Windows Notepad AlternativesOnly apps categorised as IDEs

The best IDE alternative to Windows Notepad is Sublime Text, which is free. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Windows Notepad and 15 are IDEs so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting IDE alternatives to Windows Notepad are Vim, Kate, Notepad3 and GNU Emacs.

filter to find the best alternatives

Windows Notepad alternatives are mainly IDEs, but if you're looking for Text Editors or Code Editors you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Open Source, Windows + Free, Text Editors, Windows, Linux and Windows + Lightweight. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Windows Notepad.
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Alternatives list

  1. Sublime Text icon

    Sublime Text

     2043 likes

    Powerful editor blending code, markup, and prose editing with enhanced features like multi-tab selection, side-by-side definition viewing, and multiple selection tools for swift code navigation.

    192 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium (Pay once)
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Sublime Text screenshot 1
     
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    15

    • Most users think Sublime Text is a great Windows Notepad alternative.

    • Sublime Text is the most popular Mac & Linux alternative to Windows Notepad.

    • Sublime Text is Freemium and ProprietaryWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
    • Sublime Text is CustomizableWindows Notepad is not according to our users
  2. Vim icon

    Vim

     1343 likes

    Vim ("Vi IMproved") is an advanced text editor that allows syntax highlighting, word completion and has a huge amount of contributed content. It also has a GUI version called GVim.

    214 Vim alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    • AmigaOS
    • OpenSolaris
    • MorphOS
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Vim screenshot 1
     
  4. Kate icon

    Kate

     312 likes

    The Kate project develops two main products: KatePart, the advanced editor component which is used in numerous KDE applications requiring a text editing component, and Kate, a MDI text editor application.

    144 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Kate screenshot 1
     
  5. Notepad3 icon

    Notepad3

     63 likes

    Notepad3 is a fast and light-weight text editor with syntax highlighting for programming jobs. Auto-completion, Multi-language, Dark mode more.

    211 Notepad3 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Supports RTL languages out of the box.
     
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    3
    9
    Comments about Notepad3 as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    Noah Sean
    Positive
    2

    Lightweight, easy to use, and offers syntax highlighting.

    Xahkyen
    Positive
    4

    It's the best alternative that I was looking for: more powerful, while being lightweight, simply to use and full with useful features.

    jmNY68
    Positive
    0

    I tried Notepads and several other alternatives, looking for simple, lightweight app that had more features than Notepad and was less cluttered than Notepad++, as I am just using it to edit .txt files, not programming, markup, HTML or otherwise. This fits fairly well. Thanks, developers.

    Windows Notepad Icon
    Notepad3 icon

    • Almost everyone thinks Notepad3 is a great Windows Notepad alternative.

    • Notepad3 is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
    • Notepad3 is Privacy focusedWindows Notepad is not according to our users
  6. GNU Emacs icon

    GNU Emacs

     387 likes

    GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing. The features of GNU Emacs include:

    181 GNU Emacs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • F-Droid
    • Haiku
    • Debian
    • MacPorts
    • Homebrew
    The GNU Emacs Manual calls Emacs the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time display editor
     

    • GNU Emacs is the most popular Android alternative to Windows Notepad.

    • GNU Emacs is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
    • GNU Emacs is Customizable and Privacy focusedWindows Notepad is not according to our users
  7. TextMate icon

    TextMate

     270 likes

    TextMate brings Apple's approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike.

    163 TextMate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    TextMate screenshot 1
     
  9. ecode icon

    ecode

     6 likes

    Lightweight multi-platform code editor with hardware-accelerated GUI, customizable minimalist interface, syntax highlighting for 50+ languages, terminal and LSP support, plugin extensibility, unlimited editor splits, persistent project state, and portable, ad-free use.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Haiku
    • FreeBSD
    ecode screenshot 1
     
  10. SynWrite icon

    SynWrite

     30 likes

    SynWrite is a free source code editor and notepad replacement for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Total Commander
    SynWrite screenshot 1
     
  11. TextPad icon

    TextPad

     58 likes

    TextPad is designed to provide the power and functionality to satisfy the most demanding text editing requirements. It can edit files up to the limits of virtual memory, and it will work with the 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003 and 2008.

    125 TextPad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Running in Vista
     
  12. Zeus IDE icon

    Zeus IDE

     4 likes

    A powerful, feature packed, fully configurable IDE specifically designed for Windows developers.

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Proprietary

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Zeus IDE screenshot 1
     
  13. Devpad icon

    Devpad

     6 likes

    Notepad-like VB.Net multi-tab source code editor for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 that supports ASM, ASP.Net, Boo, C#, C++, CSS, HTML, INI, Java, JavaScript, Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, VB.Net, XML and plain text files.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Devpad screenshot 1
     
  14. TEA icon

    TEA

     7 likes

    TEA is free text editor for Linux, *BSD, OS/2, Windows, Haicu. It depends on Qt 4.6+ or Qt 5 or Qt6, zlib and, optionally, on Aspell or Hunspell. The old (but renewed) branch, TEA-GTK depends on GTK+ 3 and GtkSourceView 3.

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    TEA screenshot 1
     
12 of 15 Windows Notepad alternatives