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Top 10 Best Text Editors
Welcome to the Text Editor Piki, the best place to decide between text editors. Text editors are computer programs that can be used to edit plain text, but are most often used to edit code files. Choosing a text editor with the right features is important to optimizing programming efficiency, so considerations about what operating system it runs on, various interface features and tools it offers, and cost might be of particular interest. This Piki makes use of more than 3,500 facts about 65 text editors. Sort and filter these text editors according to your preferences using the options on the left. Whether you're looking for expensive text editors, text editors for everyone or something else entirely, we have you covered.
You are currently viewing the best text editors. We stack everything according to PikiRank, which measures each item's performance for all users combined. If you're looking for a good bet, pick an item near the top.
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jennifer
edited the Text Editor Piki
03/20 at 1:50 PM (EDT)
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jessica edited TextMate 11/16 at 10:42 AM (EST)
Independent, Unbiased, Fact-Based Rankings
Selected Preferences Overall: Best
GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs is a free text editor that has open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It is an established text editor, enjoying a first release date earlier than most others, is liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is C and Elisp.
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Price: $0
GNU Emacs achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Mac OS X Key Bindings, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings, Vi Key Bindings
GNU Emacs achieves 92% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
GNU Emacs achieves 71% performance for display options.
Notepad++
Notepad++ is a free text editor that features open source, multiple instances, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace, but does not feature overlappable windows. It supports many natural (human) languages and it is a newer text editor. It is liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is C++.
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Price: $0
Notepad++ achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings
Notepad++ achieves 88% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
Notepad++ achieves 87% performance for display options.
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Vim
Vim is a free text editor that features open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It supports many natural (human) languages and it is a somewhat established text editor. It is liscenced under a GPL - compatible liscense and its source code is C and Vimscript.
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Price: $0
Vim achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings, Vi Key Bindings, Emacs Key Bindings
Vim achieves 91% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
Vim achieves 97% performance for display options.
Gedit
gedit is a free text editor that has open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It supports an incredible number of natural (human) languages and it is a somewhat established text editor. It is liscenced under a GPL liscense.
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Price: $0
Gedit achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings
Gedit achieves 80% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
Gedit achieves 100% performance for display options.
Kate
Kate is a free text editor that features open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It supports a large number of natural (human) languages and it is a somewhat established text editor. It is liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is C++.
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Price: $0
Kate achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings, Vi Key Bindings
Kate achieves 87% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
Kate achieves 90% performance for display options.
XEmacs
XEmacs is a free text editor that has open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It is a somewhat established text editoris liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is C and Elisp.
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Price: $0
XEmacs achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Brace Matching, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings, Vi Key Bindings, Emacs Key Bindings
XEmacs achieves 93% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
XEmacs achieves 64% performance for display options.
UltraEdit
UltraEdit is a moderately priced text editor that has multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace, but does not feature open source. It is a somewhat established text editor and it is liscenced under a proprietary liscense.
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Price: $59.95
UltraEdit achieves 79% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings
UltraEdit achieves 89% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
UltraEdit achieves 80% performance for display options.
Aquamacs
Aquamacs is a free text editor that features open source, multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace. It is a newer text editoris liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is C and Elisp.
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Price: $0
Aquamacs achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Mac OS X Key Bindings, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings, Vi Key Bindings
Aquamacs achieves 100% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
Aquamacs achieves 64% performance for display options.
jEdit
jEdit is a free text editor that features open source, multiple instances, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace, but doesn't have overlappable windows. It is a somewhat established text editoris liscenced under a GPL liscense and its source code is Java.
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Price: $0
JEdit achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings
JEdit achieves 89% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
JEdit achieves 59% performance for display options.
RJ TextEd
RJ TextEd is a free text editor that has multiple instances, overlappable windows, a tabbed document interface, spell checking and regex-based find & replace, but does not feature open source. It supports many natural (human) languages and it is a newer text editor. It is liscenced under a proprietary liscense and its source code is CodeGear Delphi.
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Price: $0
RJ TextEd achieves 100% performance for price. However, the current preferences ignore price in computing the rankings.
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Input Options: Symbol Database (Ctags or Equivalent), Syntax Highlighting, Function List, Dynamically Customizable Key Bindings
RJ TextEd achieves 89% performance for input options.
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Display Options: Multiple Instances, Single Document Window Splitting, Overlappable Windows, Tabbed Document Interface, Window Splitting
RJ TextEd achieves 96% performance for display options.