Text editors play a major role for Mac users. Whether you are using it for editing configuration files or writing scripts, everyone has a text editor which suits their needs better than others. While the debate of the best text editor for Mac won’t end anytime soon, there are many editors that bring an impressive set of features and offer a great user experience to developers in 2023. let’s start our list of the most impressive, feature-rich, and useful source code editors for Mac.
Atom
Atom is an open-source text editor it keeps developers in mind. In fact, the creators of Atom state that they made it just for developers. If you are a developer should have no problem working with Atom, since it comes with clean collaboration tools, a sleek editor, and some great organizational tools for keeping your projects in check. You can share your projects and get them edited in real-time, helping out teams that are far away from each other or simply those teams that want a more dedicated workspace. Furthermore, Atom has a GitHub package already included with the text editor. This way, your team can create everything from branches to stages in one interface. It’s one of the best editors for Mac as it’s open-source and free to use and comes with a simple and easy-to-use interface you can change themes and you have multiple packages to add features as per your workflow.
Pros:
- Open-source and free
- Feature-rich
- Nice UI
- Customization options
- Tons of packages available
Cons:
- A lot of packages can slow it down
- Can be a resource hog
Download: (Free)
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is one of the best text editors that you can get for your Mac. VS Code takes syntax highlighting and auto-completion to the next level, Visual Studio Code editor has Git commands programmed into the system. This way, you’re able to pull or push from all hosted SCM services. The VS Code free text editor has a thriving community behind it. Addons help in extending and customizing your text editor in terms of language, theme, and debugger support, also it’s an open-source project that you can download directly to macOS, Windows, or Linux for free.
Pros:
- Support for most languages
- Various plugins available
- Good performance
- Great UI
- Free to use
- Monthly updates
Cons:
- You have to install a lot of plugins to make it feature rich
- A bit of a learning curve
- Can be buggy at times
Download: (Free)
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Sublime Text 3
If you are a programmer you must have heard about Sublime Text as it is popular for useful native functions like GoToAnything and Distraction-free mode. Similar to Atom, Sublime Text is more focused on users who wish to use their text editor primarily for programming and developing scripts on their system. Is easy to use and highly customizable with custom keyboard shortcuts also is cross-platform the UI is fast and smooth you will like it you should give it a try.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Feature-packed
- Customization options
- Ability to assign custom keyboard shortcuts
- Fast and smooth
- Cross platform
Cons:
- Pricey
- Some plugins affect performance
Download: (Free Trial, $80)
VIM – The most advanced text editor
If you are a developer and looking for the best text editors for Mac is the VIM text editor. It is developed by Bram Moolenaar, VIM is one of the most commonly used text editors in the world by developers. It is based on the old UNIX vi text editor, so far as the name, VIM refers to ‘Vi IMproved’. The VIM text editor offers many features like syntax highlighting, split-screen functionality, automatic indentation, session tabs, and digraph input. Beginners may usually find VIM requires some effort to get used to. But if you want a powerful editor with advanced options and features, VIM is the choice for you.
Pros:
- Vast command set
- A solid collection of keyboard shortcuts
- Compatible with many platforms
Cons:
- Complex interface
- Requires steep learning curve
Download: (Free)
Espresso
Espresso is an incredibly beautiful text editor for mac that lets you build first-class standard CSS, but also modular SCSS and LESS. Styling is a joy with the beautiful Navigator, auto-building by Dynamo, and incredible integration with Live Preview and Overrides. Espresso helps you write, code, design, build and publish with flair and efficiency. Sophisticated text features, amazing Live Preview with Browser Xray, CSSEdit tools, the Navigator, Dynamo auto-building, and Server Sync. Whether you’re starting from scratch or tweaking a live site, Espresso got you covered. Espresso comes with an extensive plug-in API for actions, syntaxes, formatting, and more. It’s a native text editor that is excellent you should give it a go.
Pros:
- Feature-rich
- Nice UI
- Fast and smooth
- Customization options
- Native App
Cons:
- Pricey
Download: (Free Trial, $99)
Emacs
Emacs is one of the oldest text editors for the MacOs that has been here for a long time. It is developed by Richard Stallman, the project founder of GNU. Emacs is being used by thousands of Mac programmers all around the world and GNU Emacs is one of their favorite and preferred text editors. It is entirely developed using LISP and C. Overall is a counterpart of VIM and an extremely powerful text editor/IDE with tons of plugins for utilities and languages. You should give it a go.
Pros:
- Vast command set
- keyboard shortcuts
Cons:
- Requires steep learning curve
Download: (Free)
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Nano – Best Editor for the Command-Line in Mac
Nano is a command-line text editor that is designed for basic usage and editing text fast without leaving the terminal on your Mac, but it’s designed for advanced users. Nano is a text editor that is known for its user-friendly command-line design. Nano offers features such as automatic indentation, interactive find-and-replace function, soft text wrapping, and case-sensitive searching. Nano works only as a command-line utility. It is great for users who need a simple text editor while working with the command line. Nano is easy to use even though it’s a command-line editor. Unlike VIM, it allows you to work with it in the same way as you’d with a GUI text editor. Nano comes preinstalled in Mac here is how to use it.
In the Terminal app on your Mac, invoke a command-line editor by typing the name of the editor, followed by a space and then the name of the file you want to open. If you want to create a new file, type the editor name, followed by a space and the pathname of the file.
Here’s an example of using nano to open a new file named “myFile.conf” in your Documents folder:
% nano ~/Documents/myFile.conf