

Textadept
37 likes
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...
License model
- Free • Open Source
Application type
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
Features
Textadept News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent activities
- alternativeto-deviant liked Textadept
- zhaolinlau added Textadept as alternative to Project IDX
- POX added Textadept as alternative to Haystack IDE
- POX added Textadept as alternative to Text Editor
Textadept information
AlternativeTo Categories
Development, Office & Productivity, OS & UtilitiesGitHub repository
- 714 Stars
- 44 Forks
- 7 Open Issues
- Updated Jun 13, 2025
Comments and Reviews
It has multiple split for the main window, where you can put several files. It allows syntax coloring.
Simple, lightweight. perfect.
Almost as good as Scite
Mostly great:
Blazing fast
Low memory usage (in Linux and even in Windows where it uses the non-native GTK).
Minimalist (without compromising functionality).
Configurable to the hilt.
Portable.
However,
Struggles when it comes to replacing text (even in a single file).
No reliable spell-checker. There is a plugin, but difficult to get it work.
Portable, small, and just works for basic to intermediate editing of whatever on Windows.
This is a masterpiece. As configurable as vim and emacs, but with a saner config language and API. It's tiny, 15mb memory usage. It's a mystery why this is not better known.
I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment:
http://yfl.bahmanm.com/Members/ttmrichter/software-reviews/textadept-review
Something which only a year ago would have seemed impossible has happened: I've found a text editor to replace Vim. Here's why.
After giving Textadept a try, I now wonder what took me so long to discover this gem. Simply put, it is the most customizable, scriptable, and hence powerful free text editor that I have ever used on Windows since Vim, SciTE, and NPP (inefficient web apps like Brackets and Atom don’t count). This is the text editor that made me fall in love with Lua and has slowly started replacing NPP as my favorite code editor in the toolbox.
To scratch the surface of how extendable this program is, I'll give you a few examples:
You get the idea – this thing is a beast. What I love about it is that it’s a relatively fast and resource-friendly beast that lets you unzip and go, no installation required.