TextEdit, the default text editor on the Mac, is great for file creation and editing. However, it isn’t suitable for writing or reviewing code, owing to a lack of functionality.
For that, you need a more advanced text editor: one that supports customization and offers features like text formatting, syntax highlighting, collaboration, and plugins, among others. Here are five best text editors for Mac you can use right now.
Table of Contents
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code or VS Code is a free source code editor from Microsoft. It’s lightweight, fast, and includes a range of features that can benefit all kinds of programmers, from beginner to expert.
For example, VS Code provides features like IntelliSense and Peek Definition for those just getting started with programming to help them understand various aspects of languages and write better code. Likewise, if you’re an experienced programmer, the editor gives you features like built-in Git to make working with Git easier and an extension marketplace to help extend the editor’s capabilities further.
What’s more, VS Code provides an extensive set of features to help you in the coding process, such as 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.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a shareware, meaning it offers most of its features for free but restricts a few to the paid offering, which you can upgrade to if you need the missing functionalities. It’s designed with Python and web programming in mind and is one of the most preferred text editors for the Mac, though you can also use it for other programming and markup languages.
Sublime Text comes with plugin support, which lets you add missing functionality to the editor to enhance your experience. Some of the handy features of the editor include a command palette, snippets, code auto-completion, goto anything, goto definition, and split editing. In addition, Sublime Text also provides 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, that can be quite useful to you. It’s 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.
BBEdit
BBEdit is a Mac-only text editor from Bare Bones Software, the same developers who developed TextWrangler—so if you’ve used TextWrangler, you’ll feel right at home with BBEdit. It’s also one of the oldest text editors around, and it aims to serve the needs of developers and writers alike.
BBEdit supports many of the popular languages, such as Python, Perl, RegEx, AppleScript, and Shell scripting. Similarly, the editor gives you access to a bunch of useful features. For example, it comes with auto-code completion and quick search and replace functionalities, which help you type code faster. Then, there’s code folding to help you go through code easily.
BBEdit is available on the Mac App Store. It offers a 30-day free evaluation period, which gives you access to its entire feature set. Post this period, you can still use BBEdit for free, but you get access to only its core features.
Vim
Vim or Vi Improved is a clone of Vi with a series of improvements. Vi is a POSIX standard editor that comes pre-installed on most traditional Unix-compliant operating systems, including macOS.
When stacked against other text editors on this list, Vim has a completely different look and feel to it. While most modern text editors focus on offering a pretty interface filled with a ton of features and functionality, Vim focuses on getting the basics right—and it does that very well. What you still get, though, is extensive plugin support, with new plugins being developed continuously, to configure the editor to suit your coding style and workflow.
The lack of a graphical interface on Vim means all your interactions happen in the command line or terminal window. Plus, being a modal editor, there are different modes on Vim that might take you some time to get used to before you become comfortable using it. That said, once you learn Vim, you can do a whole lot more with it efficiently. And you probably wouldn’t want to switch back to a regular text editor.
Emacs
Emacs or Editor MACroS is another popular text editor for Mac and a 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’s 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.
Talking about usability, Emacs 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 control over pretty much every aspect of their programming workflow. To give you a quick rundown, Emacs provides everything from text editing, project planning, and built-in mail to newsreader, packaging system, and a built-in IRC client, among others.
Improve Your Writing and Editing Experience on the Mac
Choosing the right text editor for Mac can be quite a task. While this list should help narrow down your options, you still need to pick one editor that you wish to use on your Mac.
Weighing the pros and cons of each text editor and evaluating their features against your requirements is a great way to do this. Not only does this ensure all your essential requirements are covered, but it also ensures your productivity and efficiency aren’t hampered when you switch to a new text editor.
Text Editor Mac: FAQs
What text editor comes with Mac?
TextEdit is the default text editor on Macs. You'll find it in the Applications folder, and the app allows you to write either in RTF (Rich Text Format) or plain text (txt).
What is a good free text editor for Mac?
Most text editors on this list are free and come with a host of features. We feel choosing one text editor among these is greatly influenced by your preference: what exactly you want in a text editor, how you plan on using it, and most importantly, your workflow. That said, if you want a generalized answer, we recommend using Visual Studio Code, which will get you pretty much all the essential functionalities you will need in your workflow without any compromises.
However, if you want a minimal text editor and are comfortable working on a terminal interface, we recommend going with Vim. Even though Vim might pose some difficulty when you start with it initially, once you get a hold of it, you can work quickly and efficiently with it than most text editors out there.
Can I use Notepad ++ on Mac?
Notepad++ is officially available on Windows only, so you can't use it on a Mac. However, if you're used to Notepad++ and have switched from Windows to Mac, we recommend checking out BBEdit and Sublime Text, both of which are easy to pick up and offer pretty much all the necessary features you'll need.
Which text editor works with Apple M1?
It's been a while since Apple released its M1 Macs. Consequently, most apps, including text editors, have now added support for the M1 chip. As a result, all the editors on this list will work perfectly fine on an M1 Mac.
What happened to Atom?
Atom was born out of the idea of creating a deeply customizable text editor that people could personalize according to their requirements.
However, in its last few years of existence, except for maintenance and security updates, the software didn't see any significant developments. Owing to this decline in community engagement and a fall in active user base, GitHub decided to sunset the Atom text editor on December 15, 2022.
What are some good alternatives to Atom?
There are plenty of good alternatives to Atom. However, the two that stand out the most are Visual Studio Code and Sublime Text.
If you want a simple and fast text editor for your Mac, Sublime Text is an excellent choice. You get a minimal interface and access to all the essential features you can ask for to write and review code. However, if you want a full-blown environment with access to advanced features and better community support, Visual Studio Code is the way to go.
