- The Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for macOS
- Best Notepad++ Alternatives for Mac (2021)
- 1. BBEdit 13
- 2. Sublime Text 3
- 3. Visual Studio Code
- 4. Brackets
- 5. UltraEdit
- 6. Nova 3
- 7. Atom
- 8. Textastic
- 9. CodeRunner 4
- 10. MacVim Text Editor
- The Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for macOS
- Is It Possible to Download Notepad++ for Mac?
- What Is Notepad++?
- Why Is Notepad++ Mac Not Available?
- How to Run Notepad++ On Mac?
- Way 1: Install Notepad++ on Mac Using Wine
- Way 2: Install Notepad++ on Mac Using VMware
- 3 Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for Mac Users
- 1. Brackets
- 2. Textmate
- 3. Sublime Text
The Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for macOS
Notepad++ is one of the most popular text editors for Windows. Its customizable GUI, syntax highlighting and syntax folding, multi-document and multi-view, and macro reading and playback features, make it one of the most versatile text editors for Windows. Notepad++ is so popular that it has an extremely passionate fanbase who refuses to use anything else other than Notepad++. That said, Notepad++ is not available for macOS. So, if you are switching from Windows to macOS, what do you use instead? Well, there are a ton of text editors on Mac which are on par and even better than Notepad++. So, if you are looking for one, here are 10 best alternatives to Notepad++ which you can use on macOS.
Best Notepad++ Alternatives for Mac (2021)
1. BBEdit 13
BBEdit is one of the oldest and most popular text-editors out there. The software has been available since 1992 which long predates the macOS as we know today. BBEdit’s existence for more than 25 years is enough to sing its praise. It’s one of the best HTML and text editor for macOS which anyone can use today. Along with simple text editing, the app also supports rich text editing and HTML.
The app itself is packed with features including built-in tools text manipulations, Hard Wrap, complete set of HTML Tools for fast, easy, and correct markup, placeholder options for easier site maintenance, multiple files manipulations, customizable syntax coloring support for over two dozen built-in languages, extensive file handling capabilities, and more. The app used to be paid only but now you can use it for free with restrictions.
In the long run you might need to buy a license if you want to use it without restrictions. But at that point, the purchase will make sense. Till then, you can keep using the free version. Also, note that BBEdit is now also available on the Mac App Store. It’s free to use and offers subscription pricing ($39.99/year) for pro plans. If you don’t want to deal with the upgrade model, then this might make sense for you.
Download: BBEdit 13 (Free, $49.99)
2. Sublime Text 3
If you are looking for a replacement of Notepad++ for macOS, chances are you must have heard of Sublime Text. Sublime Text is one of the most respected text editors on Mac and brings a ton of features like syntax highlighting and folding, a high level of customizability, easy to navigate interface, multiple selections, powerful API and package ecosystem, and more. In fact, if not for its price, Sublime Text would have been our top pick for as the Notepad++ alternative.
My favorite feature of Sublime Text is the “Goto Anything” feature. The Goto Anything feature can be activated by hitting the simple keyboard combo ⌘P and allows you to instantly jump to symbols, lines or words. Combine this with features like split editing, Goto Definition, Command Palette, batch editing, and instant project switch, you have one of the best and most powerful text-editors out there. Sublime Text is also cross-platform and works on all the three major platforms including macOS, Windows, and Linux.
The best part is that you can use it for free. It only gently reminds you to buy a license once in a while. And frankly if you are going to work on it everyday, I think it’s buy once pricing is acceptable.
Download: Sublime Text (Free, $80)
3. Visual Studio Code
For a product which is created by Apple’s arch-rival Microsoft, you would think that it won’t be working well on macOS, if working at all. However surprisingly, Visual Studio Code is one of the best text-editors you can get on your Mac. It supports highlighting for more than 30 different languages, keyboard-centric and code-focused editing, lightning fast source code editor, Regex support, outlining, autocomplete with IntelliSense, automatic real-time API description, Git control and more.
Visual Studio Code also supports extensions which can add a ton of extra functionalities. Some of the most popular extensions are Git Lens, Angular Essentials, Sublime Text Keymap, and Debugger for Chrome. Oh, and did I tell you that it’s completely free?
