Comparison of text editors

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of text editors. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs..

General information

This table gives basic general information about the different editors.

	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Cost (USD)	Software license
Acme	Rob Pike	1993	Distributed with 4th Ed. Plan 9 and Inferno	Free	LPL (OSI approved)
Alpha	Pete Keleher, now the Alpha-development cabal	1990	8.0	$40 shareware	Core is closed source, but with BSD components
Alphatk	Vince Darley	1999	8.3.3	$40	Proprietary, with BSD components
BBEdit	Rich Siegel	April 1992	8.2.4	$199, $129 cross-upgrade, $49 educational	Proprietary
BDV Notepad	Badevlad company	2002	5.0	Free	Freeware
Bluefish	Bluefish Dev Team	1999	1.0.4	Free	GPL
Boxer	David Hamel	1991	11.0.1	$59.99 shareware	Proprietary
ConTEXT	Eden Kirin	1999	0.98.3	Free	Proprietary
Crimson Editor	Ingyu Kang	?	3.7	Free	Proprietary
CRiSP	Paul D. Fox	1986	9.1.2c	$99, plus commercial licensing	Proprietary
Cssed	Iago Rubio	2003	0.4.0	Free	GPL
ed	Ken Thompson	1970	always the same	Free	Free
EditPlus	ES-Computing	March 20, 1998	2.20	$30 (1-user)	Proprietary
EditPad Lite	JustGreatSoftware	1996	5.4.5	Free	Proprietary
EditPad Pro	JustGreatSoftware	1996	5.4.5	$40	Shareware
gedit	GNU Project	2000	2.12	Free	GPL
GNU Emacs	Richard Stallman	1984	21.4	Free	GPL
jEdit	Slava Pestov	1998 (?)	4.2	Free	GPL
JOE	Joseph Allen	1992 (?)	3.3	Free	GPL
Kate	KDE Project	December 2000	2.5.0	Free	GPL
KWrite	KDE Project	2000	4.5	Free	GPL
Metapad	Alexander Davidson	1999	3.51	Free	Freeware
Nano	GNU Project	1999	1.2.5	Free	GPL
NEdit	Mark Edel	1991	5.5	Free	GPL
Notepad	Microsoft	?	1985	Bundled with Microsoft Windows	Proprietary
Notepad++	Don Ho	November 252003	3.5	Free	GPL
Notepad2	Florian Balmer	April 2004	1.0.12	Free	GPL
Notetab	Eric Fookes, Fookes Software	1995	4.95	Free, $10 Standard, $20 Pro	Proprietary
nvi	Keith Bostic	?	1.79	Free	BSD license
Pico	University of Washington	?	?	Free	Proprietary
PSPad	Jan Fiala	2002	4.5.0	Freeware	Proprietary
Scite	Neil Hodgson	March 1999	1.6.67	Free	GPL
skEdit	Sean Kelly, skti	2002	3.6	$24,95 for a Lifetime license	Proprietary
SubEthaEdit	TheCodingMonkeys	2003	2.1.1	$35 for Commercial Use	Proprietary
TED Notepad	Juraj Simlovic	2001	4.5.1	Free	Freeware
TextEdit	Apple Computer	?	1.4	Bundled with Mac OS X	Proprietary
TextPad	Helios Software Solutions	?	4.7.3	$29	Shareware
TextMate	MacroMates	October 10, 2004	1.5	$49	Proprietary, with MIT components
TextWrangler	Bare Bones Software	?	2.1.1	Freeware	Proprietary
UltraEdit	IDM Computer Solutions	1994	11.20b	$40	Proprietary
Vim	Bram Moolenaar	1991	6.4	Free	GPL-compatible
XEmacs	Lucid Inc.	1991	21.0	Free	GPL
Zeus	Xidicone P/L	1995	3.95t	$39.95	Shareware
	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Cost (USD)	Software license

Operating system support

This table lists the operating systems that different editors can run on (note: some editors run on operating systems not listed in the table).

