As a developer, your main tool is definitely the one that allows you to turn your ideas into code: a code editor. To edit HTML and CSS code, you only need a simple text editor and the rest depends on your skills and your creativity.

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1. NetBeans is an open-source code editor tool for developing with Java, PHP, C, and other programming languages. With this editor, code analyzers, and converters. It is one of the best code editor for Windows that allows you to upgrade your applications to use new Java 8 language constructs.
2. Online code editors have become an important part of modern web development. Online code editors perform various functions from educational to hiring. We have selected the best online code editors for you to help you choose that best suits your needs.
3. A quick tutorial showing you guys how to use the various elements of YouTube's native editor to merge, caption, and animate your clips to your desire.

However, to make your life a little bit easier, you can use code editors with advanced editing features. These features can effectively support you during coding, debugging, and testing.

Visual Studio Code is a code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. Visual Studio Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, macOS, and Windows.

What is a code editor?

A code editor is nothing but a text editor that is specialized for writing software. It may be a stand-alone program or part of an integrated development environment (IDE). They make writing and reading the source code easier by differentiating the elements, so the programmers can view their code.

With the variety of coding languages & techniques, it’s impossible to narrow down just one specific code editor as the best overall. We have compiled a list of the best 11 code-editors available today.

We will explain what each offers, and let you pick the one that suits you best.

So read on, and you may just find a tool that makes a big and positive difference to the way you work, day-to-day!

List of best code editors for software developers and enthusiasts:

1. Brackets

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

One of the best ways to move forward in web development is to unify and create links between design and implementation. Brackets is an editor developed by Adobe for CSS, JavaScript & HTML that aims to do just that. It is a powerful yet lightweight and modern text editor.

The best function that separates Brackets from the rest of the code editors is its remarkable “Extract” feature. This feature allows you to pick colors, measurements, fonts, gradients, etc. from a photoshop file into a ready-for-web CSS.

Key Features:

• Real-time visualization with connection to your browser.
• Lightweight (only 40 MB).
• Clean and minimal user interface, making it easier to write and organize code.
• Code syntax is automatically highlighted.
• Easily customizable being an open-source platform.
• Uses Inline editors for faster access to a particular part of the code.
• Pleasant looking user-interface.

2. Netbeans

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Whether it is for writing PHP, CSS, HTML, or other languages, we all want to have to use only one, a simple-to-use editor which looks great and has good features to boot. If this is what you are looking for, you may find it in Netbeans.

It is an open-source code editor tool for developing applications using many languages. If your applications were developed in the recent past, NetBeans allows you to upgrade all your applications to benefit from the new and improved Java 8 language constructs.

Key Features:

• Powerful debugging options.
• Offers fast and smart code editing.
• Cross-Platform support.
• Static analysis tools.
• Easy & efficient project management.
• Multiple language support.
• Provides expert assistance for optimizing your application’s speed and memory usage.

Read more:Software Requirements Document: Definition, Steps, and Template Included!

3. Notepad++

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Linux, and UNIX.

One of the most well-known code editors that developers all over the world have been using for quite a while is Notepad++. It’s far simpler, without too many bells and whistles. Once on your hard drive, the editor only takes up about 4MB. However, it packs a heavy punch in that little space! This code editor has an amazing execution speed, which is great for modern machines.

Notepad++ is jam–packed with standard features and supports more than 50 programmings, scripting, and markup languages, including syntax highlighting and code folding. Users can even define their own, a first among these code editors. It is an easy-to-learn tool for your most basic text editing needs if you’re willing to overlook its outdated look and feel.

Key features:

• Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion
• Multi-language environment support
• Syntax highlighting
• A lightweight application that launches quickly.
• Supports tabbed editing.
• Collaborative editing
• Auto-saving

4. Vim

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Another software that is reportedly comprehensive and can be considered an IDE within itself is called: Vim. Vim is a favorite for many old-school programmers, as well as the keyboard enthusiasts. This code editor has a rich history; it originated from the Vi editor (1976), and it’s still being developed today.

