Comparison of text editors

This article provides basic comparisons for common text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.

Feature comparisons are made between stable versions of software, not the upcoming versions or beta releases – and are exclusive of any add-ons, extensions or external programs (unless specified in footnotes).

Overview

List of text editors
Name	Creator	First public release	Latest stable version	Programming language	Cost (US$)	Software license	Open source
Acme	Rob Pike	1993	Plan 9 and Inferno	C	Free	LPL (OSI approved)	Yes
AkelPad	Alexey Kuznetsov, Alexander Shengalts	2003	4.9.7	C	Free	BSD	Yes
Alphatk	Vince Darley	1999	8.3.3		$40	Proprietary, with BSD components	No
Aquamacs	David Reitter	2005	3.2	C, Emacs Lisp	Free	GPL	Yes
Atom	GitHub	2014	1.11.1	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++	Free	MIT	Yes
BBEdit	Rich Siegel	1992-04	11	Objective-C, Objective-C++	$49.99	Proprietary	No
Bluefish	Bluefish Development Team	1999	2.2.9	C	Free	GPL	Yes
Brackets	Adobe Systems	2012	1.8	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++	Free	MIT	Yes
Coda	Panic	2007	2.0.12	Objective-C	$99	Proprietary	No
ConTEXT	ConTEXT Project Ltd	1999	0.98.6	Object Pascal (Delphi)	Free	BSD	Yes
Crimson Editor	Ingyu Kang, Emerald Editor Team	1999	3.72	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
Diakonos	Pistos	2004	0.9.4	Ruby	Free	MIT	Yes
E Text Editor	Alexander Stigsen	2005	2.0.2		$46.95	Proprietary, with BSD components	No
ed	Ken Thompson	1970	unchanged from original	C	Free	?	Yes
EditPlus	Sangil Kim	1998	3.80 (build 961)	C++	$35	Shareware	No
Editra	Cody Precord	2007	0.7.20	Python	Free	wxWindows license	Yes
EmEditor	Emurasoft, Inc.	1997	15.7.2		$39.99 1-user	Shareware	No
epsilon	Lugaru Software	1984	13.06	C	$250	Proprietary	No
gedit	GNU Project	2000	3.20.2	C	Free	GPL	Yes
Geany	Enrico Tröger	2005	1.27	C, GTK2	Free	GPL	Yes
GNU Emacs	Richard Stallman	1984	24.5	C, Emacs Lisp	Free	GPL	Yes
Gobby	0x539 dev group	2005	0.4.12	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
JED	John E. Davis	1992	0.99-19	C	Free	GPL	Yes
jEdit	Slava Pestov	1998 (?)	5.3.0	Java	Free	GPL	Yes
JOE	Joseph Allen	1988	4.1	C	Free	GPL	Yes
JOVE	Johnathon Payne	1983	4.16	C	Free	GPL	Yes
Kate	KDE Project	2000-12	3.11.1	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
KEDIT	Mansfield Software Group, Inc.	1983	1.6		$129	Proprietary	No
Komodo Edit	Activestate	open-sourced 2007	9.3.2	Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby	Free	MPL, GPL, LGPL	Yes
Komodo IDE	Activestate	2001	9.3.2	Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby	$295	Proprietary	No
KWrite	KDE Project	2000	4.11.1	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
LE	Alexander V. Lukyanov	1997	1.14.5	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
Leo	Edward K. Ream	1996	4.11	Python	Free	MIT	Yes
Light Table	Chris Granger	2012	0.7	ClojureScript	Free	MIT	Yes
Metapad	Alexander Davidson	1999	3.6	C	Free	GPL	Yes
mg	Dave Conroy	1986	current	C	Free	Public domain	Yes
MinEd	Thomas Wolff	1992	2014.24	C	Free	GPL	Yes
MS-DOS Editor	Microsoft	1991	2.0.026		Bundled with MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows	Proprietary	No
Nano	Chris Allegretta	1999	2.6.3	C	Free	GPL	Yes
ne	Sebastiano Vigna, Todd Lewis, Daniele Filaretti	1993	2.6	C	Free	GPL	Yes
NEdit	Mark Edel	1991	5.5	C	Free	GPL	Yes
Notepad	Microsoft	1985	6.0	MASM (originally)	Bundled with Microsoft Windows	Proprietary	No
Notepad++	Don Ho	2003-11-25	7	C++	Free	GPL	Yes
Notepad2	Florian Balmer	2004-04	4.2.25	C++	Free	BSD	Yes
NoteTab	Eric Fookes, Fookes Software	1995	7.1	Object Pascal (Delphi)	Free, $10 Standard, $20 Pro	Proprietary	No
nvi	Keith Bostic	?	1.79	C	Free	BSD	Yes
Peppermint	Ioannis Zafeiropoulos	2014	1.4	Objective-C, JavaScript	$14.99	Proprietary	No
Pico	University of Washington	1992	4.64	C	Free	AL2	Yes
PolyEdit	PolySoft Solutions	1998	5.0 preview release		$27.95	Shareware	No
Programmer's Notepad	Simon Steele	1998	2.3	C++	Free	BSD	Yes
PSPad	Jan Fiala	2002	4.6.1	Object Pascal (Delphi)	Free	Proprietary	No
Q10	Baara Estudio	2007	1.2.21	?	Free	Proprietary	No
RJ TextEd	Rickard Johansson	2004	8.42	Object Pascal (Delphi)	Free	Proprietary	No
RText	Fifesoft	2003	1.1.0	Java	Free	BSD	Yes
Sam	Rob Pike	early 1980s	stable	C	Free	LPL (OSI approved)	Yes
SciTE	Neil Hodgson	1999	3.6.4	C++	$41.99 for OS X. free for others	HPND	Yes
SlickEdit	SlickEdit, Inc.	1988	19.0.0	C, Slick-C	$299	Proprietary	No
Smultron	Peter Borg	2004	3.8	Objective-C	$5	Proprietary	No
Source Insight	Source Dynamics	?	3.50.0072	Source Insight macro language	$239-$255	Proprietary	No
SubEthaEdit	TheCodingMonkeys	2003	3.5.2 (3294)		$35 commercial use	Proprietary	No
Sublime Text	Jon Skinner	2008	2.0.2	C++, Objective-C++ (OS X version), Python	$70	Proprietary	No
TED Notepad	Juraj Simlovic	2001	5.4.2	C	Free	Freeware	No
Textadept	Mitchell	2007	7.5	C, Lua	Free	MIT	Yes
TextEdit	Apple Inc.	2001	1.11		Free (also bundled with OS X)	New BSD	Yes
TextMate	MacroMates	2004-10-10	1.5.11	Objective-C++	$53 (€39)	Proprietary, with MIT components. Version 2 released under GPLv3	Yes (from version 2)
TextPad	Helios Software Solutions	1992	8.0.1		$30.00 (£16.50)	Shareware	No
TextWrangler	Bare Bones Software	2003	4.5.5		Free	Proprietary	No
The SemWare Editor	Sammy Mitchell	1985-11	4.4	C, SAL	$99	Proprietary	No
Tincta	Mr. Fridge Software	2011	2.0	Objective-C	Free	Proprietary	No
UltraEdit	IDM Computer Solutions	1994	23.00	C++	$79.95	Proprietary	No
VEDIT	Ted Green, Greenview Data	1980	6.21	Assembly, C	$89 standard, $239 Pro64	Proprietary	No
vi	Bill Joy	1976	3.7	C	Free	BSD or CDDL	Yes
Vim	Bram Moolenaar	1991	8.0.0022	C, Vim script	Free	GPL compatible	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Microsoft	2015	1.6.1	JavaScript, C#, C++, JSON, HTML, PHP, Python, Markdown, TypeScript, CSS	Free	MIT	Yes
Xeditor	appsoft Technologies GmbH	2013	2	Webbased, JavaScript	starts at $3250	Proprietary	No
XEmacs	Lucid Inc.	1991	21.4.22	C, Emacs Lisp	Free	GPL	Yes
Yi	Don Stewart	2005	0.8.1	Haskell	Free	GPL	Yes

