TextEdit Alternatives for Mac

There are many alternatives to TextEdit for Mac if you are looking for a replacement. 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 TextEdit and many of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to TextEdit are gedit, GNU nano, TextMate and CudaText.

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Alternatives list

  1. Sublime Text icon

    Sublime Text

     2040 likes
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    Powerful editor blending code, markup, and prose editing with enhanced features like multi-tab selection, side-by-side definition viewing, and multiple selection tools for swift code navigation.

    190 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Sublime Text screenshot 1
     
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    10

    • Most users think Sublime Text is a great TextEdit alternative.

    • Sublime Text is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to TextEdit.

    • Sublime Text is the most popular free alternative to TextEdit.

    • Sublime Text is Freemium and ProprietaryTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
    • Sublime Text is CustomizableTextEdit is not according to our users
  2. gedit icon

    gedit

     693 likes
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    Official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. Has syntax highlighting and is suitable for programming, with support for several languages. It is extensible with plugins.

    190 gedit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • GNOME
    • OpenSolaris
    • Flathub
    The Default look under GNOME with Adwaita
     

    • gedit is the most popular Open Source alternative to TextEdit.

    • gedit is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
    • gedit is Customizable and Privacy focusedTextEdit is not according to our users
  4. GNU nano icon

    GNU nano

     289 likes
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    GNU nano is a small and friendly text editor. Besides basic text editing, nano offers many extra features like an interactive search and replace, go to line and column number, auto-indentation, feature toggles, internationalization support, and filename tab completion.

    152 GNU nano alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    GNU nano screenshot 1
     
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    2
    Comments about GNU nano as an Alternative to TextEdit
    Guest
    Negative
    2

    Nano is a great terminal based editor, but anyone looking for an alternative to TextEdit is of course expecting a GUI application.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Negative
    2

    GNU nano is a terminal based editor which does not at all resemble TextEdit

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    TextEdit Icon
    GNU nano icon
    • GNU nano is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  5. TextMate icon

    TextMate

     269 likes
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    TextMate brings Apple's approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike.

    161 TextMate alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    TextMate screenshot 1
     
  7. Aptana Studio icon

    Aptana Studio

     333 likes
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    Aptana Studio is a complete web development environment that combines powerful authoring tools with a collection of online hosting and collaboration services that help you and your team do more. Includes support for PHP, CSS, FTP, and more...

    122 Aptana Studio alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Aptana Studio screenshot 1
     
  9. CodeEdit icon

    CodeEdit

     13 likes
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    CodeEdit is a code editor built by the community, for the community, written entirely and unapologetically for macOS. Features include syntax highlighting, code completion, project find and replace, snippets, terminal, task running, debugging, git integration, code review...

    28 CodeEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    CodeEdit screenshot 1
     
  10. UltraEdit icon

    UltraEdit

     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 features an integrated FTP browser and supports syntax highlighting for hundreds of languages, with more always in the works. And with an integrated SSH/telnet client, scripting, custom tools, macros and Smart Templates, UltraEdit's ready for any coding session.
     

    • UltraEdit is the most popular commercial alternative to TextEdit.

    • UltraEdit is Paid and ProprietaryTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  11. SciTE icon

    SciTE

     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
    SciTE screenshot 1
     
  13. CotEditor icon

    CotEditor

     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
    version 4 released 2020-11-14
     
  14. ReText icon

    ReText

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

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    ReText screenshot 1
     
12 of 37 TextEdit alternatives