The program is navigated entirely via the keyboard, making it much faster and more efficient – but only if you make the effort to learn how to operate it. If you have the time to learn it, Vim can really increase your coding productivity!

Key features:

• Rock-solid and very fast.
• Extensive plug-in support.
• Supports hundreds of programming languages and file formats.
• Exceptionally low memory footprint.
• Powerful search and replace
• Supports multiple tabs, allowing you to work on multiple files.
• Performs complex tasks with a few commands

5. Sublime text

Price: $80 (free indefinite preview) | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Much like Vim, Sublime text is known for its top-notch performance. It comes with all the features you would expect from a powerful code editor and a lot more too. It is lightweight, open, and ready to edit your file almost as soon as you’ve managed to click the button. This responsiveness is one of the things that makes it the best code editor in its class.

If you want to get the most out of Sublime Text, you need to install some extra plugins. Sublime Text is free to download and start using but for extended use, you’ll need to shell out $80 to get a license.

Key features:

• Lightweight and speedy
• Lets you edit multiple lines simultaneously.
• Extremely extendable.
• Fast customization of the editor to suit your likes
• Supports split editing
• Powerful API and Package Ecosystem
• Auto indentation

Read more:11 Best Text Editors For Windows, Mac, Linux & More

6. Atom

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

It is a cross-platform code editor created by developers for developers. Atom is a ‘hackable’ text editor, and what it means is that it allows new and intermediate programmers the chance to create their own text editor without years of programming experience. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

One of the most important things for all developers is collaboration while working to share ideas. Atom allows you to do this right from your editor. Very much like WordPress, Atom users can submit packages and themes for the software. Earlier, Atom had performance and stability problems, but those have diminished significantly as it has matured.

Key features:

• Provides smart options for auto-completion.
• Supports cross-platform editing.
• Quick & reliable
• Integrated with Git & Github
• Built-in package manager
• Thousands of plugins available
• Easy access to projects and files

Read more:Software Design Document: What, Why, and How? (Template Included)

7. Visual studio code (VS Code)

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Belonging from the family of software developed by the tech giant Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is known to be one of the most fully-featured, well-rounded code editor. It is an extensible, open-source code editor that supports a wide selection of programming languages and frameworks, from the familiar C, C++, and C# to modern languages like Go, Rust, and Node.js.

Visual Studio Code has many awesome features that can greatly improve your development workflow. One of the most effective and time-saving features of this application is its infusion with A.I. This means that all of the code that the developer writes in the application is read by the software. As a result, it generates auto-responses for code writing, based on variable types, function definitions, and essential modules.

Key features:

• Code refactoring & debugging.
• Easily extensible and customizable.
• Easy working with Git and other SCM providers.
• Split Views, Zen Mode.
• Built-in debugger.
• Can detect if any snippet of code is left incomplete.
• Comes with built-in support for web applications.

8. Espresso

Price: $99 | Platform: Mac

Espresso is a web editor for Mac that makes building, improving, and publishing websites a treat. It comes with a beautiful interface and a really powerful code editor. The software is beginner-friendly and provides lots of great features for advanced users as well.

With Espresso, you can finally stop spending so many hours trying to configure an unstable server. The latest version has a Clodette menu, that allows you to edit and sync servers automatically, as well as publish your content quickly.

Key features:

• The sleek and modern interface makes the app easier to use
• Allows you to drag and drop code snippets
• See a live preview of your design as you code
• XRay preview to quickly make changes with ease
• Many plugins and themes.
• Effortlessly navigates your code structure with groups, style previews, and Quick Filter
• Comes with an extensive plug-in API for syntaxes, formatting, and more.

Read more: Top 9 Virtual Data Room Providers in 2021

9. BBEdit (Earlier known as Text Wrangler)

Price: Free | Platform: Mac

Of all the code editors for Mac, BBEdit is definitely one of the oldest. This powerful and feature-rich text editor comes with a very intuitive user interface that makes it super easy to browse files and work on projects. It supports 44 programming languages including HTML, JavaScript, Perl, Python, VBScript, and SQL. It is designed and crafted for the purpose of editing, searching transformation, and manipulation of text.

