Text editors are software created specifically for manipulating text in several file type formats. And while they all feature the same fundamental functions, not all text editors are evidently created equal – some are simply for editing text and feature basic editing commands while others are so advanced it wouldn’t take a lot to convert them into an environment for advanced coding with debugging functionality.
Today, we bring you a line up of text editors for Mac users that are sure to meet all your coding requirements while offering reliability and security.
1. Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is an open-source source code editor created and maintained by Microsoft. It is designed with beauty, ease-of-use, and speed in mind, coupled with support for tons of programming languages and file types among other features.
Visual Studio Code is customizable with themes, extendable with functions, and configurable with custom scripts. It is 100% free and you can check out our list of its best extensions for programmers.
2. 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.
3. Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a world-famous lightweight, feature-rich source code editor. It is completely customizable, supports 50+ languages out of the box, extensible with plugins, and scriptable.
Sublime Text is currently in version 3 and although it offers a paid license, it doesn’t restrict any features to paid users and the license is there in order to support developers. So if you like using ST3 and can afford the license, give a helping hand.
4. 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.
5. Brackets
Brackets is a free source code editor created by Adobe Systems with the main focus on web development. It is written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, which makes it the ideal web developer’s text editor.
Brackets text editor features a slick, minimalist UI, live preview which allows users to see code changes to their program in real-time, tons of extensions to add its functionality, etc.
6. 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.
7. BBEdit
BBEdit is a freemium text editor that offers an easy-to-understand UI excellent for navigating directories and working with files among other features such as an advanced search and replace function, full UTF-8 support, character encoding conversion, FTP/SFTP support, etc.
BBEdit contains premium features which news users can evaluate for 30 days free of charge. Its free version is an excellent stand-alone app but you will need to purchase a license to access its paid functionality.
8. GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs is a libre, extensible and customizable command line-based text editor that is fundamentally a Lisp interpreter for Emacs with support for extensions that enable it to edit text. Its features include self-documentation, full Unicode support for virtually any script type, customization, support for working with a GUI, a packaging system for installing extensions, and many more.
9. TextMate
TextMate is a powerful, customizable and open-source free text editor with a rich feature set that includes multiple carets, Unix commands, scoped settings, version control, advanced file search, support for tons of programming languages right out of the box, etc.
It also features a clean UI and navigable file tree which encourages users to focus less on distractions and more on the dexterity of their code.
10. Espresso
Espresso is an advanced web editor built for Mac users to build delightful, speedy, and innovative websites as it combines virtually all the tools they will need into a single working environment such as CSSEdit tools, Server sync, a Navigator, Live Preview with Browser Xray, Dynamo auto-building, and an exceptionally beautiful UI compliant with the macOS aesthetic.
Espresso is last on this list but eons away from the least given its rich feature set and advanced user options. It is going for an affordable price of $75.
So, there you have it. All of the above-mentioned text editors offer the important features you will need to write and edit functioning source code of anything from a basic Python script to a professionally-written Java program. It is left to you to decide which ones appeal to you best.
In the meantime, remember to share this article and feel free to share your recommendations and experiences in the comments section below.
I recommend to look at Codelobster editor
So its either free….or $100. Crazy, nothing in a reasonably priced middle ground. Used Espresso for years and love it, but since it got taken over by Warewolf it no longer works on my machine. And $99 is too steep for a text editor. I’ll try some of the free ones you mention – cheers – and hopefully they are not too crappy. I use TextWrangler in a pinch but I’m a baby coder and need lots of hand-holding (like tag completion etc that Espresso does well)
bro what coding app do you recommend most for someone who just started getting into coding, im 13 years old btw i just thought that coding is something amazing and i would love to learn it.
ps: Im using a mac book pro
By coding app do you mean IDE (Integrated Development Environment)? That depends on your programming language of choice and the technologies you are interested in learning.
Coding is, indeed, amazing, and it is awesome that you’ve developed an interest for it at your age. Do you know what you will like to write code for? Building websites and/or web applications? Backend products for cloud platforms? Scripts for task automation? Database systems? The list is almost unending.
First, you need to choose the field that interests you now and start learning. There will always be an opportunity for you to swerve into something else or dive deeper into your chosen field. As a beginner, however, there are fundamentals that you must be familiar with in order to make an educated selection. These include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For those, you can kick off with a modern browser, a cool text editor, and some tutorials/books.
3 important questions you should ask yourself are: “What do I want to create with my coding skills? And how will it benefit me/someone else? How long do I need?“
I would like that!
But, guess what?
There is ONLY a 32 bit driver.
See?
P.S.
I’m usually on Facebook!
I have a question. I am not a code writer, but maybe you can answer this. Can a 32 bit audio driver for Mac be converted to a 64 bit to be functional within Catalina?
Mi editor de código favorito es Codelobster