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 Jan 27, 2024
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  1. TextEdit icon
    TextEdit icon

    TextEdit

     30 likes
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    When you need to create text documents, TextEdit is a highly versatile word processor, including tools to format and layout your page, edit and stylize text, check spelling, create tables and lists, import graphics, work with HTML, and even add music and movie files.

    101 TextEdit alternatives
    TextEdit main interface (Updated) (Noticed I used the same text thing as the other one?)

    License model

    • Free • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac

    TextEdit Features

    1.  Rich text editing
    2.  Graphical User Interface
    3.  Plain text file
    TextEdit main interface (Outdated)
    Text Edit spelling and grammar check (Updated)
    +1
    Text Edit spelling and grammar check (Outdated)
    TextEdit iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  2. TowPad icon
    TowPad icon

    TowPad

     1 like
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    Modern wordpad app for Windows with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.

    24 TowPad alternatives
    Windows 11

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Windows 11
    Windows 10
    +1
    Windows 10

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Spell Checking
    2.  Works Offline
    3.  WYSIWYG Support
    4.  No Tracking
    5.  Dark Mode
    6.  Support for MarkDown
    7.  Full-Text Search
    8.  Distraction-free
    9.  No registration required
    10.  Live Preview
    11.  Ad-free
    12.  Text editing
    TowPad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  4. Devpad icon
    Devpad icon

    Devpad

     7 likes
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    Notepad-like VB.Net multi-tab source code editor for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 that supports ASM, ASP.Net, Boo, C#, C++, CSS, HTML, INI, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, VB.Net, XML and plain text files.

    171 Devpad alternatives
    Devpad screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows

    Devpad Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    Devpad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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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. Diakonos icon
    Diakonos icon

    Diakonos

     4 likes
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    Diakonos is a powerful and easy to use console-based text editor.

    151 Diakonos alternatives
    Diakonos screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD

    Diakonos Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Console-based
    Diakonos iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  7. Vis

     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...

    155 Vis alternatives
    Vis screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Vis Features

    1.  Console-based
    2.  Support for regular expressions
    3.  Modal editor
    Plain Text Editor Icon

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  8. TEA icon
    TEA icon

    TEA

     7 likes
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    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.

    66 TEA alternatives
    TEA screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    TEA Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  C++
    3.  Tabbed interface
    4.  Built-in File Manager
    5.  Built-in Image converter
    6.  Built-in Image viewer
    7.  Built-in archiver
    TEA iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  10. BowPad icon
    BowPad icon

    BowPad

     10 likes
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    BowPad is a small and fast text editor with a ribbon user interface and syntax highlighting.

    105 BowPad alternatives
    BowPad screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows

    BowPad Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Ribbon Interface
    BowPad screenshot 1
    BowPad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    BowPad VS Plain Text Editor

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  11. Plain Text icon
    Plain Text icon

    Plain Text

     2 likes
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    Simple text editor, and text utils (powered by AI).

    10 Plain Text alternatives
    Rewrite text with AI

    License model

    • Free • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Web Browser
    • WebApps
    Clean formatting useful with PDF, Docx and email
    Shorten URL Easily
    +4
    Word Counter

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Spell Checking
    2.  Works Offline
    3.  No registration required
    4.  No Coding Required
    5.  Text to Speech
    6.  Word counter
    7.  Simple text editor
    8.  AI-Powered
    9.  Text formatting
    10.  URL Forwarding
    11.  Grammar tool
    12.  Progressive Web App
    Plain Text iconPlain Text Editor Icon

    Plain Text VS Plain Text Editor

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    • Plain Text is the most popular Web-based alternative to Plain Text Editor.

    • Plain Text is Free and ProprietaryPlain Text Editor is also Free and Proprietary
    • Plain Text is LightweightPlain Text Editor is not according to our users
  12. Thunderpad icon
    Thunderpad icon

    Thunderpad

     10 likes
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    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.

    117 Thunderpad alternatives
    Thunderpad screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Distraction-free
    2.  Syntax Highlighting
    Thunderpad screenshot 1
    Thunderpad screenshot 2
    +2
    Thunderpad screenshot 3
    Discontinued

    The project is no longer developed since 2015. Latest versions can be still downloaded from SourceForge and GitHub

    Thunderpad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  13. Notepas icon
    Notepas icon

    Notepas

     9 likes
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    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.

    115 Notepas alternatives
    Notepas screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Notepas screenshot 1
    Notepas screenshot 2
    +6
    Notepas screenshot 3

    Notepas Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Portable
    3.  Search and Replace
    4.  Support for Unicode
    5.  GPLv3
    Discontinued

    Cannot run on macOS Monterey and the last update is from 2016.

    Notepas iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  14. Vy icon
    Vy icon

    Vy

     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.

    171 Vy alternatives
    Vy screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Discontinued

    Last update and release on Nov 2020.

    Vy iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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  15. BDV Notepad icon
    BDV Notepad icon

    BDV Notepad

     3 likes
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    It is a comfortable text editor and a Windows Notepad replacement. In this program are combined: extended functionality, comfortable interface, flexible adjustment and all of this is absolutely free-of-charge!

    98 BDV Notepad alternatives
    BDV Notepad screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    BDV Notepad screenshot 1
    Discontinued

    No changes since 2009. See http://www.bdvnotepad.com/products/bdv-notepad/

    BDV Notepad iconPlain Text Editor Icon

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