Operating system support

This section lists the operating systems that different editors can run on. Some editors run on additional operating systems that are not listed.

Cross-platform

Text editor support for various operating systems
	Windows	OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	OpenVMS
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
AkelPad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Aquamacs	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Atom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[1]	No	No
Arachnophilia	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
BBEdit	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Brackets	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Coda	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
ConTEXT	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Diakonos	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EditPlus	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Editra	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
EmEditor	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
epsilon	Yes	Yes^[2]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Geany	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	Yes^[3]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
JED	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
JOE	Partial^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
JOVE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
KEDIT	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Kod	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
LE	Partial^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Light Table	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Metapad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
mg	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
MinEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nano	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ne	Partial^[4]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
NEdit	Partial^[4]	Yes^[5]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad2	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
NoteTab	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
nvi	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Peppermint	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Pico	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Programmer's Notepad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
PSPad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Q10	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
RJ TextEd	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
RText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Sam	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SciTE	Yes	Yes^[5]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Smultron	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Source Insight	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
SubEthaEdit	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
TED Notepad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Textadept	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
TextEdit	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
TextMate	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
TextPad	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
TextWrangler	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
The SemWare Editor	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Tincta	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Ulysses (text editor)	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
vi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Xeditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yi	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Natural language (localization)

Available languages for the UI
Text Editor	Languages supported
Acme	English
AkelPad	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Alphatk	English
Aquamacs	English
Atom	English
BBEdit	English
Brackets	English, German, French, Polish(Outdated), Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish(Outdated)
Coda	English
ConTEXT	English, German, French, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Crimson Editor	English
Diakonos	English
E Text Editor	English
ed
EditPlus	English, Korean
Editra	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
EmEditor	English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish
epsilon	English
Geany	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
gedit	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
GNU Emacs	English
Gobby	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
JED	English
jEdit	English
JOE^[6]	English, German, French
JOVE	English
Kate^[7]	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
KEDIT	English
Komodo Edit	English
KWrite	English, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish
Metapad^[8]	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
mined	English
MS-DOS Editor	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Nano	English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese
NEdit	English
Notepad	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
Notepad++	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
Notepad2	English, German, French, Polish, Spanish, Swedish
NoteTab	English
nvi	English
Peppermint	English
Pico	English, Italian
PolyEdit	English
Programmer's Notepad	English, German, Spanish
PSPad	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Q10	English, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
RJ TextEd	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
RText	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
SciTE^[9]	English, German, French (Outdated (1.72)), Polish, Japanese (Outdated (1.62)), Italian, Dutch (Outdated (1.67)), Portuguese (Outdated (1.63)), Spanish, Swedish
SlickEdit	English
Smultron	English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish
Source Insight	English
SubEthaEdit	English
SublimeText	English
TED Notepad	English
TextEdit	English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
TextMate	English
TextPad	English, German, French, Polish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Japanese, Italian(Outdated (4.7.3)), Dutch (Outdated (4.7.3)), Spanish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Portuguese (Outdated (4.7.3))
TextWrangler	English
The SemWare Editor	English
Tincta	English
UltraEdit	English, German, French, Korean, Italian, Spanish
VEDIT	English
vi	English
Vim	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Afrikaans, Catalan, Czekh, Esperanto, Finnish, Irish, Norwegian, Dutch, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Chinese
Visual Studio Code	English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Chinese
Xeditor	English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
XEmacs	English
Yi	English

