You must have heard this question over and over again. There are so many code editors available in the marketplace, but choosing the perfect one six months ago was a stressful task. The pleasure of coding with them is that there are tons of alternatives which you can choose from – thus, making your life even easier. So what are the best Code editors? I hope to answer all of your questions about it in the post below by providing you with insight into my findings so you can make your choice easier.
The best code editors can have a huge impact on your productivity and workflow. Many of us stick with what we know out of habit, but shopping around can uncover fast and intuitive interfaces or killer features that can help get the work done more quickly and efficiently.
The best code editors offer a fast, flexible interface that allows you to be more efficient at writing code, and they offer functionality to help you examine code for mistakes and see where edits need to be made. They also offer the potential to be easily customized, so you can create the UI and user experience that suits you (quality website builders can also help here). That might sound like a lot to ask, but when you consider how many hours you spend looking at your code editor, day in day out, you want to make sure it looks and works the best it possibly can (make sure you’ve got one of the best monitors for programming or the best laptop for programming too)
Here, in the article below is the topic of best code editors. For the most part, code editors are flexible in handling any type of file(s) data, they also sometimes offer features found nowhere else, let us have a deep insight.
Atom
Starting this list of best code editors off we have Atom – a code editor developed by the popular GitHub service. Released in 2014, Atom is a free code editor with multiple language support. While inspired by Sublime Text, Atom strove to take that editor’s features to the next step and provide an even richer experience. At the same time, it simplified the UI so that users could have a clean experience. All these choices have skyrocketed its popularity and resulted in a passionate community ready to stand behind it.
Key Features and Advantages
GitHub Integration
Atom definitely reflects the fact it was developed by GitHub. Not only can you access GitHub directly from the editor, but you can perform all the common commands you might need for your version control. This includes committing, pushing, and pulling code, seeing if there are pull requests from others on the team, and so forth. If GitHub is your jam, no one does the integration better than Atom.
Smart Autocompletion
Atom has a built-in and very robust auto-completion feature. It is able to make suggestions based on several factors, including the programming language being used, and generally makes smart choices in terms of the functions and module names you can utilize. This can save you time as a developer, as it only takes a few keystrokes to complete some of the most commonly used string names. Besides this, the autocompletion feature is also extendable, meaning you can customize the experience to go through multiple files and so forth.
Snippets
Similar to autocompletion, snippets are another way Atom tries to eliminate the grunt work involved with coding. With snippets, you are able to establish shortcuts, press Tab, and automatically insert common snippets of code. This can include HTML markup, common library imports, and more. In so doing, developers can spend less time setting up their files, and more time focusing on the unique features.
Extremely Customizable
Like many others on this list that you will see, Atom is supported by a large collection of packages made by the community to extend the program’s capabilities. With a built-in package manager, it is very easy to access these packages and install them for yourself – as well as publish your own. To add sugar on top, Atom is also based around a modular design, so the core is able to stay minimal and performant as you add more packages. Thus, if Atom doesn’t have quite what you want, it is more than easy to make Atom exactly what you want it to be.
Easy File Access
Atom offers several convenient ways for you to access your files. This includes displaying your files in a file browser tree, as well as offering you the ability to have multiple panes to reference various bits of code in different files (or the same file). You can even have multiple projects open should you wish to do so, giving you the freedom you need as a developer to work in whatever way suits your fancy.
Teletype
Last but not least is one of Atom’s key features: Teletype. This feature allows for real-time code editing between multiple computers as developers are enabled to share the workspace with whoever they please. Not only is it made easy to set up, but allows teams to work together almost seamlessly. This also allows for nifty things like teaching to take place in a shared workplace – giving you the ultimate power of remote work.
Considerations
The main consideration when choosing Atom for “best code editor” is its performance. Comparatively to many other code editors, Atom is quite slow to start – even in spite of having a minimal core. Even after it starts, many developers experience a relative amount of performance issues that, while not game-breaking, are more noticeable when considering other similar code editors.