Key features:

• Supports auto indentations.
• Offers syntax highlighting for many programming languages
• Allows you to convert character encoding of text documents.
• Has advanced search and replace tools.
• Supports the comparison of text files.
• Store and insert frequently used text items and custom tags
• Integrates smoothly into existing workflows.

10. Textmate

Price: Free | Platform: Mac

TextMate is a high-end source code editor for Mac OS which looks super cool. It is a versatile text editor with a unique and innovative feature set. It includes ready-made libraries of macros and snippets of source code or text (snippets), suitable for reuse for many programming languages. Without any doubt, if you are looking for a free text editor for Mac, you should consider TextMate.

Key features:

• Easy clipboard management
• Sophisticated find and replace tool
• Auto-Indent for Common Actions
• Foldable code blocks
• Visual Bookmarks to Jump Between Places in a File
• It features Marcos that eliminates repetitive work.
• Highlights syntax

11. BlueFish

Price: Free | Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD.

Bluefish is a powerful editor that is mainly for experienced web designers and programmers. It supports many programming and markup languages, but it focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites.

If you are a fan of working on dozens of different software at once and not wasting time for the code editor to take its sweet time to run your code, then Bluefish is the code editor that was designed with you in mind. BlueFish is an ultra-fast code editor that supports a variety of markup languages. The tool is so efficient that it loads a complete website within a second!

Key features:

• User-customizable toolbar for quick access to often-used functions.
• Auto-recovery of changes in modified documents after a crash or shutdown.
• Loads hundreds of files within seconds.
• Multithreaded support for remote files.
• Supports nearly every programming language.
• Anti-aliased text window.
• Multiple document interface (Easily open 500+ documents).

Over to you!

There you have it! These are the 11 best code editors available right now. Programming and development is a hectic job, and our goal is to enhance the overall coding productivity by giving you this list.

Every year, new code editors are released, and developers find it challenging to choose one. You can choose to have one go-to editor that you use for everything, but many developers use different code editors to perform different tasks.

There are many other code editors out there. Whether they’re focused on a particular niche or mass-appeal, they’re all fighting for attention and usage. How long will these code editors maintain their lead? Will we see a newcomer rise through the rankings in years to come?

One thing we know about the code editor wars—developers are the ones to benefit the most out of it!

If you have a favorite software that wasn’t on this list, feel free to share your input by tweeting us @bit_docs.

Further reads:

It is always exciting for developers from all over the world whenever they get to showcase their best code editor at computer expos and tech conferences. On that note when we talk about free code editors for Windows and Mac to use in the year 2021, we cannot help but wait in anticipation for brand-new features to use right away.

In this write-up, we will talk about the best coding software for multiple platforms. However, we will lay extra emphasis on Windows OS and Mac OS because they are popular operating systems out there right now.

Most of these best code editors are free; you do not have to buy any expensive licenses or whatever to start working on them. Just download a trial version of the said software and see if it fulfills your requirements. Afterward, you can convert to paid software for yourself or the company you are working for.

In addition, we will also fill you in on the most amazing code editors that you and your development team can use feature-wise. Since not all code editors are alike, some of them cannot be used for wide-scale projects.

Likewise, a basic version code editor can be used as a standalone application. If the app itself allows, it can be integrated into an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Let’s take look at our best code editor list and see what we have handpicked so far.

9 Free Best Code Editors for Windows & Mac to Use in 2021

Best Code Editors of 2021:

1. Notepad++

One of the most well-known code editors that developers all over the world have been using for quite a while is Notepad++. This amazing application was developed in C++. The initial launch version was very simple. It didn’t have a lot of functions back then, but Notepad++ garnered tons of positive reviews.

Not only developers but casual users also prefer using this tool over Windows’ native notepad application.