Document interface

Text editor support for common document interfaces
	Multiple instances	Single document window splitting	MDI: overlappable windows	MDI: tabbed document interface	MDI: window splitting
Acme	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
AkelPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Atom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Brackets	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diakonos	Yes	No	No	No	No
E Text Editor	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
ed	Yes	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editra	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?
EmEditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geany	Yes	Plug-in	No	Yes	No
gedit	Yes	Plug-in^[10]	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[11]
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[12]^[13]	Yes
Gobby	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
JED	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes	Yes	No	No^[14]	Yes
JOVE	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	No	No	Yes	No	No
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	No	No	No	No
LE	Yes	No	No	No	No
Light Table	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Metapad	Yes	No	No	No	No
mined	Yes	No	No^[15]	Yes	No
MS-DOS Editor	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Nano	Yes	No	No	No	No
NEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Notepad	Yes	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	2 windows
Notepad2	Yes	No	No	No	No
NoteTab	Yes	?	No	Yes	2 windows
nvi	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Pico	Yes	No	No	No	No
PolyEdit	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Programmer's Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q10	No	No	No	No	No
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RText	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
SciTE	Yes	No	No	Yes^[16]	No
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Source Insight	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	?	?	?	No	?
TextEdit	Yes	No	No	No	No
TextMate	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
vi	Yes	No	No	No	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes^[17]	Yes^[18]	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Xeditor	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Multiple instances	Single document window splitting	MDI: overlappable windows	MDI: tabbed document interface	MDI: window splitting

Notes

Multiple instances: multiple instances of the program can be opened simultaneously for editing multiple files. Applies both for single document interface (SDI) and multiple document interface (MDI) programs. Also applies for program that has a user interface that looks like multiple instances of the same program (such as some versions of Microsoft Word).
Single document window splitting: window can be split to simultaneously view different areas of a file.
MDI: Overlappable windows: each opened document gets its own fully movable window inside the editor environment.
MDI: Tabbed document interface: multiple documents can be viewed as tabs in a single window.
MDI: Window splitting: splitting application window to show multiple documents (non-overlapping windows).

Basic features

Text editor support for basic editing features
	Spell checking	Regex-based find & replace	Encoding conversion	Newline conversion	Multiple undo/redo	Rectangular block selection
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
AkelPad	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Atom	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Brackets	Plug-in	Yes	Plug-in	No	Yes	Yes
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	No	Partial^[19]	Partial^[20]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Crimson Editor	Instant/live (like Firefox)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diakonos	Yes^[21]	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
E Text Editor	Plug-in^[22]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ed	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editra	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Yes
EmEditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geany	Plug-in^[23]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes^[24]	Plug-in^[25]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[26]
GNU Emacs	Plug-in^[27]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	No	No	Partial	Partial	No	No
JED	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Plug-in^[28]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE	Plug-in^[29]	Partial^[30]	No^[31]	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOVE	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
LE	No	Yes	No^[32]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light Table	Plug-in^[33]	?	No	No	Yes	?
Metapad	Partial^[34]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
mg	No	Yes^[35]	No	Partial	Yes^[35]	No
MinEd	No	Yes^[36]	Yes^[36]	Yes^[37]	No	Yes
MS-DOS Editor	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Nano	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
	Spell checking	Regex-based find & replace	Encoding conversion	Newline conversion	Multiple undo/redo	Rectangular block selection
ne	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
NEdit	Plug-in^[38]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad	No	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Yes^[39]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	No	Limited^[40]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NoteTab	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	?
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pico	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
PolyEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Programmer's Notepad	No	Yes	Yes^[41]	Yes^[41]	Yes	Yes
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q10	Yes	?	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SciTE	No	Limited^[40]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Source Insight	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[42]
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
TextEdit	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tincta	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Limited^[43]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes^[44]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
vi	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Vim	Yes^[45]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Xeditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Plug-in^[27]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yi	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
	Spell checking	Regex-based find & replace	Encoding conversion	Newline conversion	Multiple undo/redo	Rectangular block selection

Programming features

Text editor support for programming features (see source code editor)
	Syntax highlighting	Function list	Symbol database (ctags or equiv.)	Brace matching	Auto indentation	Auto completion	Code folding	Text folding	Compiler integration
Acme	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
AkelPad	Plug-in	Plug-in	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	No	Plug-in
Alphatk	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Atom	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes^[46]
Brackets	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
ConTEXT	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Crimson Editor	Yes	No	Partial^[47]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Diakonos	Yes	?	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
E Text Editor	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ed	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	Yes^[48]	Partial^[47]	Yes	Yes	Yes^[49]	Yes	No	Yes
Editra	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	?
EmEditor	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[50]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geany	Yes	Yes	Yes^[51]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	No	Yes
gedit	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Plug-in	No	Plug-in^[52]	Yes^[53]
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
JED	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
JOE	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	No	Yes
JOVE	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Kate	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
KEDIT	Yes	?	Macro	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
LE	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No^[54]
Light Table	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Partial^[55]
Metapad	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
mined	Yes^[56]	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
MS-DOS Editor	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nano	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
	Syntax highlighting	Function list	Symbol database (ctags or equiv.)	Bracket matching	Auto indentation	Auto completion	Code folding	Text folding	Compiler integration
ne	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
NEdit	Yes	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in	No	No	Yes
Notepad	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes^[57]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
NoteTab	Partial^[58]	?	?	No	?	Yes	?	?	Yes
nvi	No	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pico	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PolyEdit	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Programmer's Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[59]	Yes^[59]	Yes	Yes^[59]	No	Yes^[59]
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Q10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RText	Yes	Plug-in	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
SciTE	Yes	No^[60]	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Source Insight	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Limited
SubEthaEdit	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[61]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	No	?	?	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
TextEdit	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Plug-in	Yes	Yes	Yes^[62]	Yes	Yes	No
TextPad	Yes	No	Plug-in^[63]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[64]
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes	Plug-in^[65]	Yes	Yes	Yes^[66]	Partial^[67]	No	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Partial^[68]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[69]	No	No	Yes
vi	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Vim	Yes	Plug-in^[70]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes
Xeditor	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
XEmacs	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yi	Yes^[71]	No	Yes^[72]	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes
	Syntax highlighting	Function list	Symbol database (ctags or equiv.)	Bracket matching	Auto indentation	Auto completion	Code folding	Text folding	Compiler integration

Notes

Syntax highlighting: Displays text in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms.
Function list: Lists all functions from current file in a window or sidebar and allows user to jump directly to the definition of that function for example by double-clicking on the function name in the list. More or less realtime (does not require creating a symbol database, see below).
Symbol database: Database of functions, variable and type definitions, macro definitions etc. in all the files belonging to the software being developed. The database can be created by the editor itself or by an external program such as ctags. The database can be used to instantly locate the definition even if it is in another file.
Bracket matching: Find matching parenthesis or bracket, taking into account nesting.
Auto indentation: May refer to just simple indenting to the same level as the line above, or intelligent indenting that is language specific, e.g., ensuring a given indent style.
Compiler integration: Allows running compilers/linkers/debuggers from within editor, capturing the compiler output and stepping through errors, automatically moving cursor to corresponding location in the source file.