Ending Thoughts
If you want GitHub integration, Atom is 100% the way to go. While other code editors offer this as well, even ones of this best code editors list, it can really be done no better than by the people who made GitHub. Atom’s simplified UI and Teletype feature are also great selling points, so if you want a functional, easy-to-use UI or need to collaborate, these are also great reasons to pick this code editor.
Sublime Text (FREE Evaluation / $80)
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Price: $80 USD
Sublime Text is a multi-platform text editor that supports a number of helpful commands to improve efficiency. You can use them to find code within files in seconds. In addition, this text editor automatically generates an index of all functions and methods. That helps you to work with the shortcuts and modify them for locating bits of code while editing.
The main advantage of this top-rated editor is it’s very lightweight (low resource usage), still having a number of advanced features and functions. Also, you can add more features by installing thousands of community-created packages through the dedicated package manager.
Key Features of Sublime Text:
- Cross-platform program
- Provides a user-friendly interface to work
- Purchase one license and use on all of your devices
- Supports split editing for managing & editing files side by side
- A highly customizable system using shortcuts and menus
Sublime Text supports a Python API. It means you can integrate a wide range of plugins into the text editing solution. Which includes a number of customizable plugins that are consistently updated by the Sublime Text community.
The Sublime Text editor is not free indeed, but you’ll get a free trial to explore its basic functionalities. A premium license costs you $80 including three years of updates.
Brackets
- Price: Free
- Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
Brackets is a code editor made specifically for web design. Made by Adobe, this code editor comes with some amazing features that make front-end coding a breeze.
What makes this software quite useful to designers is its real-time live preview feature that lets you preview your changes directly on the browser. Plus, the software itself is made by front-end developers and web designers. This ensures the app has all the necessary functions for front-end coding.
Brackets is open-source software and it’s completely free to use.
Considerations
While Sublime offers a lot, it should be noted that, by technicality, it isn’t free. You can download a free, indefinite trial to use it. However, there is an honor system in place where, for continued use, you’re expected to buy a license. The only plus side to this aspect is that the license operates by the user rather than per machine – so once purchased, you can install it everywhere you would like.
Notepad++ (Free)
Platforms: Windows only
Price: Free
Notepad++ was developed by Don Ho in 2003. It’s a free source code editor for Windows. Even after 17 years, it continues to be the most reliable text editor for developers and programmers. This text editor provides some advanced facilities such as syntax highlighting, code folding, scripting, limited auto-completion for programming, and so forth.
In addition, it features macro recording, split-screen editing, and markup languages. Also, you’ll get a multi-document tab interface for switching between tabs and managing multiple projects at once.
Also, there are more than 140 plugin extensions available inside the Notepad editor. It allows you to add functionality like W3C validation, text sorting, and quote handling within a few clicks only.
Key Features of Notepad++:
- Notepad++ is completely free to download
- Available in multiple languages
- Provides multi-document tab interface
- Flexibility to create a function list with wase
- Offers a number of plugins to include extra functionality or integrate with other systems
- Auto-completion features not let you type the same functions, parameters, and words repeatedly
This popular text editor is rated as the “most popular text editor” and “most used text editor” by Lifehacker and Stack Overflow, respectively.
CodePen
- Price: Free
- Platforms: Web
Even though CodePen is technically not a code editor, it provides many tools and features for designers to write and organize code. CodePen is a platform built just for front-end designers and it allows you to build and test your code on any platform using a browser.
CodePen is suitable for all kinds of front-end design and languages from HTML and CSS to Javascript and React. The platform features a very responsive code editor with real-time live previews where you can also write, test, and organize your own collection of code snippet library.
CodePen is free to use. It also has a Pro plan at $8 per month that allows you to create more projects with more storage space.
Best Features
- Easily write, preview, and test code directly on your browser
- See live previews of your designs in real-time as you code
- Create, organize, and share your code snippets on the web
- Explore and learn from projects made by other developers
- Collaborate with others on projects with live editing
Visual Studio Code
We’ll next talk about Visual Studio Code, a more recent addition to the code editor scene. Developed by Microsoft and released in 2015 as a free, open-source program, Visual Studio Code is perhaps the closest you can get to an IDE while still being considered just a code editor. Given its robust features though, Visual Studio Code has quickly risen in popularity as one of the best code editors – largely thanks to some very specific features the program offers that other editors don’t.
