What is a code editor? As the name implies, the main purpose of a text editor is to edit text . The situation that necessitates using a code editor is a little thicker. Code editor for mac free helps you in testing and editing the markup, styling and scripting codes of a site. It’s for this specific purpose that we have compiled a list of best code editors for mac free .
If you want to learn about Best Free Text editor for Mac orBest Code Editor for Mac, this post is for you and will provide you an overview and comparison. I’m sure you’re wondering What is the best free text editor for Mac? And if you’re willing to pay for one, then what’s the best paid text editor for Mac? You could find answers in this article.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code or VS Code is a freeware source-code editor from Microsoft. It is built on the Electron framework and is compatible with all major operating systems: Linux, macOS, and Windows.
One aspect of VS Code that separates it from other source-code editors is that, instead of using a project-based system, it allows you to work with multiple directories and isolate them into different workspaces — kind of like a language-agnostic code editor.
Talking about functionality, you can use VS Code to write programs in various languages: C/C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, and Go. It provides an extensive set of features to help you in the coding process, such as support for syntax highlighting, snippets, code refactoring, debugging, intelligent code completion (or autocomplete), and Git integration. Moreover, you also get the ability to collaborate and work remotely with your peers in real-time.
If you are just getting started, Visual Studio Code provides features like IntelliSense and Peek Definition to help you understand various aspects of programming languages.
Brackets
This is a free text editor macOS 10.14 that is open source and maintained by Adobe Systems — one of the major companies in the industry. One of the outstanding features of Brackets is their beautiful interface. Its unique Extract offering lets you grab font, gradients measurements, and so on from a PSD file into a CSS that is clean and ready for use on the web.
Pros
- It comes with extension support which contains a huge and growing library
- Brackets have inline editors and previews
Cons
- It is slow
- Brackets still do not have certain elementary text editor commands
- Its updater is problematic
Atom
Atom is an advanced and completely customizable source code editor developed and maintained by GitHub with speed, beauty, flexibility, and reliability in mind. It features a minimalist UI with support for extensions, scripts, tons of programming languages, Git and GitHub integration, Teletype, etc.
Atom is a free and open-source source-code editor developed by GitHub — now owned by Microsoft. As a result, a lot of the features you get on it are community developed and maintained. Similar to VS Code, Atom is also based on the Electron framework, although, unlike VS Code, it is not as feature-rich natively. But thanks to plugin support, you can hack various elements of Atom and add features to it selectively to suit your requirements and project workflow.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a shareware source code editor, meaning it offers most of its features for free but restricts a few to the paid offering, which you can upgrade to/purchase if you need the missing functionalities. It is designed with Python and web programming in mind and is one of the most preferred text editors on the Mac. But, you can also use it for other programming and markup languages.
Similar to Atom, Sublime Text also offers plugin support that lets you add missing functionality to your editor to enhance your experience. Some of the handy features of Sublime Text include command palette, snippets, code auto-completion goto anything, goto definition, and split editing. In addition, Sublime Text also provides you a built-in package manager to make finding and installing third-party packages on the editor easy.
Besides Sublime Text, SublimeHQ has another product, Sublime Merge, which is a GUI-based version control (Git and merging tool) for Sublime Text that helps you search your repository, commit changes to it, and resolve conflicts faster.
TextWrangler
Developed by Bare Bones, TextWrangler is another best text editor on macOS 10.14. This tool can be regarded as a lightweight version of BBEdit, also designed by Bare Bones. It has all the features needed by hardcore developers to carry out operations in specific columns in a CSV, or in a server admin for scriptwriting.
Pros
- It offers basic text editing as well as manipulations
- TextWrangler is a free yet ideal alternative to BBEdit
- It has an inbuilt FTP or STFP browser
- It is robust and fast to start up
Cons
- It isn’t maintained any longer
Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is a 100% free and open-source text editor built to complement its sibling proprietary application, Komodo IDE. Its features include multiple selections, a toolbox, auto-complete, commando, skins & icon sets, a minimap, a projects manager, etc.
BBEdit
BBEdit is a Mac-only text editor from Bare Bones Software. It is essentially a free version of the popular TextWrangler text editor, which got discontinued a few years back and is available exclusively on macOS.
Unlike TextWrangler, though, BBEdit’s free tier offers enough features and programming functionalities that make it a noteworthy option among the plethora of other text editors out there. You can use it as a simple text editor to work with plain text files and also to write code or create custom scripts. BBEdit’s list of supported languages includes AppleScript, Python, Perl, RegEx, and Shell scripting.
As for features, BBEdit provides project definition tools, syntax coloring, code folding, auto code completion, and quick search and replace functionality, to name a few. Additionally, you also get support for FTP and SFTP for file transfer, along with the integration of code management systems.
BBEdit is available on Mac App Store.
Vim
This software is a command line-based text editor for macOS 10.14. One of the most renowned text editors on the market, Vim does not have a steep learning curve. It features a stack of documentation that assists a user in learning how to use the app conveniently. Vim is designed with a quick reference, help documents, along a tutorial that runs for 30 minutes to get you acquainted with it.
Pros
- It has capabilities and features for command-based text editing
- It is easy to use
Cons
- Vim requires great effort to customize
- It offers poor support for external tooling
Coda
Coda is a powerful text editor designed with built-in support for working with both local and remote files. It also features a beautiful UI, a built-in debugger, web kit preview and inspector, a terminal, etc. Coda is available for Mac users at $99 and it has app versions for iPhone and iPad users.
Emacs
Emacs or Editor MACroS is another popular text editor for Mac. It is the preferred choice for many programmers. It shares its rivalry with Vim, with fans of both text editors not shying away from expressing the superiority of their favorite text editors.
Much like Vim, Emacs also offers customization options, but it is more nuanced than Vim when it comes to configuration options. It has over 10,000 commands, and the interface allows you to combine these commands and leverage them to create macros for automating tasks in your workflow.
In terms of usability, Emacs also takes some time to pick up, just like Vim. However, the offerings you get with it totally make it a promising text editor for those who want an environment that allows them to perform/control pretty much every aspect of their programming workflow. To give you a quick rundown, Emacs provides everything from text editing, project planning, built-in mail and newsreader, packaging system, and built-in IRC client, to name just a few.
Conclusion:
Text editors. You know them. You love them. You use them in your everyday coding (or maybe it’s just me and my colleagues). Many say that they’re a basic necessity when it comes to code editing. Let’s face it, there are some things that you can only do in a text editor and not an IDE. And as such, many people can’t go without their text editor for even a single day. So if you’re the type who relies heavily on your text editor, this list is for you.