Download: Visual Studio Code (Free)
4. Brackets
Brackets is a great free text-editor for your Mac which mainly focuses on web-design and hence a good option for front-end developers and web designers. Although Brackets has been designed by Adobe, it’s an open-source project which is supported by its active and passionate community. Probably the best feature of Brackets is Live Preview.
The Live Preview feature allows a developer to instantly see the changes he is making to his code. When you are using the Live Preview feature, Brackets will open a Chrome window which will automatically reflect any changes to CSS and HTML of your code. It’s a great way to visualize your code.
Another great feature of Brackets is Extract which lets you automatically get color, font, gradient, and measurement information from a Photoshop Document file. Other features include Inline Editors, Preprocessor Support, Quick Edit, JSLint and more.
But that’s not all, just like you can add features to Atom using packages, Brackets lets you do that with its extensions. Some of the most popular Brackets’ extensions are Beautify, Autoprefixer, Emmet, Minifier, Bracket Gits, and Brackets File Icons. You can get a full list of extensions here.
Download: Brackets (Free)
5. UltraEdit
UltraEdit claims to be the world’s best text-editor and while I do not agree with its self-proclaimed title, it is one of the best text editors out there. One of the best things about UltraEdit is that the program supports a ton of different languages including and not limited to C, Objective C, Javascript, XML, PHP, Perl, and Python.
It also brings a ton of features including code highlighting, folding, disk-based text editing, theming, support for retina display, spell checking, drag-and-drop editing, and block mode editing among others.
When buying UltraEdit, you can also buy it with other Ultra products like UltraCompare, UltraEdit Suite, UltraFinder, and IDM All Access. Different bundles bring different functionalities. For example, UltraCompare helps you see the history of all your projects and documents and lets you compare your files from any point in time. You can learn everything about UltraEdit bundles by clicking here.
Download: UltraEdit ($79.95/year – comes with UltraCompare)
6. Nova 3
Nova 3 is a new native Mac code editor from Panic, the makers of the now-discontinued Coda 2. Unlike other cross-platform apps on this list, Nova 3 is built with macOS in mind. The app’s editor comes with all the essential features including smart autocomplete, multiple cursors, a Minimap, editor overscroll, tag pairs, and brackets to name a few.
In case you’re wondering, Nova 3 has native support for CoffeeScript, CSS, Diff, ERB, Haml, HTML, INI, JavaScript, JSON, JSX, Less, Lua, Markdown, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Sass, SCSS, Smarty, SQL, TSX, TypeScript, XML, and YAML. You can also use the extension browser to expand the capabilities.
It is also worth mentioning that you can use Nova to build and run tasks for your projects, a feature that was previously missing in Coda. You also get a convenient sidebar for quick access to necessary controls including Git source control tools.
Download: Nova 3 ($99)
7. Atom
For me, Atom is the one true replacement for Notepad++ on macOS. First of all, Atom is an open-source software which is completely free to use. It is modern and approachable and yet hackable to its core. Atom is a really powerful text-editor, which comes as no surprise, as it is developed the GitHub team.
The best part about Atom is that you can change almost anything about it. You can install different themes to change its look and feel, tweak the look and feel of your UI with CSS/Less, and even add major features which fit your workflow using HTML and JavaScript.
At its core, Atom is built on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js integration and runs on Electron. Although the software is already feature rich, if you want more, you can install any of its thousands of open-source packages to add new features and functionality.
Some of the popular packages add features like Git conflict management, project management, modal control, customizable clock in the status bar, cleaning up your code to make it more readable, search Stack Overflow, and more. Lastly, since the app is developed by the team at GitHub, you can be sure that Atom will receive support and regular updates for the foreseeable future.
Download: Atom (Free)
8. Textastic
If you are looking for a powerful yet cheap text-editor build specifically for Mac, look no further than Textastic. It’s the cheapest paid text-editor on this list and has been designed specifically for macOS. The app supports more than 80 source code and markup languages with auto-completion support for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, C, and Objective-C. The app is also really fast as it uses the native macOS APIs like Core Text for maximum speed.
One of the best features of this app is that it supports iCloud sync, ensuring that your work is synced across devices without you having to do anything. Apart from being present on Mac, Texastic also has an iOS app which works on both iPhones and iPads. However, the biggest thing that goes in favor of Textastic is that it brings most of the features of premium text-editors at a fraction of their price.