Cross platform

	Windows	Mac OS X	GNU/Linux	BSD	Unix	OpenVMS
Acme	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Diakonos	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPad Lite	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
EditPad Pro	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
gedit	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
JOE	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Kate	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
KWrite	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Nano	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Pico	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scite	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	OpenVMS

• ^ Via Inferno version only.

Windows only

• BDV Notepad
• Boxer
• ConTEXT
• Crimson Editor
• EditPlus
• Metapad
• Notepad
• Notepad++
• Notepad2
• Notetab
• PSPad
• TED Notepad
• TextPad
• UltraEdit
• Zeus IDE

Mac only

• Alpha
• BBEdit
• skEdit
• SubEthaEdit
• TextEdit
• TextMate
• TextWrangler

Document interface

This table lists common document interfaces supported natively by different editors.

	Single document interface	Single document window splitting	Multiple document interface
			Overlappable windows	Tabbed document interface	Window splitting
Acme	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Alpha	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
BDV Notepad	No	No	No	No	No
Bluefish	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Boxer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Crimson Editor	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diakonos	Yes	No	No	No	No
ed	Yes	No	No	No	No
EditPad Lite	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
EditPad Pro	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
EditPlus	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	No	No	No	No
jEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
JOE	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Metapad	Yes	No	No	No	No
Nano	Yes	No	No	No	No
NEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Notepad	Yes	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	No	No	No	No
Notetab	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
nvi	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Pico	Yes	No	No	No	No
PSPad	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scite	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
skEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
TextPad	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TextMate	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	No	Yes Template:Refun	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Single document interface	Single document window splitting	Overlappable windows	Tabbed document interface	Window splitting

• ^ Via script.

Basic features

This table lists common basic features supported natively by different editors.

	Spell checking	Regex-based find & replace	Encoding conversion	Newline conversion
Acme	No	Yes	No	No
Alpha	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BDV Notepad	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Boxer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	No	Yes	Partial Template:Refun	Yes
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	No	Yes	No	Yes
Diakonos	No	Yes	No	No
ed	No	Yes	No	No
EditPad Lite	No	No	Yes	Yes
EditPad Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes Template:Refun	No	Yes	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes Template:Refun	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Metapad	Yes Template:Refun	No	No	No
Nano	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
NEdit	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	No	Yes
Notepad	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notetab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	No	Yes	No	No
Pico	Yes	No	No	No
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scite	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
skEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	No	No	No	Yes
TextEdit	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	No Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Spell checking	Regex-based find & replace	Encoding conversion	Newline conversion

• ^ Spell Checking is added for version 7, however it's still in the alpha stage.
• ^ As a standard plugin.
• ^ Requires ispell or aspell.
• ^ Non-standard regexp syntax.
• ^ Plugin
• ^ Requires aspell.
• ^ Only supports converting to and from UTF-16, could not specify what other Character Encoding to use. Also not possible to chose both UTF16 encoding and use other type of newline.

Programming features

This table lists common programming features implemented natively by different editors. See Source code editor.

	Syntax highlighting	Multiple undo/redo	Rectangular block selection	Bracket matching	Auto indentation	Auto completion	Code folding	Text folding	Compiler integration
Acme	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Alpha	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
BDV Notepad	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Boxer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Diakonos	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
ed	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
EditPad Lite	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
EditPad Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
gedit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
JOE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Metapad	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Nano	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^	No	No	Yes
Notepad	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	?
Notepad2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Notetab	Yes	Yes	?	No	?	Yes	?	?	Yes
nvi	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Pico	No	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Scite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
skEdit	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
TED Notepad	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	No
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Syntax highlighting	Multiple undo/redo	Rectangular block selection	Bracket matching	Auto indentation	Auto completion	Code folding	Text folding	Compiler integration

• ^ Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
• ^ Plugin
• ^ Supported in some language bundles

Extra features

This table lists other features implemented natively by different editors.

