Windows Notepad Alternatives

Windows Notepad is described as 'Fast, lightweight editor bundled with Windows since 1985. Supports plain text, UTF-8, Linux newline, over 100 languages, with improved features' and is a very popular Text Editor in the os & utilities category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Windows Notepad for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Web-based apps. The best Windows Notepad alternative is Notepad++, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like 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 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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Windows Notepad alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. PSPad icon
     204 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.

    172 PSPad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
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    2
    Comments about PSPad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    hCommon
    0

    Saying 11 MB is large is like saying you use a single gameboy cartridge for your main computer syorage

    Guest
    Negative
    -2

    11 MB is not lightweight for an editor. It's like saying: You need 763 full pages in A4 to write the word "hello".

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    PSPad icon
    PSPad icon
    • PSPad is Free and ProprietaryWindows Notepad is also Free and Proprietary
  2. UltraEdit icon
     161 likes

    UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and HEX editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later).

    211 UltraEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  3. SciTE icon
     150 likes

    SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for jobs with simple configurations - I use it for building test and demonstration...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Xfce
     
  4. Leafpad icon
     68 likes

    Leafpad is a lightweight text editor that emphasizes simplicity. As development focuses on keeping weight down to a minimum, only the most essential features are implemented in the editor.

    104 Leafpad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin
    • MacPorts
     
    |
    2
    Comments about Leafpad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    ibn Muhammad
    Negative
    -1

    Leafpad is not a good alternative as it relies on the GTK library, unless you're looking for non-Windows apps, and you don't mind if the application has external dependencies.

    Guest
    Positive
    1

    Very similar to Windows Notepad.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Leafpad icon
    Leafpad icon
    • Most users think Leafpad is a great Windows Notepad alternative.

    • Leafpad is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
  5. CotEditor icon
     42 likes

    Syntax Highlighting: Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown. You can also create your own settings.

    161 CotEditor alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  6. Notepad 4 icon
     4 likes

    A lightweight Scintilla based text editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion and API list for many programming languages and documents, bundled with file browser plugin matepath.

    53 Notepad 4 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  7. Xed icon
     23 likes

    A text editor forked from Pluma and Gedit. Xed is the default text editor of Linux Mint. It can be customized and is available in multiple languages.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  8. Mousepad icon
     35 likes

    A simple text editor for the Xfce desktop environment. Mousepad aims to be an easy-to-use and fast editor for quickly editing text files, not a development environment or an editor with a huge bunch of plugins.

    78 Mousepad alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Flathub
    • Xfce
     
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    2
    Comments about Mousepad as an Alternative to Windows Notepad
    danielmichel
    Positive
    0

    It really is Notepad for Linux.

    Mahdy Abdelmotaleb
    Positive
    0

    It's simple, minimalistic and stable.

    Mousepad icon
    Mousepad icon
    • Mousepad is Free and Open SourceWindows Notepad is Free and Proprietary
  9. Antinote icon
     3 likes

    Antinote provides beautiful temporary notes, calculations, and custom calculators with lifetime updates. Features swipe navigation, plain text support, instant conversions including crypto, and one-click export functionality. Includes screenshot-to-text conversion, global hotkey access, and more.

    35 Antinote alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  10. metapad icon
     43 likes

    Metapad is a small, fast (and completely free) text editor for Windows 9x/NT/XP/Vista with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepads features and much...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  11. Notepad.js icon
     11 likes

    An offline capable notepad powered by ServiceWorker. It's quick, distraction-free, dark mode enabled, mobile compatible (Android, iOS) and minimalist in nature.

    35 Notepad.js alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
     
  12. wxMEdit icon
     28 likes

    wxMEdit is a cross-platform text and hex editor, derived from MadEdit . It adds automatic updates, bookmarks, selecting lines with a tripple click, a FreeBASIC syntax file, more supported encodings (L1, CP850, CP437 etc, KOI8, UTF-x), better...

    85 wxMEdit alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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