Download: Textastic ($7.99)
9. CodeRunner 4
CodeRunner 4 is an affordable text-editor which has been designed specifically for a Mac. It is an advanced, highly flexible and easy to use text-editor for Mac. The software features a full-blown IDE-level code completion for most languages. The app also supports multiple languages, twenty-five to be exact which includes languages like AppleScript, C, C++, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, and more.
Other features include error checking and linting, customizable key bindings, file navigator, automatic indentation support, intelligent bracket matching, live run statistics, multiple selections, and more. You also get features like support for dark mode, documentation sidebar, look up functions, methods, classes, and more. If you are looking for an affordable yet powerful text-editor on Mac, do give CodeRunner 4 a chance.
Download: CodeRunner 4 ($19.99)
10. MacVim Text Editor
MacVim is the Mac clone of long standing, widely used, and extremely powerful Unix text-editor Vim. The best part about using MacVim is that every plugin which is available for original Vim text-editor works flawlessly with MacVim too. It also has all the customizability and power of Vim. It has a large and strong community which is ready to answer any question that you might have.
That said, it’s a little hard to get used to and I would only suggest this one to people who are already familiar with its interface and UI. Don’t get me wrong, MacVim brings a ton of features and that too for free, but if you are looking for an easy to use text-editor and you don’t have any experience with Vim what-so-ever, you should definitely check out other text-editors in this list.
Download: MacVim (Free)
The Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for macOS
That concludes our list of the best Notepad++ alternatives for macOS. As you know, there can never be a single app which is best for everyone. That’s why I would suggest that you try a couple of them to see which one fits your needs. Since most of the paid ones also offer a free-trial period, it will be easy for you to try and choose the right one for you.
You don’t want to invest too much money or time in a text-editor only to find out that it’s not the one. Try them out and do let us know which among them is the one you are going with.
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Is It Possible to Download Notepad++ for Mac?
TextEdit is the default text editor in macOS, and it’s just as barebones as the default text editor in Windows, Notepad. Naturally, many Mac users sooner or later look for an alternative, and they often stumble upon Notepad++.
What Is Notepad++?
Notepad++ is basically what would happen if you were to inject Notepad with steroids and forced it to work out. It supports several programming languages and features syntax highlighting, syntax folding, PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) search/replace, auto-completion, multi-document editing, WYSIWYG printing, zoom in and zoom out, bookmarks, macro recording and playback, and more.
Notepad++ is free and open source, first released in 2003 by Don Ho. It’s written in C++ and based on powerful editing component Scintilla. This free open source library supports many features to make code editing easier in addition to error indicators, line numbering in the margin, as well as line markers such as code breakpoints.
Because of its extensive features, support for 84 languages, and free price, Notepad++ was voted as the most used text editor worldwide with 34.7 percent of 26,086 respondents on Stack Overflow claiming to use it daily. It has also won a number of prestigious awards including the “Best Programming Text Editor for Windows” award from Lifehacker in 2011 and 2014.
Why Is Notepad++ Mac Not Available?
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to download Notepad++ for Mac. You might think that Notepad++ Mac isn’t available because it’s also not possible to download Notepad for Mac, but that’s not the real reason why.
Notepad++ relies extensively on Win32 API, the 32-bit application programming interface for modern versions of Windows. Win32 API consists of many components, including things like file systems, devices, processes, threads, and error handling. It’s also responsible for that instantly recognizable Windows look and feel that many long-term users of the operating system find so appealing. In short, without Win32 API, there’s no Notepad++. At least not without a major rewriting of the application.
If Notepad++ were a commercial project, there’s a chance that it would make a sense to develop and maintain a separate version for macOS (and Linux), but it’s free and open source, so the motivation is limited. Porting Notepad++ to another operating system would also break the compatibility with most plugins, essentially fragmenting the Notepad++ community.
How to Run Notepad++ On Mac?
Because of extensively Notepad++ relies on Win32 API, there are two possible ways how to run it on macOS: rewrite it so that it doesn’t rely on Win32 API anymore, or provide it the necessary API. We’ve already explained why the former is unlikely to happen anytime soon, but the latter is already possible using virtual machines and emulators.
