The Top 5 Text Editors for Coders

Let’s start with Notepad++, the more advanced sibling of Notepad. You’ve probably used or at least heard of Notepad, it’s a staple software that comes pre-installed on all Windows machines. Notepad++ is old, it has stood the test of time and continues to be a popular choice amongst writers and developers.

I like Notepad++, it combines the simple interface of Notepad with the advanced features required to get a developer’s job done. Notepad++ is free, but only available on Windows.

Sublime Text

If you could sum up Sublime Text with one word, it would be versatility. Sublime Text is a common favourite amongst developers due to the sheer number of easily accessible features. There are so many plugins and add-ons available, it’s hard to imagine a situation where Sublime Text couldn’t cater to its user’s needs.

Sublime Text is a powerful, user-friendly text editor with a clean and clear interface. Best of all, this is a cross-platform software, meaning it’s available to everyone, regardless of their operating system! Interestingly, Sublime Text is what’s known as ‘evaluation’ software, which means it’s free to try, but there is no time limit on how long you can try it for. Full licenses are also available.

Atom

Atom is a modern text editor that labels itself as a text editor “for the 21st century”. Atom is relatively new, but has already earned its place amongst our list of the top 5 most popular text editors. Atom is fully hackable, and with enough know-how, a user can alter the look of the interface and even add major features.

This is truly a beautifully designed piece of software with the potential to become one of the best and most powerful text editors on the market. Available on OS X, Windows, or Linux, this is a text editor that can only continue to grow in popularity.

Brackets

Brackets is a new, lightweight text editor. Don’t let the lightweight part fool you though, Brackets is a very powerful text editor. Perhaps the most notable feature that Brackets has to offer is ‘Live Preview’, which is one of the biggest draws for Bracket users. This allows the user to make a real-time connection to their browser so that they can see live changes on screen. Ask any Web Developer and they will tell you just how useful this feature can be.

Brackets is free to use and is supported by most operating systems.

CodeKit

It is almost unfair to mention CodeKit on this list as it is so much more than just a text editor, it is better defined as a ‘code manager’. Nevertheless, it still gets a mention on our list because of how popular it is within the web development community.

There is one big drawback though, it can only be used on Mac, and if you’re a die-hard Windows fan like me, this presents quite the problem. It is a phenomenal piece of software though, enabling the user to compile pretty much every coding language out there, thus saving a great deal of time.

Just as with Bracket, you can see a live preview of your work in your browser, on any device! In short, CodeKit can dramatically speed up the process of creating code, therefore lessening the workload of a Programmer or Developer. If you like the look of CodeKit but don’t own a Mac, we recommend you take a look at Prepros https://prepros.io/.

Conclusion

If you didn’t read any of the above and just scrolled down to see the conclusion, (don’t worry, I’m not mad, we’ve all done that) then I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. Using a code editor is subjective, the best text editor that’s best for you really depends on your needs as a writer/developer/programmer.

On a personal level, my favourite and go-to text editor is Sublime Text, simply because it’s a great all-rounder, jam-packed full of features. It is probably the most popular editor on the market and for that reason, it is very well supported.

The only way to find out for sure which you should use is to try them and see which suits you the best! Good luck!