Extra features

Text editor support for other programming features
	Text shell integration	Graphical shell integration	Macro language	Collaborative editing	Large file support	Long line support	Multi-line regex support^[73]	Search in files
Acme	Yes	No	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	?
AkelPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	memory	Yes	Yes	Plug-in
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes^[74]	No	?	?	?	?
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	memory	?	Yes	?
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes^[75]	No	memory^[76]	?	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	No	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
Brackets	Yes	Yes	Extensible	No	No	?	Partial	Yes
Coda	Yes	No	Yes^[77]	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	No	Yes	Yes	No	memory^[78]	?	No	?
Crimson Editor	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	No	?
Diakonos	No	No	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	?
E Text Editor	Yes	Yes	No^[79]	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?
ed	No	No	No	No	?	?	?	Yes
EditPlus	?	Yes	Yes	No	memory	?	Yes	Yes
Editra	?	?	?	?	2 GB	?	?	?
EmEditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Geany	Yes	?	Plug-in	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	Yes	Yes^[80]	Plug-in	No	?	No	No
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	2 EB on 64-bit OS^[81]^[82]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	?	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	No	?
JED	Yes	No	Yes	No	memory^[83]	?	?	?
jEdit	Yes	No	Yes	No	No (heap)^[84]	?	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	Yes^[85]
JOVE	Yes	No	No	No	memory	?	No	No
Kate	Yes	Yes	No	No	No^[86]	?	Yes	Plug-in
KEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	?
Komodo Edit	?	?	Yes^[87]	No	?	?	Yes	Yes
Komodo IDE	?	?	Yes^[87]	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
KWrite	No	No	No	No	No^[86]	?	No	?
LE	Yes	No	No	No^[88]	memory^[89]	?	Yes	?
Light Table	No	Yes	No	No	?	?	No	Yes
Metapad	Yes	Yes	No	No	memory^[90]	?	No	No
mined	?	?	?	?	?	?	Yes	?
EDIT (MS-DOS)	No	No	No	No	No (64~300 KB)	No	No	No
EDIT (DR-DOS)	No	No	No	No	2 GB, for as long as there is disk swap space for two temporary files	Yes	No	No
Nano	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	?	?
	Text shell integration	Graphical shell integration	Macro language	Collaborative editing	Large file support	Long line support	Multi-line regex support	Search in files
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?
Notepad	Yes	Yes	No	No	memory	?	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	Yes	with plug-in	No^[91]	?	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	No	No	No	No	memory^[92]	?	No	?
NoteTab	?	?	Yes	?	No	?	Yes^[93]	?
nvi	Yes	No	No	?	?	?	?	?
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pico	?	?	?	No	?	?	?	?
PolyEdit	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	?	Yes	?
Programmer's Notepad	No	Yes	Yes^[80]	No	slow^[94]	?	Yes	Yes
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	memory^[95]	?	with plug-in	Yes
Q10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?
RText	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?
SciTE	?	?	Yes	No	No	?	No	Yes
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	2 TB	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Source Insight	?	?	Yes	No	?	?	No	?
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	Yes	?
TED Notepad	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	?
TextEdit	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	?	?	?
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	?
TextPad	No	Yes	Yes	No	memory^[96]	?	Yes	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	memory^[76]	?	Yes	?
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes Only in special DOS multi-user version	2 GB	Yes	?	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
vi	Yes	No	Yes	No	approx. 65 MB	?	Yes	Yes
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	with plug-in	memory^[97]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	on 64-bit OS^[81]	?	Yes	Yes
	Text shell integration	Graphical shell integration	Macro language	Collaborative editing	Large file support	Long line support	Multi-line regex support	Search in files

Large file support:

Yes	= Larger than 4 GB (LFS)	2 GB	= Larger than 1 GB, not limited by memory
memory	= Limited by available memory	No (64 KB)	= Some limit less than available memory (give max size if known)

In general, most text editors do not support large text files. Some restrict themselves to available in-core RAM while others use sophisticated virtual memory management techniques and paging algorithms.^[98]

Search in files: Perform search (and possibly replace) in multiple files on disk, for example on a sub-directory and recursively all the directories below it. Similar to grep.

Key bindings

Support for custom key bindings.

Text editor support for key bindings.
	Dynamically customizable	IBM CUA	OS X	Vi	Emacs	Pico	WordStar	WordPerfect	Brief
Acme	No	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
AkelPad	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Alphatk	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Aquamacs	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?
BBEdit^[99]^[100]	Yes	?	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	?
Bluefish	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?
Brackets	Yes	Partial	Yes	Plug-in	Plug-in	No	No	No	No
Coda	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?
ConTEXT	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Crimson Editor	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Diakonos	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
E Text Editor	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
ed	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Editra	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
EmEditor	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
epsilon	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	?	?	?	Yes
Geany	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
gedit	Yes^[101]	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[102]	Yes^[103]	Yes^[104]	Yes^[104]
Gobby	No	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
JED	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	Yes
jEdit	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	?
JOE^[105]	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
JOVE	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes^[106]	No	No
LE	Yes	?	?	No	?	?	?	?	?
Light Table	Yes	Partial	?	Plug-in	Plug-in	?	?	?	?
Kate	Yes	No	No	Yes^[107]	No	No	No	No	No
KEDIT	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
Komodo Edit	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?
Komodo IDE	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?
KWrite	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Metapad	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
mg	?	?	?	?	Yes	?	?	?	?
mined	?	?	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
MS-DOS Editor	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nano	Yes	No	?	?	Partial^[108]	Yes	No	?	?
NEdit	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Notepad	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Notepad2	No	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
NoteTab	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
nvi	?	?	?	Yes	?	?	?	?	?
Peppermint	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Pico	No	No	No	No	Partial^[108]	Yes	No	No	No
PolyEdit	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Programmer's Notepad	Partial	?	?	Partial^[109]	?	?	?	?	?
PSPad	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Q10	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
RText	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
SciTE	Partial^[110]	?	?	No	No	No	?	?	?
SlickEdit	Yes^[111]	Yes	Yes^[112]	Partial^[113]	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Smultron	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Source Insight	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?
SubEthaEdit	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Sublime Text	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?
TED Notepad	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
TextEdit	No	?	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	?
TextMate	?	?	Yes	No	No	No	?	?	?
TextPad	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
TextWrangler^[99]^[114]	Yes	?	Yes	No	Yes	No	?	?	?
The SemWare Editor	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
UltraEdit	Yes	?	No	?	?	?	?	?	?
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	No	No^[115]	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
vi	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Vim	Partial	Plug-in^[116]	^[117]	Yes^[118]	Partial^[119]	No	No	No	Plug-in^[120]
Visual Studio Code	Yes	?	Yes	Plug-in^[121]	Plug-in^[122]	?	?	?	?
XEmacs	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Partial^[102]	?	?	?
Yi	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	?
	Dynamically customizable	IBM CUA	OS X	Vi	Emacs	Pico	WordStar	WordPerfect	Brief

