This article has been updated as of September 2019 to ensure that all the HTML editors listed are still available for free download. Any new information on latest versions has been added to this list.
During the original testing process, over 100 HTML editors for Windows were evaluated against more than 40 different criteria relevant to both professional and beginning web designers and web developers, as well as small business owners. From that testing, ten HTML editors that stood above the rest were selected. Best of all, all of these editors also happen to be free!
Best Text Editors for macOS. Note: 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. Sublime Text 3. Sublime Text is probably one of the most famous text editors available for Mac and for all the right reasons.
- E veryone, who wants to develop websites, needs an HTML editor or rather a development environment. There are, of course, several fee-based editors of high quality, but if you do not need your development environment every day, a free application will be perfectly fine.
- Web designers – The primary usage for text editors is web development. With a text editor, it is easy to use markup languages such as HTML and CSS to code a website. With a text editor, it is easy to use markup languages such as HTML and CSS to code a website.
NotePad ++
What We Like
Small download and program size.
Loads fast, and runs light.
Auto-completion for words and functions.
Plugin options to extend functionality.
What We Don't Like
No Mac version available.
May be less useful for languages like Java.
Notepad++ is a favorite free note taking app and code editor. It is a more robust version of the Notepad software that you would find available in Windows by default. That being the case, this is a Windows-only option. It includes things like line number, color coding, hints, and other helpful tools that the standard Notepad application does not have. These additions make Notepad++ an ideal choice for web designers and front end developers.
Paint like editor for mac. Paintbrush is a simple paint program for Mac OS X, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint and Apple’s own now-defunct MacPaint. It provides users with a means to make simple images quickly, something that has been noticeably absent from the Mac for years.
Komodo Edit
What We Like
Extensible through plugins.
Customizable appearance.
Photo editor like snapseed. IPhone users can get it on iTunes. Android users can download it on Google Play. Categories Tags. PC users can get it using Bluestacks.
Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
What We Don't Like
No WYSIWYG editor.
Not the best editor for beginners.
There are two versions of Komodo available, Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.
is open source and free to download. It is a trimmed down counterpart to IDE.
Komodo Edit includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Additionally, you can get extensions to add language support or other helpful features, like special characters.
Komodo doesn't outshine as the best HTML editor, but it's great for for the price, especially if you build in XML where it truly excels. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.
Eclipse
What We Like
Plugin design makes adding new languages simple.
Open source with large community makes problem solving easier.
Runs on multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac, and Linux
What We Don't Like
A large program that's not as light as other editors.
Consumes considerable system resources, especially on large projects.
Eclipse is a complex development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on various platforms and with different languages. It is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something you just find the appropriate plug-in and go to work.
If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.
Aptana Studio 3
What We Like
Good for JavaScript.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
Plugins expand supported languages.
What We Don't Like
Lack of updates and announcements since 2014.
Bulkier and sometimes slower than some other editors.
Aptana Studio 3 offers an interesting take on webpage development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications. That may not make it the best fit for simple web design needs, but if you are looking more in the way of web application development, the tools offered in Aptana may be a great fit.
One concern about Aptana is the lack of updates that the company has done over the past few years. Their website, as well as their Facebook and Twitter pages, announce the release of version 3.6.0 on July 31, 2014, but there have been no announcements since that time.
While the software itself tested great during initial research (and it was originally placed 2nd in this list), this lack of current updates must be taken into consideration.
NetBeans
What We Like
Version control functionality.
Customizable appearance.
Specialized for Java.
What We Don't Like
Takes some time to learn.
Consumes a lot of system resources while running.
Can be slow to execute commands.
NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications.
Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because it doesn't often work in the same way that web editors work. Once you get used to it you’ll find it very useful, however.
The version control feature included in the IDE is especially useful for people working in large development environments, as is the developer collaboration features. If you write Java and webpages this is a great tool.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community
What We Like
Well supported with updates and the addition of new features.
Wide range of programming languages supported.
Nice design that is beginner-friendly.
What We Don't Like
Premium features come with high price tag.
Heavy program that consumes significant memory and processing power.
Bit of a learning curve for new users.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community is a visual IDE to help web developers and other programmers get started creating applications for the web, mobile devices and the desktop. Previously, you may have used Visual Studio Express, but this is the latest version of the software. They offer a free download, as well as paid versions (that include free trials) for Professional and Enterprise users.
BlueGriffon
What We Like
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
WYSIWYG editor with previews.
Good for beginners
What We Don't Like
Can suffer lag during use.
Lots of options may bewilder new users.
BlueGriffon is the latest in the series of webpage editors that started with Nvu, progressed to Kompozer and now culminates in BlueGriffon. It is powered by Gecko, the rending engine of Firefox, so it does a great job of showing how work would be rendered in that standards-compliant browser.
BlueGriffon is available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux and in a variety of languages.
This is the only true WYSIWYG editor that made this list, and as such it will be more appealing for many beginners and small business owners who want a more visual way to work as opposed to a purely code-focused interface.
Bluefish
What We Like
A fast and lightweight program.
