As a developer, you need to have the best code editor to save your time of development. It is crucial because in a lightweight environment, the text editors allow developers to write the codes. The programmers primary use text editors to write code for website and application development.
Today’s market is filled with many free and paid code editor. The coders are challenged to select the best code editor that has all the features they need to write, debug, and execute the codes.
Features such as auto-indentation and highlighting syntax help programmers improve their coding skills.
In order to make it a little easier for each developer to choose an editor, I have prepared a list of some of the best ones available code editor either free of charge or at subscription cost.
1 – Emacs
It is a real-time display code editor that can be customized, extended and self-documented. It’s different from most of code editors as it’s a visual one and gives you a full document representation. You can move freely anywhere in the program and edit any part of the document that requires modifications.
GNU Emacs’ user interface allows users to combine commands into macros. This helps the work to be automated. It works on Mac, Windows, and Linux and is therefore a text editor for multi-platforms. While most of these days’ editors are real-time, Emacs was one of the earliest to release this feature.
Type: Freeware
2 – Atom
It is an open source text and code editor designed and developed by GitHub for programmers. It’s a text editor multi-platform. The editor has an integrated package manager that allows you to search and install new packages.
You can open multiple projects simultaneously within one window. It has a convenient user interface compared to most editors, which is why many programmers prefer to use Atom to write codes.
Type: Freeware
3 – Brackets
Although lightweight, it is a powerful source code editor that web developers mainly use. It is written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS and is licensed under the MIT License. Brackets do not require programmers to jump between the file tabs.
You can open a window in the code instead. When using brackets, coders get a real-time connection to the browser. This means that the spot reflects any php changes they make to the source.
It has a user interface quick edit feature that puts inline context-specific codes and tools. The integrated manager of extensions ensures fast and efficient management.
Type: Freeware
4 – Notepad++
Made for the Windows platform entirely, it uses pure win32 API. You get a small program size and higher speeds of execution with Notepad++. Many developers prefer to use it because for a number of programming languages it has built-in syntax highlighters.
The C++ text editor has a powerful editing component; Scintilla. This editor’s functionality can be extended by using hundreds of free plugins. The best part about using this editor is that it uses relatively smaller CPU power, which in turn results in the device’s power consumption. It thus helps to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide to the environment.
Type: Freeware
5 – Geany
For programmers, it is a lightweight text editor and uses Scintilla and GTK+. Geany also has some IDE features. The editor supports a lot of programming languages and has a feature of auto-completion in it. It supports many types of files and enables you to browse the source code.
If you use the plugins, the editor can be extended. You can also fold the code partially in this editor. Like many other editors of text, it simultaneously supports multiple documents. In a single window, you can open multiple files. This is referred to as tabbed editing.
Type: Freeware
6 – NoteTab
NoteTab has a tabbed interface that handles several text files. There are over 90 commands on a user-configurable toolbar that make it a highly customizable editor.
It is different from other editors because it has its own “Clip” macro language. Compared to some other text editors, the search and replacement feature on NoteTab is much more powerful.
The pasteboard is one of NoteTab’s most powerful features. This can be used from days or weeks ago to search and reuse clippings.
Type: Freeware | Subscriptions
7 – Visual Studio Code
Another open source text editor, Microsoft is developing it. JavaScipt, Node.js, and TypeScript are supported by the editor. It supports more than 30 languages of programming. Visual Code Studio has more to do than highlighting syntax and auto-completing.
The feature is called IntelliSense, which provides intelligent completion based on imported modules, function definitions, and types of variable. It provides Git version control and some other debugging tools for easier development. There are also portable editor versions available.
To add even more themes, languages, and debuggers, you can install additional extensions. The best part is that these extensions are running in separate processes, ensuring the editor speed is not affected.
Type: Freeware
8 – Sublime Text
It’s an incredibly fast text editor, packed with features, and fully customizable. Despite being a lightweight editor, the editor’s efficiency and accuracy is just perfect. It uses a custom toolkit for the user interface, optimizing its beauty and speed.
IDE has a great alternative and it’s the editor of Sublime Text. With the editor of Sublime Text code, you get the freedom to divide the screen at the same time into two documents. Nearly everything can be customized in the Sublime Text editor with simple JSON files. It has a palette of commands to make snippets, setting, and more easy to access.
Type: Freeware | Subscriptions
9 – WebStorm
You can debug the customer side and Node.js apps with the WebStorm text editor. The interface in the source code can be put and the call stack and variables can be explored. HTML, CSS, Node.js, and JavaScript provide intelligent help.
Profit from test runners, REST customers, linters and tools for construction. It is available at an IDE tool window in the Editor if you need a terminal at any time.
Type: Freeware To Subscriptions
10 – VIM
It is one of the industry’s oldest text editors and is popular with programmers who require an fully customized text editor. The reason for its popularity is that it supports complete keyboard actions, so you don’t have to use a mouse at all. It is another reason because it is popular in almost every Unix machine.
This can also be used with a terminal via SSH in a remote development environment. It works also very well with larger files to improve productivity overall. This text editor does not have a limited functionality and can be extended with tons of plugins.
Type: Freeware
11 – Blufish
Bluefish is an advanced text editor with a number of dynamic website writing tools. It supports programming in over 20 languages and is available for multiple operating systems.
Blufish can also be run as stand-alone software and integrated with GNOME. It is not a plain editor of text, nor is it a complete IDE. Bluefish is easy to program and develop the sites as it is a relatively lightweight editor. Bluefish is using GKT+ for its GUI widgets.
The code editor is written in C language, but the API plugin in C is used primarily to separate maintained and non-maintained components.
It is possible to extend the program’s overall functionality by installing additional plugins and scripts.
Type: Freeware
12 – ICEcoder
This one is a text editor for coders and programmers based on a browser. This means you can do everything in your web browser’s single window and see the differences simultaneously on another window tab. You get a perfect performance both online and offline through ICEcoder.
All you need to code is a web browser in this editor. This unique feature makes the site much more convenient for development and maintenance. Database management becomes a cake walk with the admin plugin. It’s a better phpMyAdmin version. Features such as Emmet coding assistance, closing tag completion, tag wrappers are also available.
Type: Freeware
Thoughts
The choice to pick the best text editor for programming is entirely yours from these options. Choosing may be a little hard, but whatever you choose, you’re going to enjoy writing code in it. Help you determine your preferences with the options you get.
Based on your needs, you need to select the best code editor. You can choose to start Notepad++ as a beginner. It is easy to use, but at the same time it is extremely flexible and expansive. You get all the features you need to conveniently develop a website. You can also tell us your choices and share your thoughts about the ones you’re using.