Using the pure win32 API, the Notepad++ has an amazing execution speed, which is great for the modern gen machines. Thanks to improved execution times, code compilation spans over a matter of few seconds. This helps programmers to get things done right away.

This application is only compatible with the Windows platform at the moment. It uses a GPL license to work. If you are a Mac fan, don’t worry. We have a couple of code editors appended down the list. Just keep glossing over it.

Key Features

• Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion
• User-defined Syntax highlighting and folding
• Multi-view and Multi-Language support
• Support syntax highlighting for languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
• Macro recording and playback
• Entirely customizable GUI
• Autosave
• Guided indentation
• Macros
• Split-screen editing and synchronized scrolling

Pricing

• Free

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2. Atom

One of the most famous and useful code editors on this list is Atom. Used by millions of developers all over the world, it is an amazing application with a very simple UI that increases its usability.

One of the cool features of this best free code editor is that the developers can submit packages straight from the application. Atom is available for download at multiple platforms: Windows, Linux, and Mac devices. If you are a Mac OSX user, this is the perfect time for you to give this app a shot.

Key Features

• Package Manager Integrated for Plugins support
• Supports Command Palette
• The feature of smart autocompletion
• Cross-platform editing
• Built-in package manager
• File system browser
• Find and replace tool
• Smart autocompletion
• Multiple panes
• Packages and themes

Pricing

• Free

3. Visual Studio Code [VS Code]

Belonging from the Family of software developed by the tech giant Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is an excellent code editor we have on the list. The application is an amazing piece of software that offers deep built-in support for Node.js, TypeScript, and JavaScript.

One of the most effective and time-saving features of this application is its infusion with A.I.

That means that all of the code that the developer writes in the application is read by the software. As a result, it generates auto-responses for code writing. These responses are based on variable types, function definitions, and essential modules.

This application is available for download on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.

Key Features

• Code refactoring & debugging
• Easy working with Git and other SCM (Software Configuration Management) providers
• Easily extensible and customizable
• Visual Studio Code CLI
• Live Share
• Helpers (Intellisense, Context Menus)
• Plugins and Themes
• Debugging
• Split Views, Zen Mode
• Integrated Terminal

Pricing

• Free

4. Brackets

Although this list recommends some of the best code editors in the market, there is still no comparison to Brackets code editor. Yes, it is free, but what makes it really useful is the full barrage of extensive new features.

This application has a lightweight framework designed by the people over at Adobe. Believe me, those people know what they are doing. It is one of the best code editors that is completely open-source and you can modify it to your liking.

One of the most amazing features of this application is that you can choose between a browser view to look at how your code is doing or you can view the source code in its original form and modify it from there.

This application is available to be used on Windows, Linux, and Mac devices.

Key Features

• Offers live preview, pre-processor support, and inline editors
• Especially developed tool for macOS
• Quick Edit UI feature puts context-specific code and tools inline
• Pleasant looking UI
• It comes with the inbuilt extension manager for fast & effective extension management
• Quick Docs
• JSLint
• Live Preview
• LESS support

Pricing

• Free

5. NetBeans

Another code editor on this list that as one of the most famous code-editors is NetBeans. It is open-source software that the developers can use to develop applications using programming languages like PHP, Java, and C++, among many others.

This software also contains features like code analyzers that can debug your code for you and also convertors to change anything that needs modification.

If your applications were developed in the recent past, be advised that NetBeans allows you to upgrade all your applications to benefit from the new and improved Java 8 language constructs.

This application is ready to be used on Windows, Linux, and Mac devices.

Best Code Editor 2015 Download

Key Features

• Offers fast & Smart Code Editing
• Helps you to write bug-free code
• Easy & Efficient Project Management
• Rapid User Interface Development
• Cross-platform support
• Visual debugger
• Static analysis tools
• Code editor
• Code converters
• Multiple language support
• NetBeans Profiler
• Project management
• Batch code analyzers

Pricing

• Free

6. Bluefish

If you are a fan of working on dozens of different software at once and not wasting time for the code editor to take its sweet time to run your code, then Bluefish is the code editor that was designed with you in mind.