Multiplatform support (Windows, Mac, Linux).
What We Don't Like
Primarily a code editor without a WYSIWYG interface.
Lacks an easy FTP upload feature.
Bluefish is a full-featured HTML editor that runs on a variety of platforms, including Linux, MacOS-X, Windows, and more.
The latest release (which is 2.2.10 or 2.2.10-2 for High Sierra) fixed some of the bugs found in previous versions.
Noteworthy features that have been in place since the 2.0 version are code-sensitive spell check, auto complete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management and autosave.
Bluefish is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, however, if you’re a designer by nature and you want more of a web-focused or a WYSIWYG interface, Bluefish may not be for you.
GNU Emacs Profile
What We Like
Included with most Linux systems.
Powerful with plenty of features.
What We Don't Like
More complicated than other editors.
Not the best choice for beginners.
GNU Emacs is found on most Linux systems and makes it easy for you to edit a page even if you don't have your standard software.
Emacs is a lot more complicated some other editors, and so offers more features, but I find it harder to use.
Feature highlights: XML support, scripting support, advanced CSS support and a built-in validator, as well as color coded HTML editing.
This editor, whose latest version is 26.1 which was released in May 2018, can be intimidating to anyone who isn't comfortable writing plain HTML in a text editor, but if you are and your host offers Emacs, it is a very powerful tool.
To edit HTML and CSS code you only need a simple plaintext editor, the rest depends on your skills and your creativity. However, you'll be more inspirated if you use the proper tools while you work.
We know too that not everybody is able (or want) to pay for a license of a fancy code editor, that's when we love the Open Source. There are many free IDE's and code editor out there and you may want to know which may fit better to my requirements.
To make it easier for you or your team to develop web applications, we have found some really good Integrated Development Environments for JavaScript, which provides you a convenient environment to code, edit, test, and debug web applications.
7. RJ TextEd
RJ TextEd is a full featured text and source editor with Unicode support. It is also a very powerful web (PHP, ASP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS) development editor. The functionality extends beyond text files and includes support for CSS/HTML editing with integrated CSS/HTML preview, spell checking, auto completion, HTML validation, templates and more. The program also has a dual pane file commander, as well as a (S)FTP client to upload your files.
https://safelucky.netlify.app/skysoft-pdf-editor-for-mac.html. RJ TextEd is developed in Delphi XE6 from Embarcadero and is released as Freeware.
It supports the following features (and more):
- Auto completion.
- Code folding.
- Column mode.
- Multi edit and multi select
- Document map
- Annotation bar
- Advanced sorting.
- Handles both ASCII and binary files.
- CSS and HTML wizards.
- Highlighting of colors in CSS/SASS/LESS.
- Advanced color hint that can convert between color formats.
- Dockable panels.
- FTP and SFTP client with synchronization.
- File explorer, text clips, code explorer, project manager..
- Convert between code pages, Unicode formats and text formats.
- Unicode and ANSI code page detection.
- Open/Save UTF-8 encoded files without a signature (BOM).
- Unicode file paths and file names.
- HTML validation, format and repair.
- Tools available like syntax editor, color picker, charmap
6. Light Table
Light Table is a 'new' kind of IDE, it is a reactive work surface for the creation and exploration of a program.
Despite the dramatic shift toward simplification in software interfaces, the world of development tools continues to shrink our workspace with feature after feature in every release. Light Table is based on a very simple idea: we need a real work surface to code on, not just an editor and a project explorer. We need to be able to move things around, keep clutter down, and bring information to the foreground in the places we need it most. Here's what the default mode looks like.
It is a standalone app, the fact that there's an instance of webkit as the UI layer is completely an implementation detail. It will be packaged like a normal app and it will run locally just like any other editor you're used to. This means that it can run on virtually any platform and will support the big three (linux/mac/windows) out of the gate.
Light table is based on a few guiding principles:
- You should never have to look for documentation
- Files are not the best representation of code, just a convenient serialization.
- Editors can be anywhere and show you anything - not just text.
- Trying is encouraged - changes produce instantaneous results
- We can shine some light on related bits of code
Let's take a look at how these things manifest themselves in Light Table.
5. Netbeans
Quickly and easily develop desktop, mobile and web applications with Java, JavaScript, HTML5, PHP, C/C++ and more. NetBeans IDE is FREE, open source, and has a worldwide community of users and developers.
NetBeans IDE 8.1 provides out-of-the-box code analyzers and editors for working with the latest Java 8 technologies--Java SE 8, Java SE Embedded 8, and Java ME Embedded 8. The IDE also has a range of new tools for HTML5/JavaScript, in particular for Node.js, KnockoutJS, and AngularJS; enhancements that further improve its support for Maven and Java EE with PrimeFaces; and improvements to PHP and C/C++ support.
NetBeans IDE 8.1 is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
An IDE is much more than a text editor. The NetBeans Editor indents lines, matches words and brackets, and highlights source code syntactically and semantically. It lets you easily refactor code, with a range of handy and powerful tools, while it also provides code templates, coding tips, and code generators.