Notes, bugs

Vim: custom maps of Ctrl-1 .. Ctrl-9, Ctrl-0 cannot be set, nor is Control-Shift-<char> distinguished from Ctrl-<char>. References: unable to map ctrl-1 , How to map (say) Ctrl-Shift-B
Notepad++: custom shortcuts of Shift-<char> cannot be set, they need an added modifier such as Ctrl or Alt. i.e. SCI_LINESCROLLUP cannot be bound to "Shift-I" as the "Add" button is greyed out.
Programmer's Notepad: keybindings of Shift-<char> can be set, but a bug executes the command and inserts the literal character.
Emacs and Pico: pico uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc.

Protocol support

Support for editing files over a network or the internet.

Text editor support for remote file editing over Internet Protocols
	FTP	HTTP	SSH	WebDAV
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AkelPad	No	No	No	No
Alphatk	Yes	No	No	Yes
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[123]
BBEdit	Yes	No	Yes	No
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Brackets	Plug-in	No	No	No
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	^[124] No]	?	^[124] No]	?
Crimson Editor	Yes	No	No	No
Diakonos	No	No	No	No
E Text Editor	Yes	No	No	No
ed	No	No	No	No
EditPlus	Yes	No	No	No
Editra	?	?	?	?
EmEditor	No	No	No	No
Geany	No	No	No	No
gedit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	No	No	No	No
JED	No	No	No	No
jEdit	Plug-in^[125]	Yes^[126]	Plug-in^[125]	Plug-in.
JOE	No	No	No	No
JOVE	No	No	No	No
LE	No	No	No	No
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	No	No	No	No
Komodo IDE	FTP, FTPS, SFTP	No	Yes	No
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Metapad	No	No	No	No
mined	?	?	?	?
MS-DOS Editor	No	No	No	No
Nano	No	No	Yes	No
	FTP	HTTP	SSH	WebDAV
NEdit	No	No	No	No
Notepad	No	No	No	No
Notepad++	Plug-in for FTP, FTPS, FTPES, SFTP	No	Plug-in	No
Notepad2	No	No	No	No
NoteTab	^[127] No]	?	^[127] No]	?
nvi	No	No	No	No
Peppermint	Yes	No	Yes	No
Pico	No	No	No	No
PolyEdit	No	No	No	No
Programmer's Notepad	No	No	No	No
PSPad	Yes	No	No	No
Q10	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	FTP, SFTP]	No	Yes	No
RText	No	No	No	No
SciTE	No	No	No	No
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Smultron	Yes	?	?	?
Source Insight	No	No	No	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	No	No	No
TED Notepad	^[128] No]	?	^[128] No]	?
TextEdit	No	No	No	No
TextMate	Yes^[123]	No	No	No
TextPad	No	No	No	No
TextWrangler	{{Yes^[129] FTP,SFTP]}}	No	Yes	No
The SemWare Editor	No	No	No	No
UltraEdit	Yes	No	Yes	No
VEDIT	Yes	No	No	No
vi	No	No	No	No
Vim	Plug-in^[130]	Plug-in^[130]	Plug-in^[130]	Plug-in^[130]
Visual Studio Code	No	No	No	No
Xeditor	No	Yes	No	No
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Yi	No	No	No	No
	FTP	HTTP	SSH	WebDAV

Unicode and other character encodings

To support specified character encoding, the editor must be able to load, save, view and edit text in the specific encoding and not destroy any characters. For UTF-8 and UTF-16, this requires internal 16-bit character support.

Partial support is indicated if: 1) the editor can only convert the character encoding to internal (8-bit) format for editing. 2) If some encodings are supported only in some platforms. 3) If the editor can only display specific character set (such as OEM) by loading corresponding font, but does not support keyboard entry for that character set.

Text editor support for some of the most common character encodings
	ASCII	ISO-8859	DOS (OEM)	EBCDIC	UTF-8	UTF-16
Acme	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
AkelPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Brackets	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	Yes	Partial^[131]	No	No	No
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Partial^[131]	No	Partial	No
Diakonos	Yes	?	?	?	Partial	No
E Text Editor	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
ed	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
EditPlus	Yes	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Editra	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
EmEditor	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geany	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
JED	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	No
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
JOVE	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
LE	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
Kate	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	Yes	Yes	Partial^[131]	No	No	No
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Metapad	Yes	Yes	Partial^[131]	No	No	No
mined	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
MS-DOS Editor	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?
Nano	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
	ASCII	ISO-8859	DOS (OEM)	EBCDIC	UTF-8	UTF-16
NEdit	Yes	?	?	?	No	No
Notepad	Yes	Yes	Partial^[131]	No	Yes	Yes
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	No	Plug-in?	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
NoteTab	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Partial^[132]	Partial^[132]
nvi	Yes	?	?	?	Yes^[133]	No
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Pico	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
PolyEdit	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Programmer's Notepad	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Q10	?	?	?	?	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
RText	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[134]	Yes	Yes
SciTE^[135]	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
Source Insight	Yes	?	?	?	No	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[136]	Yes
TED Notepad	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
TextEdit	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes
TextPad	Yes	?	?	?	Partial^[137]	Partial^[137]
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes^[138]	Partial^[131]	Plug-in	No	No
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[139]	Partial^[139]
vi	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[140]	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
Xeditor	?	?	?	?	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes^[141]	Yes
Yi	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	No
	ASCII	ISO-8859	DOS (OEM)	EBCDIC	UTF-8	UTF-16

