Vim Alternatives
Vim
Vim ("Vi IMproved") is an advanced text editor that allows syntax highlighting, word completion and has a huge amount of contributed content.
Vim offers several “modes” for editing with efficiency. This makes vim a non-user-friendly application but it is also a strength. The normal mode binds alphanumeric keys to task-oriented commands. The visual mode highlights text. The command-line mode offers more tools (for search&replace, defining functions, etc.)
Vim comes with complete help.
Best Open Source Vim Alternatives
Are you still using Vim? Let's compare it to the best other options below. Maybe one of these Vim alternatives will work on your device, too.
Notepad++
FreeOpen SourceWindowsPortableApps.comNotepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages.
Features:
- Lightweight
- Code formatting
- Tabbed interface
- Custom Language Definitions
- Customer support
- Support for Javascript
- Macros
- Portable
- Auto-saving
- Autocompletion
- Block edit
- Built-in editor
- Color coding
- Column edit mode
- Configurable
- Debugger
- Developer Tools
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Support for FTP
- Integrated Search
- Live Preview
- Multiple languages
- Multiple Open Tabs
- Native GUI
- Plugin manager
- Support for regular expressions
- Side-by-Side comparison
Atom
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxChrome OSBSDElectron / Atom ShellExtensible, cross-platform text editor with a rich ecosystem of plugins and themes.
Features:
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Customizable
- Support for Themes
- Community based
- Package Control
- GIT support
- Teletype
- GitHub integration
- Hackable
- Syntax Highlighting
- Autocompletion
- Clean design
- Code completion
- Collaborative writing
- Electron based
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Folder Hierarchy
- Fuzzy Finder
- Gitlab integration
- Interior Design
- Live collaboration
- Minimap
- Modular System
- Multiple languages
- Multiple cursors
- Night mode/Dark Theme
- Distraction-free UI
- Package Manager
- Plugin API
- Plugin manager
- Real time collaboration
- Separated workspaces
- Support for NodeJS
- Tabbed interface
- Unit Testing
Visual Studio Code
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxChrome OSElectron / Atom ShellCode combines the streamlined UI of a modern editor with rich code assistance and navigation, and an integrated debugging experience – without the need for a full IDE.
Features:
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Lightweight
- Built-in Terminal
- Autocompletion
- Intellisense
- Customizable
- Syntax Highlighting
- Code completion
- GIT support
- Plugins
- C++ support
- C# Scripting
- C support
- Graphical interface
- IDE
- Support for Javascript
- MarkDown support
- Multiple cursors
- Night mode/Dark Theme
- Ruby support
- Source code debugging
- Supports loads of file formats
- Supports Python
- Bugs
- Code formatting
- Code navigation
- Color coding of code
- Electron based
- Embedded debugger
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Extensions
- Git integration
- Mercurial support
- Minimap
- PHP IDE
- Remote Debugging
- Run Android Apps on Desktop
- Support for NodeJS
- Version and Source control
gedit
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxChrome OSBSDGNOMEOpenSolarisOfficial text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. Has syntax highlighting and is suitable for programming, with support for several languages. It is extensible with...
Features:
- Lightweight
- Autocompletion
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Spell checking
- Syntax Highlighting
Geany
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxBSDPortableApps.comXfceGeany is a small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other...
Features:
- Better syntax highlighting support
- Debian package compatible
- FOSS
- IDE
- Lightweight
- Multiplatform
- Shell integration
- Support for Themes
- Automatic Indentation
- Built-in Terminal
- Code navigation
- Customizable
- Support for Large File
- Minimalistic
- Portable
- Shortcut keys
- Spell checking
- Syntax Highlighting
- Vim plugin
Brackets
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxElectron / Atom ShellBrackets is an open-source editor for web design and development built on top of web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The project was created and is...
Features:
- Live Preview
- Autocompletion
- Integrated FTP client
- Syntax Highlighting
- Built-in Level Editor
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- File-sync
- Git integration
- Multiple languages
- Streamlined interface
- Web Development
GNU Emacs
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxBSDGNU 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...
Features:
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Cross-platform
- Customizable
- Editable text color schemes
- Extensions
- Syntax Highlighting
- IDE
- IDE All Languages
- Package Control
- Scripting
- Self-documenting
- Terminal-based
GNU nano
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxBSDHaikuGNU 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...
Features:
- Command line interface
- Automatic Indentation
- Search and replace
- Terminal-based
Neovim
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxAndroidBSDNeovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to: Simplify maintenance and encourage contributions. Split the work between multiple...
Features:
- Plugins
- Terminal-based
- Asynchronous
- Configurable
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Sane defaults
- Developer Tools
- Lightweight
- Syntax Highlighting
- Terminal emulator
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