The editor supports many languages from Java, C/C++, XML and HTML, to PHP, Groovy, Javadoc, JavaScript and JSP. Because the editor is extensible, you can plug in support for many other languages.
Remember that netbeans support many programming languages, but you as a web developer, we recommend you to download only the HTML5/Javascript built installation from the download page.
4. Brackets
Brackets is a modern, open source text editor that understands web design.
With focused visual tools and preprocessor support, Brackets is a modern text editor that makes it easy to design in the browser. It's crafted from the ground up for web designers and front-end developers. Brackets is an open-source project, supported by an active and passionate community. It's made by other web developers like you!
Instead of jumping between file tabs, Brackets lets you open a window into the code you care about most. Want to work on the CSS that applies to a specific ID? Put your mouse cursor on that ID, push Command/ Ctrl+E and Brackets will show you all the CSS selectors with that ID in an inline window so you can work on your code side-by-side without any popups.
Get a real-time connection to your browser. Make changes to CSS and HTML and you'll instantly see those changes on screen. Also see where your CSS selector is being applied in the browser by simply putting your cursor on it. It's the power of a code editor with the convenience of in-browser dev tools.
Preprocessor Support
Work with preprocessors in a whole new way. A developer know how important preprocessors are to a quick workflow. That’s why the circunstances make Brackets the best code editor for preprocessors out there. With Brackets you can use Quick Edit and Live Highlight with your LESS and SCSS files which will make working with them easier than ever.
3. Komodo Edit
Komodo Edit is the free and Open-Source counterpart of Komodo IDE (paid software). Komodo is faster and easier-to-use. New integrations with build systems let you stay in-the-zone and get more done. Get your favorite frameworks, languages, and tools in one cross-platform mini IDE (with the free version).
Komodo Edit has a lot of positive reviews and qualifications. Everybody recommends this IDE and you should start using Komodo Edit if you don't want to pay for the full IDE version.
2. Atom by Github
Atom is a text editor that's modern, approachable, yet hackable to the core, that means that you can customize to do anything but also use productively without ever touching a config file. Download, install and start using it !
Atom has a built-in package manager, search for and install new packages or start creating your own all from within Atom. Atom comes pre-installed with four UI and eight syntax themes in both dark and light colors. If you can't find what you're looking for, you can also install themes created by the Atom community or create your own.
- Atom works across operating systems. You can use it on OS X, Windows, or Linux.
- Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file or across all your projects.
- Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in one window.
Atom is a desktop application built with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js integration. It runs on Electron, a framework for building cross platform apps using web technologies.
1. Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a lightweight but powerful source code editor which runs on your desktop and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It comes with built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript and Node.js and has a rich ecosystem of extensions for other languages (such as C++, C#, Python, PHP) and runtimes.
Visual Studio Beyond goes beyond syntax highlighting and autocomplete with IntelliSense, which provides smart completions based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules. You can even debug code right from the editor. Launch or attach to your running apps and debug with break points, call stacks, and an interactive console.
Honorable mentions
Aptana Studio
Build web applications quickly and easily using the industry’s leading web application IDE. Aptana Studio harnesses the flexibility of Eclipse and focuses it into a powerful web development engine.
Aptana Studio 3 expands on the core capabilities of Aptana Studio 2 for building, editing, previewing and debugging HTML, CSS and JavaScript websites with PHP and Ruby on Rails web development.
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CodeLobster
CodeLobster PHP Edition is a free (it requires free registration in the official website after 30 days) portable handy and easy-in-use code editor for Windows that is primarily intended for quick and easy creation and editing of PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript files. IT houses a large range of support for Drupal CMS, Joomla CMS, Smarty template engine, Twig, JQuery library, CodeIgniter framework, CakePHP framework, Laravel framework, Phalcon framework, Symfony framework and the WordPress blogging platform.
Video File That Works On Mac And Windows
CodeLobster PHP Edition streamlines and simplifies the PHP development process. You don't need to keep in mind the names of functions, arguments, tags or their attributes, as all of these are implemented for you with autocomplete features for PHP, HTML, JavaScript and even CSS.
The key features of this IDE that make it reliable for the web development are:
- PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS code highlighting.
- HTML autocomplete.
- CSS autocomplete.
- JavaScript Advanced autocomplete.
- PHP Advanced autocomplete.
- PHP Debugger.
- Context and Dynamic Help with search for work with PHP, MySQL, HTML.
Test Editor For Web Development That Works On Mac And Pc
CodeLobster PHP Edition comes with stacks of tools including an internal free PHP Debugger that allows you to validate your code locally. It automatically detects your current server settings and configures corresponding files in order to let you use the debugger. Also included in CodeLobster PHP Edition are tools such as dynamic help, advanced autocomplete, HTML inspector (similar to FireBug), Class View window for comfortable work with mixed code. It also supports Drupal automatically installing, autocomplete Drupal's hooks, tooltips for Drupal's function theme Completion list, Help on Drupal API.
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If you know another awesome free (or maybe paid) web development IDE, please share it with the community in the comment box down below. Have fun !
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