Right-to-left and bidirectional text

Support for Right-To-Left (RTL) texts is necessary for editing some languages like Arabic, Persian, Yiddish and Hebrew and the mixture of left to right (LTR) and RTL known as bi-directional (BiDi) support.

Depending on the algorithm used in the programs it might only render the bidirectional text correctly but may not be able to edit them. (e.g. Notepad++ 5.1.3 shows bidirectional texts correctly but cannot edit it and user should change the text direction to LTR to be able to edit RTL texts correctly.)

Right to left (RTL) & bidirectional (bidi) support
	Right-to-left (RTL)	Bi-directional (Bidi)
Acme	No	No
AkelPad	No	No
Alphatk	?	?
Aquamacs	?	?
Atom	No	No
BBEdit	No	No
Bluefish	Yes	Yes
Brackets	?	?
Coda	?	?
ConTEXT	?	?
Crimson Editor	?	?
Diakonos	?	?
E Text Editor	?	?
ed	?	?
EditPlus	No	No
Editra	?	?
EmEditor	No	No
Geany	?	?
gedit	Yes	Yes
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes
Gobby	?	?
JED	?	?
jEdit	No	No
JOE	?	?
JOVE	No	No
LE	?	?
Kate	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	No	No
Komodo Edit	No	No
Komodo IDE	No	No
KWrite	?	?
Metapad	?	?
MS-DOS Editor	?	?
mined	Yes^[142]	Yes^[142]
Nano	?	?
	RTL	Bidi
NEdit	?	?
Notepad	Yes	Yes
Notepad++	Yes	Yes^[143]
Notepad2	No	No
NoteTab	?	?
nvi	?	?
Peppermint	No	No
Pico	?	?
PolyEdit	?	?
Programmer's Notepad	No	No
PSPad	?	?
Q10	?	?
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes
RText	?	?
SciTE	No	No
SlickEdit	?	?
Smultron	?	?
Source Insight	No	No
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes
Sublime Text	No	No
TED Notepad	?	?
TextEdit	Yes	Yes
TextMate	No	No
TextPad	?	?
TextWrangler	No	No
The SemWare Editor	No	No
UltraEdit	No	No
VEDIT	?	?
vi	?	?
Vim	Yes	through terminal support
Visual Studio Code	No	No
Xeditor	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	?	?
Yi	?	?
	RTL	Bidi

Newline support

Support for newline characters in line endings
	Windows (CR/LF)	Unix & Mac OS X^[144] (LF)	Mac OS 9 (CR)
Acme	Yes	Yes	Yes
AkelPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alphatk	Yes	Yes	Yes
Aquamacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
BBEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluefish	Yes	Yes	Yes
Brackets	Yes	Yes	No
Coda	Yes	Yes	Yes
ConTEXT	Yes	Yes	Yes
Crimson Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes
Diakonos	?	Yes	?
E Text Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes
ed	No	Yes	No
EditPlus	Yes	Yes	Yes
Editra	Yes	Yes	Yes
EmEditor	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geany	Yes	Yes	Yes
gedit	Yes	Yes	Yes
GNU Emacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gobby	Yes	Yes	Yes
JED	Yes	Yes	Yes
jEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
JOE^[145]	Yes	Yes	No
JOVE	Yes	Yes	Yes
Kate	Yes	Yes	Yes
KEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes
Komodo Edit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Komodo IDE	Yes	Yes	Yes
KWrite	Yes	Yes	Yes
LE	Yes	Yes	No
Metapad	Yes	Yes	?
MS-DOS Editor	Yes	No	No
mined	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nano	Yes	Yes	Yes
NEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad	Yes	No	No
Notepad++	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notepad2	Yes	Yes	Yes
NoteTab	Yes	Yes	Yes
nvi	?	Yes	?
Peppermint	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pico	Yes	Yes	Yes
PolyEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Programmer's Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes
PSPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
Q10	Yes	Yes	Yes
RJ TextEd	Yes	Yes	Yes
RText	Yes	Yes	Yes
SciTE	Yes	Yes	Yes
SlickEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Smultron	Yes	Yes	Yes
Source Insight	Yes	Yes	Yes
SubEthaEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sublime Text	Yes	Yes	Yes
TED Notepad	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextMate	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextPad	Yes	Yes	Yes
TextWrangler	Yes	Yes	Yes
The SemWare Editor	Yes	Yes	Yes
UltraEdit	Yes	Yes	Yes
VEDIT	Yes	Yes	Yes
vi	No	Yes	No
Vim	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visual Studio Code	Yes	Yes	Yes
Xeditor	Yes	Yes	Yes
XEmacs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yi	?	Yes	?
	Windows (CR/LF)	Unix (including OS X) (LF)	Mac OS (CR)

