Microsoft Visual Studio AlternativesOnly Free apps categorised as Text Editors

The best free Text Editor alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio is Visual Studio Code. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio and 11 are free Text Editors so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free Text Editor alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio are Eclipse, VSCodium, PyCharm and WebStorm.

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Microsoft Visual Studio alternatives are mainly Code Editors, but if you're looking for Text Editors or IDEs you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Linux, Open Source, Mac, Android, Android Tablet, iPad and Free. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Microsoft Visual Studio.
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Alternatives list

  1. Visual Studio Code icon
     1407 likes

    Free and extensible code editor with built-in Git support, smart IntelliSense, integrated debugger, 30,000+ extensions, works offline, supports markdown and syntax highlighting for numerous languages.

    216 Visual Studio Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Chrome OS
    • Snapcraft
     
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    14
  2. Eclipse icon
     1152 likes

    Eclipse is an extensible development platform with runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle. Many people know Eclipse as a Java IDE, but it is much more than that- Eclipse actually consists of over 60...

    150 Eclipse alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    4
  3. VSCodium icon
     431 likes

    This repository contains a build file to generate FLOSS release binaries of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code - Open Source ("Code - OSS") project, the open source core of the proprietary Visual Studio Code.

    205 VSCodium alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Electron
    • Snapcraft
    • Homebrew
    • Chocolatey
     
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    2
  4. PyCharm icon
     299 likes

    Cross-platform IDE for Python and Django with refactoring capabilities, code completion, VCS integration, deployment, issue tracking, remote debugging, and Community Edition, though lacking database support and web technologies.

    58 PyCharm alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    1
  5. WebStorm icon
     134 likes

    JetBrains WebStorm is a commercial IDE for JavaScript, CSS & HTML built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA platform.

    56 WebStorm alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free Personal
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. Phoenix Code icon
     11 likes

    Phoenix Code is a text editor designed to make coding as intuitive and fun as playing a video game - specially crafted for web developers, designers, and students.

    37 Phoenix Code alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  7. Graviton Editor icon
     17 likes

    Graviton Code Editor is a minimalist, cross-platform editor focused on speed, customization and productivity.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  8. Code Writer icon
     2 likes

    Code Writer is a free text and code editor app for the Windows platform, downloadable from the Windows Store. Use it as a replacement for Notepad and other quick edit apps.

    181 Code Writer alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  9. scriptcs icon
     3 likes

    scriptcs makes it easy to write and execute C# with a simple text editor.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  10. NVU icon
     30 likes

    Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") is a complete Web Authoring System that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editing. Nvu is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • PortableApps.com
     
  11. DrPython icon
     3 likes

    DrPython is a highly customizable text editor geared towards writing programs in Python quickly and easily. It is written in Python using the wxPython toolkit (which makes use of the Scintilla text control internally).

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
11 of 11 Microsoft Visual Studio alternatives