It is an excellent cross-platform editor that can handle many files of code at once and run them simultaneously. One other feature that the developers love about this application is that they can edit their code from their remote working station, which can be anywhere in the world.

This application contains many different options for web developers and programmers that can help them write code, websites, and scripts for quality testing of their software.

This application is available to be used by Windows, Linux, and Mac device owners.

Key Features

Best Code Editor 2015 Full

• Auto-recovery of changes in modified documents after a crash, kill or shutdown
• Unlimited undo/redo functionality
• Loads hundreds of files within seconds
• Project support feature helps you to work efficiently on multiple projects
• Dialogues for many HTML tags, with all their attributes
• User-customizable toolbar for quick access to often-used functions
• Fully featured image insert dialogue
• Multi-thumbnail generation for easy creation of photo albums or screenshot pages

Pricing

• Free

7. Vim

Another software that is reportedly comprehensive and can be considered an IDE within itself is called: Vim. It is an extremely advanced code editor that is open-source which gives you the ability to modify the application to your liking as a developer.

With the help of Vim editors and UNIX systems embedded in the software, the application can manage all of the text-editing activities of the developers in no time at all, whether the application is used online or on the premises.

This application is available to be used by Linux Devices.

Key Features

• It is command centric which lets you perform complex text related task with few commands
• There are many plug-in available for Vim. Its functionality can be extended in a great manner using these plug-in
• Same as multiple windows, it also supports multiple buffers
• It supports recording features which allow to record and play Vim commands in a repeated manner
• Its memory footprint is exceptionally low
• It is highly configurable and uses a simple text file to store its configuration
• It supports multiple windows. Using this feature screen can be split into multiple windows
• It supports multiple tabs which allow you to work on multiple files

Pricing

• Free

8. Geany

Next on this list of amazing code-editors, we have the software Geany. This application is quite effective because it uses the GTK+ toolkit to accommodate all of the code that the developers push on the software.

An amazing feature of this application is that it has all of the necessary basic components that make up an effectively integrated development environment or (IDE).

The developers can use this application to produce applications thanks to the software’s library that is full of different filetypes and other important features.

Geany supports Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux operating systems.

Key Features

• Navigating through the source code is easy
• Show status message on attempt to execute empty context action
• Allows you to add a note for applying the indent settings in the project preferences
• Allows popup menu on message window notebooks and sidebar
• Syntax highlighting
• Autocompletion of symbols/words
• Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
• Many supported filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl, Pascal, and others
• Code navigation
• Simple project management
• Code folding for an overall organized approach to coding huge programs
• Construct completion/snippets
• Call tips
• Symbol lists
• Build a system to compile and execute your code
• Plugin interface

Pricing

• Free

9. Komodo Edit

The software Komodo Edit is an intuitive but immensely powerful code editor that can easily run those long codes that you spent your sprints on.

The application allows you to perform the following functions straight from the application. These functions are integrations with other technologies like Docker, Grunt, Vagrant, PhoneGap, and many others like them.

You can also perform unit testing for all your quality assurance processes, debugging to make your code error-free and code refactoring.

This application is available to be used by Windows, Linux, and Mac device owners from all over the world.

Key Features

• A lot of contemporary color schemes
• Easily integrates into the desktop environment
• Multi-Language Editor
• Native Unicode support and Unicode compatibility checking
• Track Changes
• Multiple selections
• Quick bookmarks
• Smart language detection
• Split view and multi-window
• Variable highlighting
• Symbol browser
• Autocomplete and call tips
• Soft characters and matching braces

Pricing

• A free trial is available

Conclusion

Best Code Editor 2015 Free

There you have it; these are the 9 best code editors available right now. They are free to download and use. They are designed and loaded with the best functionalities that developers need regularly.

Of course, our standard of a “best” free/ paid code editor may not be the same as yours. If you have a favorite software that wasn’t on this list, feel free to share your input through the comments section below. We will add that program for you in a follow-up extension write-up.

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