Notes and references

↑ Some pre-built packages (deb and rpm)
↑ "Epsilon version 13".
↑ GEdit, when installed from MacPorts, runs in X11 and, therefore, does not have a native look and feel. However, precompiled native OS X binaries for GEdit may be downloaded from the GEdit project page, or from the GEdit FTP download server.
1 2 3 4 Requires Cygwin to run on Windows.
1 2 gedit, NEdit, and SciTE run in the X11 window environment, and therefore do not use the native Aqua look-and-feel when running on OS X.
↑ "JOE - Joe's own editor". JOE - Joe's own editor / Mercurial / [2e4f45] /po. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
↑ "KDE Localization - Apps » stable » kate.po".
↑ "Metapad language plugins".
↑ "SciTE in languages other than English".
↑ gedit supports single document window splitting via plug-ins. .
↑ gedit supports multiple document window splitting via plug-ins. .
↑ GNU Emacs can use a tabbed document interface in a non OS-native way, using the tabbar plug-in.
↑ GNU Emacs can support a tabbed document interface modelled after GNU Screen using the elscreen package.
↑ JOE supports editing multiple files but only seeing one of them, and switching to others via Ctrl+K+N, which is functionally equivalent to having tabs but no visible tab bar.
↑ mined supports Copy/Paste between multiple documents in separate windows, when these documents are in separate terminal windows
↑ SciTE has a maximum number of buffers, which can only be set as high as 100.
↑ Vim Provided GVim is used.
↑ Vim version 7 supports a tabbed document interface. Earlier versions can emulate tabs through scripts, for example TabBar.
↑ ConTEXT does not support regular expression backreferences in its search and replace function.
↑ ConTEXT only supports converting text to UTF-16. Also, it can only use one type of new-line format if converting to UTF-16.
↑ Diakonos supports spell checking by calling the external program aspell.
↑ e supports spell checking via a bundle command available at the e Bundles repository.
↑ Geany supports spell checking via a plug-in, but not for Windows at the moment.
↑ gedit supports spell checking via a plug-in, which is distributed with gedit.
↑ gedit supports Regex-based find & replace via plug-ins ().
↑ "Gedit/Plugins/ColumnMode - GNOME Wiki!".
1 2 Emacs supports spell checking via the external programs ispell, aspell, or Hunspell.
↑ jEdit supports spell checking via an external plug-in.
↑ JOE supports spell checking via the ispell or aspell external plug-ins.
↑ JOE uses a non-standard regular expression syntax.
↑ JOE can easily pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility; it detects locale settings and allows editing in any encoding set up by the environment.
↑ LE can pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility
↑ https://github.com/rschroll/lt-spelling
↑ Metapad spell checking by calling external program Aspell.
1 2 http://openbsd.su/src/usr.bin/mg/re_search.c
1 2 mined supports multiple lines in search and replacement expressions.
↑ mined supports new-line conversion via a command-line option or from the menu. Files with mixed newline types can be edited transparently; different kinds of new-line have different visual indications.
↑ NEdit supports spell checking via a plug-in
↑ Notepad++ 6.3.3 and above support spell checking via the DSpellCheck plug-in, which is included with the default package.
1 2 Scintilla-based editors such as SciTE, Notepad2 and Notepad++ do not support alternation (|) in regular expressions.
1 2 Programmer's Notepad 2.
↑ SubEthaEdit supports advanced block editing, including multi-line typing and non-contiguous block selections.
↑ UltraEdit uses the Boost C++ regex library. While Boost supports backreferences past \9 with \g{10}, UltraEdit has not yet implemented this feature.
↑ VEDIT 6.2 comes with Scribe spelling checker which has been written entirely in Vedit macro language. In addition, macro package for integrating Aspell can be downloaded here.
↑ Vim version 7 supports spell checking natively. Earlier versions require a script shown here.
↑ bluefish: Configurable via the outputbox feature.
1 2 With external tool OpenCTags
↑ editplus: Opens in a window, not really integrated.
↑ editplus: Enabled by editing the corresponding .acp file.
↑ EmEditor Professional supports Auto Complete via plug-ins (32-bit or 64-bit).
↑ Geany uses its own tags file format, not compatible with ctags, see the manual.
↑ gedit-folding: Folding plug-in for Gedit
↑ gedit: Compiler integration: Functionality in plug-ins installed with gedit.
↑ make can be launched from the LE text editor, but the output is not captured
↑ Evaluates expressions in some dynamic languages such as Clojure, Python and Javascript in realtime
↑ mined: Syntax highlighting: HTML/XML, Javascript, JSP.
↑ Notepad++: Auto complete: Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
↑ NoteTab: Syntax highlighting only for html documents and NoteTab clip/scripts.
1 2 3 4 Programmer's Notepad 2
↑ Function list (and stuff) available in Ru-Board build, ver 1.79.66Ru and later
↑ Available from an add-on ()
↑ TextMate: Auto complete: Supported language bundles
↑ Textpad uses an add-on ()
↑ TextWrangler can integrate with a compiler if you write a shell script that takes flag input of the code and compiles it. You place this in ~/Library/Application Support/TextWrangler/Unix Support/Unix Filters/. It should show in the #! menu.
↑ TSE uses a macro
↑ The Semware Editor: Auto complete: Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
↑ The Semware Editor: Text folding: Compressed view possible.
↑ Not in the Linux version.
↑ Vedit: Auto complete: Template editing, plus 3rd party macro for expanding symbols from tags database.
↑ Vim has a popular TagList plug-in that provides a function list.
↑ unlike most editors that use regexps or ad hoc parsing, Yi" uses an algorithm of incremental parsing to dynamically update the syntax highlighiting
↑ currently supports only haskell with hasktags -c
↑ Multi-line regex support Support for expressions spanning several lines (e.g. "\n\n(.+)\n\n")
↑ Alpha Macro support via AppleScript, Tcl or text factories.
↑ BBEdit Macro support via AppleScript, Perl, Python, Lasso, shell scripts or text factories.
1 2 BBEdit and TextWrangler are technically capable of any size file, but limited practically by RAM and OS X limitation to files = 384mb. Cf. BBEdit FAQ Entry 36.
