TextEdit Alternatives for Mac

There are many alternatives to TextEdit for Mac and since it's discontinued a lot of people 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
     2055 likes

    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.

    199 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
     
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    1
    Sublime Text vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Text Edit is capable of producing RTF documents while this program is mostly for programming therefore under that aspect is not close at all

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

    Extensible text editor with UTF-8 support, syntax highlighting for several programming and markup languages, remote editing, file reverting, print preview, clipboard operations, powerful search, customizable fonts and colors, line numbering, and plugin support.

    194 gedit alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
    • OpenSolaris
     
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    1
    gedit vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Text Edit is capable of producing RTF documents while this program is mostly for programming therefore under that aspect is not close at all

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

    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

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
     
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    2
    GNU nano vs TextEdit Comments
    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.
    • GNU nano is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  4. TextMate icon
     270 likes

    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.

    163 TextMate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
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    1
    TextMate vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Text Edit is capable of producing RTF documents while this program is mostly for programming therefore under that aspect is not close at all. To date most options listed are code editors and while those are great for programming, they have weak to non-existing RTF editing capabilities.

    • TextMate is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  5. CudaText icon
     56 likes

    CudaText is a cross-platform text editor, written in Lazarus / Free Pascal.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Haiku
     
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    1
    CudaText vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Text Edit is capable of producing RTF documents while this program is mostly for programming therefore under that aspect is not close at all. To date most options listed are code editors and while those are great for programming, they have weak to non-existing RTF editing capabilities.

    • CudaText is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
    • CudaText is Customizable and Privacy focusedTextEdit is not according to our users
  6. Aptana Studio icon
     332 likes

    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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    |
    1
    Aptana Studio vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Lacks RTF edition capabilities.

    • Aptana Studio is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  7. Itsypad icon
     5 likes

    Lightweight Mac scratchpad and clipboard manager featuring multi-tab editing, 1,000-item clipboard, syntax highlighting for 185+ languages, local privacy-focused storage, global hotkeys, split view, clickable links, iCloud sync, auto-save, and minimal resource usage.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
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    1
    Itsypad vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Text Edit is capable of producing RTF documents while this program is mostly for programming therefore under that aspect is not close at all. To date most options listed are code editors and while those are great for programming, they have weak to non-existing RTF editing capabilities.

    • Itsypad is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
    • Itsypad is Privacy focusedTextEdit is not according to our users
  8. CodeEdit icon
     13 likes

    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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
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    1
    CodeEdit vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Once again the Nth listed as alternative when it lacks entirely RTF editing abilities. Text Edit is in no way a code editor (although I guess one could force a round peg into a square hole and code if that's the only thing they have access to)... most alternatives listed for this app are absolutely a no go if you need RTF editing abilities.

    • CodeEdit is Free and Open SourceTextEdit is Free and Proprietary
  9. Heynote icon
     19 likes

    Block-organized, privacy-focused scratchpad for developers with language-specific syntax highlighting and auto-formatting, supporting JavaScript, JSON, Markdown, notes, API responses, and daily planning, all in a persistent local buffer with minimalist interface.

    61 Heynote alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  10. UltraEdit icon
     161 likes

    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).

    211 UltraEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
    |
    1
    UltraEdit vs TextEdit Comments
    freakqnc
    Negative
    0

    Not an alternative. Has no RTF editing abilities.

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

    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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Xfce
     
12 of 40 TextEdit alternatives