Free Windows Notepad Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to Windows Notepad for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best free Windows alternative is Notepad++, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Windows Notepad and loads of them are free and available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free Windows alternatives to Windows Notepad are Sublime Text, Vim, Kate and gedit.

filter to find the best alternatives

Windows Notepad alternatives are mainly Text Editors, but if you're looking for Code Editors or IDEs you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Text Editors, Open Source, Linux, Windows + Free, Windows 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
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Alternatives list

  1. Notepad++ icon
     5020 likes

    Notepad++ is a free, open-source code editor supporting several languages, offering features like syntax highlighting, plugin support, dark mode, portability, privacy, and efficient resource usage, making it highly customizable and suitable for various programming needs.

    271 Notepad++ alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Good alternative?
     
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    6
  2. Sublime Text icon
     2078 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.

    219 Sublime Text alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Good alternative?
     
  3. Vim icon
     1371 likes

    Advanced text editor with syntax highlighting, word completion, multiple editing modes for efficiency, plugin and script extensibility, GUI and command-line operation, a thorough help system, and cross-platform support across various operating systems.

    235 Vim alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • Flathub
    • Haiku
    • Flatpak
    • AmigaOS
    • OpenSolaris
    • MorphOS
    • NL flagNetherlands
    • European Union flagEU
    Vim screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  4. Kate icon
     336 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.

    165 Kate alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • KDE Plasma
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Snapcraft
    Good alternative?
     
  5. gedit icon
     701 likes

    Extensible text editor with UTF-8 support, syntax highlighting for several programming and markup languages, remote editing, file reverting, print preview, clipboard operations, powerful search, customizable fonts and colors, line numbering, and plugin support.

    211 gedit alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Chrome OS
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • GNOME
    • OpenSolaris
    • US flagUnited States
    The Default look under GNOME with Adwaita
    Good alternative?
     
  6. Notepad3 icon
     66 likes

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

    225 Notepad3 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
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    3
  7. GNU Emacs icon
     392 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:

    206 GNU Emacs alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • Snapcraft
    • F-Droid
    • Haiku
    • Debian
    • MacPorts
    • Homebrew
    Good alternative?
     
  8. GNU nano icon
     299 likes

    GNU nano is a small and friendly text editor. Besides basic text editing, nano offers many extra features like an interactive search and replace, go to line and column number, auto-indentation, feature toggles, internationalization support, and filename tab completion.

    167 GNU nano alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Haiku
    Good alternative?
     
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    1
  9. Notepads icon
     53 likes

    Considering that most text editors are eather too heavy or look too old, the author came up with Notepads, designed to be a modern-looking UWP app.

    33 Notepads alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
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    4
  10. Notepad2 icon
     291 likes

    Notepad2 is a fast and light-weight Windows Notepad like text editor with syntax highlighting. Simple as possible, but yet powerful. Has full Unicode support. Can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • PortableApps.com
    Good alternative?
     
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    2
  11. PSPad icon
     203 likes

    PSPad is a freeware programmers editor in 8 languages for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Some features are highlighted syntax, ftp, projects and so on. Code explorer for Pascal, C/C++, INI, HTML, XML, PHP and more in development, internal web browser with APACHE support.

    185 PSPad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
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    2
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