↑ Coda offers macros via AppleScript, text "clips," or plug-ins (Cocoa apps or any installed scripting language).
↑ ConTEXT claims Large File Support but load time is proportional to file size and a 1 GB file gave an Out of Memory error.
↑ e Macro support via Cygwin and languages like Ruby, Python, or Perl.
1 2 Cssed Macro support via Python.
1 2 Emacs: 64-bit compilation on 64-bit OS can handle 2 GB files, otherwise the limit is 512 MiB.
↑ "Buffers". A buffer’s size cannot be larger than some maximum, which is defined by the largest buffer position representable by Emacs integers. This is because Emacs tracks buffer positions using that data type. For typical 64-bit machines, this maximum buffer size is 2^{61} - 2 bytes, or about 2 EiB. For typical 32-bit machines, the maximum is usually 2^{29} - 2 bytes, or about 512 MiB. Buffer sizes are also limited by the amount of memory in the system.
↑ "The JED Editor" (PDF).
↑ jEdit: Limited by Java heap size. jedit-users forum
↑ "JOE - Joe's Own Editor". JOE - Joe's own editor / Mercurial / [2e4f45] /docs/man.md. Retrieved 23 October 2015. The search covers all loaded buffers.
1 2 kwrite-devel, Large Files open slowly due to futile Syntax-Highlighting
1 2 "Macros".
↑ LE text editor locks the file and warns if someone else has changed the file
↑ LE text editor can view and edit large files or their parts in mmap-shared mode
↑ metapad FAQ, Loading Large Files
↑ "Question Defense, Windows: File Is To Big To Be Opened By NotePad++, Use Wordpad As Alternative".
↑ "Notepad2 -- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)".
↑ NoteTab: Standard and Pro versions only.
↑ Programmer's Notepad LFS, but not optimized. Editing is too slow to be useful.
↑ "PSPad Forum".
↑ "mozillaZine: Edit large mbox files".
↑ 2GB with 32 Bits, on a 64 Bit system it depends on the available virtual memory.
↑ Comparison of Windows Text Editors for Large Files: Text editors for large files
1 2 "Bare Bones Software | BBEdit Comparison Chart".
↑ "Bare Bones Software | Features (BBEdit)".
↑ It is possible to customize all Gedit shortcuts because it is Gtk based.
1 2 pico uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc. See Pico: A Unix text editor retrieved 2012-01-09.
↑ GNU Emacs comes with Wordstar emulation, with the command M-x wordstar-mode, as found in the latest download from GNU Project Archives retrieved 2012-01-09. Found in file ws-mode.el ZZ see also the "Emulation" section of the GNU Emacs manual.
1 2 https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Emulation.html
↑ "JOE - Joe's Own Editor". JOE - Joe's own editor / Mercurial / [2e4f45] /docs/man.md. Retrieved 23 October 2015. JOE also emulates several other editors. JSTAR is a close imitation of WordStar […]. JPICO is a close imitation of the Pine mailing system's PICO editor […]. JMACS is a GNU-EMACS imitation. […] Key binding tables are defined. You can define as many as you like […].
↑ "Usenet - megalextoria".
↑ Kate supports an optional VI Input Mode.
1 2 pico (and nano) uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc. See Pico: A Unix text editor retrieved 2012-01-09.
↑ Programmer's Notepad: Partial VI key bindings supported via PyPN plug-in and Command Mode.
↑ In SciTE, custom keystrokes may be assigned to Lua scripts, external programs or lexers (highlighters).
↑ SlickEdit provides emulation of VisualStudio, Visual C++ 6, CodeWright, Epsilon and ISPF key bindings in addition to those given in the table.
↑ SlickEdit supports CodeWarrior, Xcode and BBEdit key binding emulation.
↑ SlickEdit includes support of vi key bindings, the ex command line and some, but not all Vim extensions.
↑ "Bare Bones Software | Features (TextWrangler".
↑ Vedit: Old Unix and QNX versions could emulate Vi 100%. Windows version doesn't come with vi emulation.
↑ cua-mode.vim
↑ ViFinder
↑ Vim emulates vi keys fully when in 'compatible' mode
↑ Vim With a script such as Vimacs
↑ brief.vim
↑ Vim emulation for Visual Studio Code
↑ Basic Emacs keybindings for VS Code
1 2 Aquamacs Supported via a OS X mounted volume.
1 2
1 2 jEdit FTP and SFTP are supported via the FTP plug-in.
↑ jEdit: "HTTP is supported natively"
1 2
1 2
↑ |
1 2 3 4 Vim Supported via netrw plug-in distributed in the standard Vim installation.
1 2 3 4 5 6 when choosing e.g. Terminal font
1 2 Although NoteTab is not a native Unicode editor, you can open, edit, convert, and save such files reliably as long as all the text fits within a single ANSI code page supported by Windows.
↑ nvi Gentoo
↑ RText supports EBCDIC n z/OS and anywhere with a JVM that supports it
↑ SciTE can open files in UTF or one single-byte encoding specified in a configuration file.
↑ Sublime supports Unicode editor but you can not open and edit some the language. e.g. Bangla, Thai https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/663
1 2 TextPad can load and save UTF-8 and UTF-16 text files, but cannot use or even preserve characters outside of the system encoding.
↑ when choosing e.g. New Courier font
1 2 Vedit can convert UTF-8 and UTF-16 files to Windows character set and back. Characters not included in Windows charset can be preserved.
↑ Vim supports EBCDIC when compiled on a system that uses the EBCDIC character set.
↑ from version 21.5.29
1 2 mined: supports bidi in cooperation with bidi terminal (mlterm, mintty); also supports "poor man's bidi mode" (automatic visual text order right-to-left input) in normal terminal
↑ Notepadpp: Scintilla (Notepad++'s Engine) does not really support bidirectional editing. https://sourceforge.net/p/scintilla/bugs/757/#01c9
↑ "Did Mac OS Lion switch to using line feeds (LF '\n') for line breaks instead of carriage returns (CR '\r')?".
↑ "JOE - Joe's Own Editor". JOE - Joe's own editor / Mercurial / [2e4f45] /docs/man.md. Retrieved 23 October 2015. character sets must use LF (0x0A) or CR-LF (0x0D - 0x0A) as line terminators […]. […] character sets which use CR terminated lines (MACs) will not yet work.

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Comparison of text editors

Overview

Operating system support

Cross-platform

Natural language (localization)

Document interface

Notes

Basic features

Programming features

Notes

Extra features

Key bindings

Notes, bugs

Protocol support

Unicode and other character encodings

Right-to-left and bidirectional text

Newline support

See also

Notes and references