Web Developers need a set of tools and technologies to help them accomplish their goals. One of the most important tool for most programmers is a nice code editor. Preferably an editor which is easy to use, is feature rich (by default or through plugins/packages), support multiple programming languages and supports multiple platforms. It is even better if it is free to use.

Today we are reviewing 6 top code editors that are free to use. l am listing these in alphabetical order of name and not necessarily from best to worst as all these 6 editors are equally good with few pros and cons between them.

Everyone will have a favorite among these depending on if they prefer ease of use above feature list, or support for multiple programming languages versus better support for their preferred programming language etc.

Atom

https://atom.io/

Key Features:

Multiple tab and multiple pane editing

Find and replace across all projects

File system browser

Smart autocomplete

Cross-platform editing

Highly customizable

Built-in package manager

Every growing list of plugins

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Brackets

http://brackets.io/

Key Features:

Minimal yet powerful

Extract (extension)

Inline editors

Live preview

Preprocessors support

Growing list of extensions

Cross-platform editing

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

jEdit

http://www.jedit.org/

Key Features:

Support for 130+ languages

Highly customizable

Support for plugins and macros

Multiple tab and multiple pane interface

Code folding and auto-complete

Syntax highlighting

Support for rectangular and multiple selection

Unlimited undo/redo

Copy and paste with an unlimited number of clipboards

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Notepad++

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Key Features:

Lightweight (low on system resources)

Multi-document editing using tab interface

Search and replace across documents

Multiple languages support

Plugin support

Macro recording

Auto completion

Syntax highlighting

Customizable interface

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

NetBeans IDE

https://netbeans.org/

Key Features:

Excellent Maven support provided out of the box

Apache Cordova integration

Best Support for Latest Java Technologies

Cross-platform editing

Support for IoT

Out of the box support for Git, Mercurial, and Subversion.

Highly customizable

Great support for HTML5 technologies and AngularJS

Powerful GUI builder

Strong Profiling and Debugging Tools

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Visual Studio Code

https://code.visualstudio.com/

Key Features:

Git support provided out of the box

Excellent Intellisense for JavaScript and TypeScript

Built in task runner

Out of the box Linting support for HTML, JavaScript, Sass and CSS

Support for extensions

Debugging

Support for 30+ programming languages

Side-by-side editing

Platform Support: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

In Conclusion

I tried to list top 6 code editors that are open source or free to use. It is entirely possible that I may have missed few popular code editors from this list. I would love to know about them in the comments section below.

Out of the six editors listed above these three (Atom, Brackets and Visual Studio Code) seems to have a bright future not only because of their backing by big companies but also because they seems to be heading in the right direction and making good connection with new breed of web developers.

Please don’t forget to give your feedback in the comments section below.