Whether you’re a seasoned programmer, or a beginner trying to code your first piece of software, a good text editor is one of the most important things you’ll need on your Mac. Thankfully there are a lot of free text editors as well as great paid text editors out there. To save our readers from the time consuming (and often confusing) task of choosing the right text editor for their use, we’ve picked out the 12 best text editors for Mac that are actually worthy of attention in 2020. Note that while all the Mac text editors mentioned on this list are great, you should choose the one that fits your needs. So, without further ado, let’s check out the list, shall we?
In this article, we are focusing on the best text editors for coding but if you are looking for a text editor for your writing purposes, you can check out our article on the best writing apps for Mac.
1. Sublime Text 3
Sublime Text is probably one of the most famous text editors available for Mac and for all the right reasons. The software brings a ton of features including syntax highlighting and folding, a high level of customizability, easy to navigate interface, multiple selections, powerful API and package ecosystem, and more. One of the best features of Sublime Text 3 is the “Goto Anything” feature. As it names suggests, the feature allows you to instantly jump to symbols, lines, or words that you are looking for, and can be activated simply by hitting the keyboard shortcut ⌘P.
Pros:
Cons:
Download: (Free Trial, $80)
If you want a text editor which is as capable as Sublime Text but doesn’t cost a penny, then Atom is for you. Developed by the same minds which are behind the popular SVC service GitHub, Atom is an open-source software which is both modern and approachable and yet hackable to its core. Atom is built on HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js integration and it runs on Electron. Although the software is already feature rich, if you want more features, you can install any of its thousands of open-source packages to add new features and functionality.
Atom is also highly customizable. If you want, you can change almost everything about it. You can install different themes to change its look and feel, you can tweak the UI with CSS, and even add major features which fit your workflow using HTML and JavaScript. Atom allows you to create a working environment which complements your workflow and that is its biggest power. Also, it is completely free to download and use with no restrictions.
Download: (Free)
Another popular text editor for Mac is Brackets which mainly focuses on web design. Brackets is a better option for front-end developers and web designers than the ones mentioned above. While this text editor has been designed by Adobe, which is famous for its subscription pricing model, Brackets is a completely free text editor. Adobe has developed Brackets as an open-source project which is supported by its active and passionate community. One of the best features of Brackets is the “Live Preview” feature which allows users to see any changes that they make to the CSS and HTML of the code reflected live in a Chrome window. This feature allows developers to keep an eye on their code and stops them from making any drastic mistakes.
Download: (Free)
4. BBEdit 13
BBEdit is developed by Bare Bones software and is probably one of the oldest and most reliable text editors you can find on Mac. Not only BBEdit is used by thousands of developers out there but it is also used by many writers as the software provides features for editing, searching, and manipulation of prose, source code, and textual data. Some of the biggest features of BBEdit include built-in tools for text manipulations, Hard Wrap, customizable syntax coloring support for over two dozen built-in languages, placeholder options for easier site maintenance, multiple files manipulations, complete set of HTML Tools for fast, easy, and correct markup, extensive file handling capabilities, and more.
Cons:
- A little pricey
Download: (Free Trial, $49.99) / (Get it from the Mac App Store – $3.99/month)
UltraEdit is one of the best and most versatile text editors for Mac out there. For starters, UltraEdit supports a ton of different languages including C, Objective C, Javascript, XML, PHP, Perl, Python, and more. Just like BBEdit, UltraEdit has been around since ages and is celebrating its 25 year’s anniversary this year. So reliability is not a concern here. The software brings tons of features including and not limited to themes support, support for large files (>4GB), syntax highlighting for multiple languages, multi-caret editing, multi-selection capabilities, a very robust search, integrated FTP, support for 4K and Apple Retina display, and more.
- Supports most languages
- Handles large files very well
- Reliable and regularly updated
- Fast and easy to use
Download: (Free Trial, $99.95 – comes with UltraCompare)
Note: Panic, the company behind Coda 2, is creating a new text editor called Nova. Once Nova is officially released, Coda 2 users can seamlessly move to using it. Nova is basically a re-branded Coda 2 with enough new features to justify the brand change. You can sign up to test Nova here.
Download: (Free Trial, $99)
Although developed by Apple’s arch-rival Microsoft, Visual Studio Code is one of the best text editors that you can get for your Mac. The text editor is packed with features and has been optimized for Mac in such a way that you don’t feel any performance difference from its Windows counterpart. The main features of Visual Studio Code include the ability to highlight syntax for more than 30 different languages, lightning fast source-code editor, keyboard-centric code editing approach, automatic real-time API description, Git control, IntelliSense for smart completions based on variable types, Debugging support, and more.
8. Textastic
Textastic is one of the most affordable and user-friendly text editors for Mac that you can find. It is a powerful and fast text, code, and markup editor. Textastic supports syntax highlighting for more than 80 source code and markup languages. It also features auto-completion of code for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, C, and Objective-C languages. I also love that the text editor allows users to work in multiple tabs making it easier to review or consult your own code. Other features include the ability to quickly find files, print files, use symbol list to quickly navigate in a file, built-in Emmet support and more.
- Mac and iOS only
- Not as powerful as others on the list
- No Python and SSH terminal support
Download: ($7.99)
TextMate bridges UNIX underpinnings and GUI by cherry-picking the best of both worlds so that it can be used by experts and novices alike. It brings enough project management features to keep most users happy, but is otherwise very lightweight and has a clean and minimalist GUI. Features of TextMate include the ability to research and replace the code in projects, auto-pairing of brackets and other characters, column selection and typing, recordable macros with no programming requirement, syntax highlighting for multiple languages, and more.
- Works with Xcode
- Open-source
- Lightweight
- Handles packages well
Download: (Free Trial, $56.25)
Just like Textastic, CodeRunner 2 is a very affordable text editor which has been specifically designed for Macs. CodeRunner 2 supports a large number of languages and delivers big IDE features while remaining lightweight and clutter-free. Some of its features include full-blown IDE-level code completion, support for 23 different languages, support for multi-file projects, breakpoints and debugging support, theme support, file and symbol navigator, automatic indentation support, intelligent bracket matching, and more. CodeRunner 2 brings a powerful text-editor in a simple to understand package which is good for beginners and experts alike.
- Supports various languages
- Clean UI
- Customizable
- Packs in necessary IDE features
Download: (Free trial, $14.99)
If I were to pick one text editor for macOS purely based on productivity, Espresso would be my go-to choice for more than one reason. For starters, the text editor sports probably the most intuitive editing interface that offers a more simplified text editing experience. Not to mention, it’s highly rated for making the CSS editing pretty easy-going, taking way less time than rival text editors.
- A bit expensive
- Supports only Mac
Download: (Free trial, $79)
Should you want a powerful text editor for Mac without having to shell out a single penny, don’t fail to try out Vim. While it may not have an elegant user-interface, it’s loaded with a range of handy tools to let you code your favorite software. And if you don’t mind going through some steep learning curve, you will find it quite useful. One of my favorite features of this text editor is a solid collection of keyboard shortcuts which can enable you to go about your business at a fast clip. Not just that, it has also got a massive command set including set compiler, conversion to HTML, automatic correction, automatic syntax, and error list. Add to that the compatibility with several platforms like macOS, Windows NT, Linux, Unix, iOS, Android, MorphOS, AmigaOS, MS-DOS and you have the text editor that has checked off most of the essential boxes.
Download: (Free)
