Plain Text Editor Alternatives

Plain Text Editor is described as 'Simple distraction-free text editor without any rich text nonsense. The simplicity is a feature' and is a Text Editor in the office & productivity category. There are more than 50 alternatives to Plain Text Editor for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD and Flathub apps. The best Plain Text Editor alternative is Vim, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Plain Text Editor are gedit, GNU nano, TextMate and CudaText.

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Plain Text Editor alternatives are mainly Text Editors but may also be Code Editors or IDEs.  Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Plain Text Editor.
Plain Text Editor iconPlain Text Editor
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Simple distraction-free text editor without any rich text nonsense. The simplicity is a feature.

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Plain Text Editor alternatives page was last updated Jul 23, 2024
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  1. BBEdit icon
    BBEdit icon

    BBEdit

     47 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.

    121 BBEdit alternatives
    BBEdit screenshot 1

    License model

    • Freemium • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac

    Properties

    1.  Works Offline

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Live Preview
    3.  Code Completion
    4.  Multiple languages
    BBEdit iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    BBEdit VS Plain Text Editor

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  2. jEdit icon
    jEdit icon

    jEdit

     115 likes
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    jEdit is a mature programmer's text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it. jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use AND it is released as free software with full source code...

    139 jEdit alternatives
    jEdit on Windows

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    jEdit Features

    1.  Java based
    jEdit on Linux
    jEdit on Linux
    jEdit iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    jEdit VS Plain Text Editor

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  4. TextWrangler icon
    TextWrangler icon

    TextWrangler

     152 likes
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    TextWrangler is the powerful general purpose text editor, and Unix and server administrator’s tool.

    94 TextWrangler alternatives
    TextWrangler screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac

    TextWrangler Features

    1.  Support for Unicode
    2.  Search and Replace
    3.  Coding
    TextWrangler screenshot 1
    TextWrangler screenshot 2
    +1
    Compare Files with Text Wrangler
    Discontinued

    The developers announced that development of TextWrangler has stopped, in favor of concentrating their efforts on the development of BBEdit.Quoted from the TextWrangler webpage, "We are sunsetting TextWrangler, and we encourage anyone interested in TextWrangler to download and use BBEdit instead."

    TextWrangler iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    TextWrangler VS Plain Text Editor

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  5. Ad
    Screenshot
    EmEditor icon

    EmEditor

    EmEditor is a versatile text, code, and CSV editor designed for Windows. It offers lightweight, user-friendly, and extendable platform, with both 32-bit and 64-bit builds. The software also features AI-assisted writing.

    https://www.emeditor.com
    Learn More
  6. Pluma icon
    Pluma icon

    Pluma

     17 likes
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    Pluma, fork of gedit , is a text editor part of MATE Desktop Environment. It supports most standard editor features, extending this basic functionality with other features not usually found in simple text...

    160 Pluma alternatives
    Pluma screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Tabbed interface
    3.  Support for Unicode
    4.  Automatic Indentation
    Pluma iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    Pluma VS Plain Text Editor

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  7. ReText icon
    ReText icon

    ReText

     48 likes
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    ReText is a simple text editor for Markdown and reStructuredText documents with syntax highlighting and optional live preview.

    199 ReText alternatives
    ReText screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    ReText screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Support for MarkDown
    2.  Live Preview
    3.  Distraction-free
    4.  WYSIWYG Support
    5.  ReStructuredText
    ReText iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    ReText VS Plain Text Editor

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  8. Programmer's Notepad icon
    Programmer's Notepad icon

    Programmer's Notepad

     63 likes
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    Notepad more focused on developing than just scribble down notes.

    These is not an exhaustive feature list, but gives you some idea of the features present in Programmer’s Notepad.