Key Features and Advantages
Built-in Terminal
Depending on your project, you may find yourself switching back-and-forth between your editor and command-line software in order to perform certain tasks – like running a Python program for example. Visual Studio Code saw this and decided it’d be much easier if they just had a built-in Terminal. This eliminates the constant need to switch between programs. Instead, you can perform all your installs, run the program, and more from right within Visual Studio Code, improving the workflow immensely.
Native Git Support
For those who like version control, Visual Studio Code offers built-in support for Git. This means you can run common Git commands easily from right within the editor. This includes pushing and pulling files, diff checking, and more to GitHub or whatever similar service you use.
Intellisense
While many code editors offer autocompletion, Visual Studio Code’s Intellisense takes it a step further. This feature allows Visual Studio Code to essentially read the code as you write it. This enables it to offer suggestions based on variables you’ve used, functions, and so forth. For example, if you call a function, Visual Studio Code can provide information about what parameters are required to call it. Not only does this make coding faster, but also helps you avoid typos and errors.
In-Editor Debugging
Debugging a large piece of code can be a nightmare if you aren’t sure where the issue lies. Visual Studio Code helps you out with a robust set of debugging tools you can use right in the editor – meaning there’s no need to have hundreds of print statements just to test out specific lines of code. The code editor even offers the ability to add breakpoints so you can further narrow down any issues and fix your code that much sooner.
Collaboration Tools
In many coding workflows, files have to be sent back and forth in order for a team to collaboratively deal with them. With Visual Studio Code’s Live Share feature though, this is no longer the case. As the name implies, the program is able to share your workspace live between various team members, meaning you can work in real-time to edit the code, debug it, and more. This has immense implications for programmers working in teams and makes the entire experience that much more efficient!
Extensions
Once again, this is another code editor that refuses to be left out of the extensions game. Visual Studio Code’s open-source nature has allowed it to accumulate a large number of extensions from the community – whether that be extra support for specific programming languages or changing the theme. However, it should be noted that Visual Studio Code has designed its extensions to run as separate processes, meaning you can add a huge pack of extensions and not slow down the editor itself!
Considerations
Of this best code editors list, Visual Studio Code probably has the fewest considerations to make. Depending on your computer, you may find the program slow to start and, sometimes, run if your project is sufficiently complex enough. While it was kept lightweight, it is definitely not the most lightweight on this list. Also, though Visual Studio Code supports many programming languages, given that it’s newer there are still some very old, niche programming languages that Visual Studio Code doesn’t offer language support for.
Ending Thoughts
If you want to get as close to an IDE as possible, Visual Studio Code is the way to go. Both its Intellisense and debugging features alone will save you an immense amount of time and really stands above many other tools offered by competitors in terms of uniqueness. This editor is really the total package, so it’s also a good one if you’re a beginner or just still can’t pick from this list what the best code editor is.
CoffeeCup (Free/ $49)
Platforms: Windows
Price: Free
CoffeeCup is a powerful HTML editor for Windows. It offers advanced text editing for coding and complete web design management. There is a large components library along with a built-in W3C markup validation tool.
Moreover, features a split-screen preview panel that lets you see what your HTML and CSS code will generate. Also, has a tags tab that includes references for (X)HTML, PHP, and CSS tags.
Key Features of CoffeeCup:
- Visual text editor with a standard split-screen view
- Best text editor option with themes
- Live your website with one click using the FTP connection
- Provides live preview to monitor what your code generates on the frontend
A free version of CoffeeCup is available with basic features. It’ll cost $49 if you want to explore the full version.
Conclusion:
You must have heard this question over and over again. There are so many code editors available in the marketplace, but choosing the perfect one six months ago was a stressful task. The pleasure of coding with them is that there are tons of alternatives which you can choose from – thus, making your life even easier. So what are the best Code editors? I hope to have answered all of your questions about it in the post above by providing you with insight into my findings so you can make your choice easier.