	Text shell integration	Graphical shell integration	Macro	Collaborative editing
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Alpha	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	No
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	No
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	No
BDV Notepad	No	Yes	No	No
Bluefish	No	Yes	?	?
Boxer	No	Yes	Yes	No
ConTEXT	No	Yes	Yes	No
Crimson Editor	No	Yes	Yes	No
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Cssed	Yes	Yes	Yes Template:Refun	No
Diakonos	No	No	Yes	No
ed	No	No	No	No
EditPad Lite	No	No	No	No
EditPad Pro	?	?	Yes	No
EditPlus	No	Yes	Yes	No
gedit	Yes	Yes	No	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	No	No
KWrite	No	No	No	No
jEdit	Yes	No	Yes	No
JOE	Yes	No	Yes	No
Metapad	Yes	Yes	No	No
Nano	?	?	?	No
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Notepad	Yes	Yes	No	No
Notepad++	No	Yes	Yes	?
Notepad2	No	No	No	No
nvi	Yes	No	No	?
Pico	?	?	?	No
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
skEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes Template:Refun
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
TED Notepad	Yes	Yes	No	No
TextEdit	Yes	Yes	No	No
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TextPad	No	Yes	Yes	No
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	Yes Template:Refun	Yes	Yes	No
	Text shell integration	Graphical shell integration	Macro	Collaborative editing

• ^ Supported via AppleScript, Perl, Python, shell scripts or text factories.
• ^ Supported via AppleScript, Tcl or text factories.
• ^ Supported via Python.
• ^ Support using SCM plugins.
• ^ Supported via the scripting and integrated tools feature set.

Protocol support

This table lists Internet protocols that different editors support for remote file editing.

	FTP	HyperText Transfer Protocol	Secure Shell	WebDAV
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Alpha	Yes	No	No	No
Alphatk	Yes	No	No	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	No	No	No
BDV Notepad	No	No	No	No
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	?	Yes
Boxer	Yes	No	No	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	No	No	No
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Cssed	No	No	No	No
ed	No	No	No	No
EditPad Lite	No	No	No	No
EditPad Pro	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	?	?	?
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes Template:Refun	No	Yes Template:Refun	Yes Template:Refun
JOE	No	No	No	No
Metapad	No	No	No	No
Nano	No	No	Yes	No
NEdit	No	No	No	No
Notepad	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	No	No	No	No
Notepad2	No	No	No	No
nvi	No	No	No	No
Pico	?	?	?	No
PSPad	Yes	No	No	No
skEdit	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	No	No	No
TextPad	No	No	No	No
TextMate	No	No	No	No
UltraEdit	Yes	No	No	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XEmacs	Yes	?	?	No
Zeus	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
	FTP	HTTP	SSH	WebDAV

• ^ Supported via plugins.

Encoding support

This table lists some of the most common character encodings that different editors support.

	ASCII	UTF-8	UTF-16/UCS-2
Acme	Yes	Yes	No
Alpha	Yes	No	No
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
BDV Notepad	Yes	No	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	?
Boxer	Yes	No	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	No	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	No	Yes
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	Yes	Yes	No
ed	Yes	Yes	No
EditPad Light	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPad Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	Yes	?
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes	Yes	No
Metapad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nano	Yes	Yes	No
NEdit	Yes	No	No
Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	Yes	No	No
Pico	Yes	No	No
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scite	Yes	Yes	Yes
skEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	Yes	Yes	Yes
	ASCII	UTF-8	UTF-16

Newline support

This table states which newline character sequences different editors support.

	DOS (CR/LF)	Unix (LF)	Mac (CR)
Acme	No	Yes	No
Alpha	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
BDV Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	?	?	?
Boxer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	Yes	Yes
CRiSP	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cssed	Yes	Yes	Yes
ed	No	Yes	No
EditPad Lite	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPad Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	?	?	?
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes	Yes	No
Metapad	Yes	Yes	?
Nano	Yes	Yes	Yes
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad	Yes	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	?	Yes	?
Pico	?	Yes	?
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scite	Yes	Yes	Yes
skEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	Yes	Yes	No
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Zeus	Yes	Yes	No
	DOS (CR/LF)	Unix (LF)	Mac (CR)

References

• "GNU Emacs manual". GNU Emacs Manual 14th edition. Retrieved March 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) "The Emacs Editor"
• Quick reference card for TextPad
• TED Notepad Manual

See also

• List of text editors