    • Syntax Highlighting for lots of languages, configured with schemes
    • Multi-language use.
    129 Programmer's Notepad alternatives
    PN on Vista

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    PN on XP
    Autocomplete
    +7
    Tags and Scripts

    Programmer's Notepad Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Portable
    3.  Tabbed interface
    4.  Multiple languages
    5.  Support for regular expressions
    6.  Search and Replace
    Discontinued

    not updated since 3 dec 2016

    Programmer's Notepad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    Programmer's Notepad VS Plain Text Editor

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  10. CSSEdit icon
    CSSEdit icon

    CSSEdit

     60 likes
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    CSSEdit is a visual cascading style sheet editor built-in Espresso , with CSS3 support for multi-browser gradients, shadows and more.

    41 CSSEdit alternatives
    CSSEdit screenshot 1

    License model

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Espresso

    CSSEdit Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  WYSIWYG Support
    3.  Live css editing
    4.  Support for FTP
    CSSEdit screenshot 1
    CSSEdit screenshot 2
    CSSEdit iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    CSSEdit VS Plain Text Editor

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  11. Xed icon
    Xed icon

    Xed

     20 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
    Xed screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    Xed screenshot 1
    Xed screenshot 2
    +4
    Xed screenshot 3

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  No registration required

    Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  X server
    3.  Support for Unicode
    4.  Automatic Indentation
    Xed iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    Xed VS Plain Text Editor

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  12. Ivirius Text Editor icon
    Ivirius Text Editor icon

    Ivirius Text Editor

     2 likes
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    The Ivirius Text Editor is a tool similar to Wordpad in Windows, which allows you to create, write and edit rich text files. It is easy to use and has almost all the functions that WordPad has, plus a few more. Now, it comes with intuitive child windows and tabs!.

    35 Ivirius Text Editor alternatives
    Ivirius Text Editor (Free version) in Dark Mode, with Ruler & Status Bar enabled, and window resized to be wider

    License model

    • Freemium • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Ivirius Text Editor (Free version) in Light Mode, with Ruler & Status Bar hidden, and window resized to be narrower
    Ivirius Text Editor screenshot 2
    +9
    Ivirius Text Editor screenshot 3

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight
    2.  No Tracking
    3.  No registration required
    4.  Ad-free
    5.  Privacy focused
    6.  Works Offline

    Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Autocompletion
    3.  Spell Checking
    4.  No Coding Required
    5.  Support for MarkDown
    6.  Full-Text Search
    7.  Dark Mode
    8.  Command line interface
    9.  Text search feature
    10.  Fast speed
    11.  Ribbon Interface
    12.  Underline
    13.  Rich text editing
    14.  Text formatting
    15.  Auto-saving
    Ivirius Text Editor iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    Ivirius Text Editor VS Plain Text Editor

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  13. wxMEdit icon
    wxMEdit icon

    wxMEdit

     27 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...

    79 wxMEdit alternatives
    wxMEdit screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD

    wxMEdit Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Hex Editor
    wxMEdit screenshot 1
    wxMEdit screenshot 2
    Discontinued

    Last GitHub commit on Aug 2019 and last release on Nov 2016.

    wxMEdit iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    wxMEdit VS Plain Text Editor

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  14. metapad icon
    metapad icon

    metapad

     42 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...

    107 metapad alternatives
    Main Window and Settings

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows

    metapad Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Simple text editor
    Plugins for 32 languages
    metapad screenshot 2
    +2
    metapad screenshot 3
    Discontinued

    The last update was in 2012.

    metapad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    metapad VS Plain Text Editor

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  15. EditPad Lite icon
    EditPad Lite icon

    EditPad Lite

     43 likes
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    EditPad Lite is a compact general-purpose text editor. Use EditPad Lite to easily edit any kind of plain text file. EditPad Lite has all the essential features to make text editing a breeze:

    123 EditPad Lite alternatives
    EditPad Lite screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free Personal • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows

    EditPad Lite Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Multiple languages
    3.  Support for Large File
    4.  Support for regular expressions
    EditPad Lite - Text editor with advanced search and replace
    EditPad Lite HTML Clip Collection
    EditPad Lite iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    EditPad Lite VS Plain Text Editor

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