Way 1: Install Notepad++ on Mac Using Wine
Wine is a recursive backronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator. What is Wine then? A free and open-source compatibility layer whose goal is to emulate the Windows runtime environment by translating Windows system calls into POSIX-compliant system calls. It also recreates the directory structure of Windows systems and provides alternative implementations of Windows system libraries, services, and other components.
As you can see here, Notepad++ runs well in Wine, especially its earlier versions, which rate rated Gold and Platinum. Wine’s rating system is designed to assist users by giving a rating based on other users’ experience:
- Platinum: Works as well as (or better than) on Windows out of the box.
- Gold: Works as well as (or better than) on Windows with workarounds.
- Silver: Works excellently for normal use, but has some problems for which there are no workarounds.
- Bronze: Works, but has some problems for normal use.
- Garbage: Problems are severe enough that it cannot be used for the purpose it was designed for.
To install Wine on macOS, you need macOS 10.8 or higher, and you must set Gatekeeper to NOT block unsigned packages. If you meet these prerequisites, you can continue by following the steps below:
- Download the installer for Wine Stable from this page.
- Double-click on the installer.
- Create the fake C: drive where your Windows applications will be installed by entering “winecfg” into the terminal.
- Download Notepad++ from its official website.
- Place it in any directory you want.
- Open the terminal and navigate to the directory with Notepad++.
- Start the Notepad++ installation .exe file by typing “wine the-name-of-the-file.exe” into the terminal.
- To launch Notepad++ navigate to its folder in the virtual Windows directory and type “wine the-name-of-the-file.exe” into the terminal.
Way 2: Install Notepad++ on Mac Using VMware
The main advantage of running Notepad++ (or any other application) using Wine is that it runs side-by-side with native macOS applications. But due to how Wine works, minor bugs are to be expected. A bug here and there may be acceptable if you use Notepad++ only to occasionally edit a text file, but they can quickly make Notepad++ unusable for software developers or anyone who wants to use it extensively.
That’s where virtualization software solutions such as VMware Fusion come in. With it, you can set up a virtual Windows machine on your Mac computer and use the virtual machine to execute any Windows software you want. The virtual machine can even share the same clipboard with your Mac, allowing you to effortlessly copy and paste text and images to and from Notepad++ across operating systems.
To get started with VMware Fusion, we recommend you this detailed tutorial from VMware where you can learn everything you need to know about running Windows applications on Intel-based Mac computers. Of course, you’ll also need a copy of Windows.
3 Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for Mac Users
While it’s possible to run Notepad++ on macOS using Wine or VMware, neither approach is without its downsides, which is why many people look for alternatives to Notepad++ for Mac computers instead. The alternatives we’ve selected are native, mature Mac applications, their stability is guaranteed.
1. Brackets
Brackets is a modern text editor made with the needs of web developers in mind. It has a live preview feature that allows you to instantly see changes to CSS and HTML files in your web browser of choice, it can with your LESS and SCSS files, and it can show you all the CSS selectors with that ID in an inline window so you can work on your code side-by-side without any popups. Brackets is open source, free, and as sleek as a macOS application should be. Because of how lightweight Brackets is, it runs extremely well even on older Macs, making it our favorite Notepad++ Mac alternative for anyone who edits text on a regular basis.
2. Textmate
Textmate is a versatile text editor that brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors, as stated by its developers. It has many features, including the ability to search and replace text, auto-indent for common actions, clipboard history, dynamic outline for working with multiple files, file tabs when working with projects, foldable code blocks, and more. Despite its extensive features, Textmate remains highly accessible even to casual computers users who only edit text now and then. Using its powerful snippets, macros, and unique scoping system, Textmate can provide features that even a language specific IDE lacks.
3. Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a feature-packed text editor that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It’s designed for code and prose alike. Sublime Text supports splits editing, customizable key bindings, menus, snippets, macros, completions, and it’s built from custom components, providing for unmatched responsiveness. Sublime Text is also free to download, but a license must be purchased for continued use. A single personal license costs $80, which is not an insignificant amount considering how many alternative text editors for Mac are available free of charge. But the fact that Sublime Text is among the most popular text editors across all operating systems is perhaps the best testament to its capabilities.
There’s nothing worse than editing an important text file for an hour or two only to have your text editor suddenly crash, causing you to lose all your progress. Unless you have a data recovery solution such as Disk Drill installed on your computer, your chances of recovering your lost data are slim.
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