Alternatives to Notepad++ Text Editor for Mac



If you are a coder or have some experience in coding, then you know the importance of an editor. One of the best tools for editing your code on Windows is Notepad++.

What is Notepad++?

It is a free and open-source text editor available for Windows and not for Mac. Many plugins and features back this editor.

If you are using a MacBook for coding your website, you might not be able to use this notepad ++. As notepad++ is not available on Mac. But there are a lot of editors that are available with the same features, even though there are some features that you will not see in Notepad++. Simplest to feature-rich, here is a list of all editors that you can use for editing your HTML code on Mac.

Top 10 Alternatives to Notepad++ Text Editor for Mac

These are the top 10 alternatives to Notepad++ Text Editor that you can use on a MacBook −

  • TextEdit
  • Sublime Text Editor
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Xcode
  • Brackets
  • Atom
  • Nova3
  • BBEdit 13
  • CodeRunner 4
  • Textastic

Many other editors are also available on the internet. This is just a list of some of them, you can opt for any of them, these are just the most relevant ones.

Let's see why each of them made it to the list.

1. TextEdit

TextEdit is Apples default text editor that comes preinstalled with your Mac. This application is a basic text editing tool that you can use. The tool has no advanced features, but it comes preinstalled with macOS. Some common features of TextEdit, as listed on Apples website, are document conversion, HTML document creation, and creating markups on images.

TextEdit

2. Sublime Text Editor 3

Sublime text editor is a text and source code editor available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is commonly known for its usage to edit programming and markup languages. It has a minimalist UI, a large number of plugins, and can support multiple languages. It is a paid software with a price tag of $99. You can use it for free, with occasional pop to buy premium software.

Its interface is smooth and allows multi-select, auto-complete, adding plugins, slip tab features, etc. You can add a plugin to enable live decoded code.

3. Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) created by Microsoft to work best for Windows. It is a cross-platform editor for Windows, Linux, and macOS. An open-source platform created to support multiple programming languages and a lot of extensions making it one of the most used IDEs among web developers.

Its free to use with all features unlocked. Also, there are a lot of developers using it, which makes its library huge and supports repositories.

4. Xcode

Apples Xcode is a native IDE developed by Apple to help create apps for Apple devices. It is freely available for download and installation from the app store. However, this does not provide top-level editing tools but it does the job of editing and compiling languages. It includes code completion tools along with a preview of compiled code. You can complete a lot of programming languages like C, C++, Swift, etc. along with markups like HTML.

5. Brackets

Created by Adobe, Bracket is a software that is a Notepad++ alternative. It is a free and open source, commonly used for web designs and development. It also has a lot of extensions backing the code development with features like live preview, text highlighting, inline editors, etc. You can access its extension library to add themes and features to the editor.

6. Atom

Developed by GitHub, Atom is a text editor that creates HTML code. You have a wide variety of programming languages that can be run on it. It is an open-source software that is freely available for editing programming languages. You can also collaborate while editing code with Atom.

7. Nova3

Developed by Panic Inc., Nova3 is a text editor created focusing on web development. It is a good alternative to Notepad++ for Mac and can support multiple languages, store themes and extensions, version control, etc. It is a paid software with a price tag of $99, you can use it for free for 1 month as a trial period.

8. BBEdit

Developed by Bare Bones, BBEdit is a text editing tool created for efficient coding of programming and markup languages. It is a great alternative to Notepad++ with features like built-in syntax, support for a large number of programming languages, etc. It is a paid software with a price tag of $40.

9. CodeRunner 4

CodeRunner is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) created for Mac keeping the Apple silicon in mind also, making it faster for new Macbooks. It has support for compilers of many languages. This software also comes with a premium of $20.

10. Textastic

Developed by Alexandar Blach, Textastic is a cross-platform code editor available for Mac, iPhone, and iMac. You get support for multiple programming and markup languages. You can all the basic features of an IDE with this software. It is a paid software with a price tag of $8.99.

All these are the software that you can use in place of Notepad++ on your Mac device. Based on your work and the amount of time you spend coding, you can opt-in for free or paid software. I have used the free version of all of this software for testing but I prefer visual studio code and sublime text.

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