aspell or Hunspell. The old (but renewed) branch, TEA-GTK depends on GTK+ 3 and GtkSourceView 3.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. WriterClassic icon
     2 likes

    Free open-source text editor providing multi-language support, customizable themes including user-created options, plugin integration, Python-based core, quick document signing, and compatibility with any plain text file while maintaining a lightweight, intuitive experience.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  7. KWrite icon
     4 likes

    KWrite is a text editor by KDE, based on the Kate's editor component.

    12 KWrite alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Windows
    • Mac
     
  8. Notepas icon
     9 likes

    Notepas is a fast portable native multiplatform text editor written in Lazarus and can be compiled for multiple platforms and widget sets using the advanced native Free Pascal Compiler.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  9. MarkMyWords icon
     2 likes

    MarkMyWords is the ideal markup-writing tool for authors. By using Markdown, MultiMarkdown, Textile, Wikitext, HTML or BBCode MarkMyWords makes writing articles for the web a breeze and remains platform-independent by using plain text documents.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  10. SlickEdit icon
     14 likes

    SlickEdit is a cross-platform, multi-language code editor that gives programmers the ability to code in over 40 languages on 7 platforms.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  11. xPad. icon
     4 likes

    xPad is the ultimate notepad, TextEdit and Stickies replacement for Apple's OS X. With a simple, easy-to-use interface and powerful multi-document features, xPad will quickly become your daily text editor of choice.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  12. TweakStyle icon
     16 likes

    An IDE tailor-made for web design and frontend development.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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