The best code editors can have a huge impact on your productivity and workflow. Most of us, however, stick with what we know out of lazy habits. If you shop around instead, though, you could find the kind of fast and intuitive interface or killer features that help you get your work done more quickly and efficiently.

The best code editors offer a number of things. A fast and flexible interface that makes you more efficient at writing code. Functionality to help you examine code for mistakes, and discover where edits need to be made. The potential to be easily customized, so you can create the kind of UI and user experience that suits you. 

All that might sound like a lot to ask but consider how many hours you're likely to spend looking at your code editor, day in day out. With that in mind, you want to make sure it looks and works the best it possibly can.

Everyone codes in a different way, of course, so it's impossible to single out anyone specific code editor as the best overall. However, what we can do is bring you a selection of the best code editors available today, explain what each offers, and let you pick the one that suits you best. So read on, and you may just find a tool that makes a big and positive difference to the way you work, day-to-day.

What is a Text Editor?

Text Editor ScreenshotA text editor is a program that allows you to open, view, and edit plain text files. Unlike word processors, text editors do not add formatting to text, instead of focusing on editing functions for plain text.

Text editors are used by a wide variety of people, for a wide variety of purposes. Software programmers and web developers use text editors to write and edit in programming and markup languages. This is one of the primary purposes of text editors, and many of the features of text editing software are built to help these users read and write code. However, text editors are ideal tools for anyone who needs to write quickly and simply, read source code or create text files.

If you’re working on an Apple MacBook, for example, then the Notes app is technically a text editor.

 If you’re using a Windows-based computer, then you’re able to use Notepad, which is a basic text-editing program that will allow you to create documents. Aside from that, there are limits to the functions of Notepad or Notes.

 If you’re looking to create a higher-level document or need more functions, you’re going to need a more powerful text editor.

WHY DO YOU NEED A TEXT EDITOR FOR CODING

To edit HTML and CSS code you only need a simple plaintext editor the rest depends on your skills and your creativity. However, to make your life a little bit easier, you can use some more comfortable source-code editors with advanced editing features. These features can effectively support you during coding, debugging, and testing.

Powerful modern editors provide developers with syntax highlighting, diff, macros, plugins, code-snippets, preview option, and an integrated management tool. Some editors go even further and offer a complete integrated development environment with numerous features and functions.

 if you’re creating a personal website or doing anything that requires complex coding language, then you’re going to need a few more features out of your text editor.

This is what makes them so important!

 Programers, editors, and content creators use text to create websites, programs, and blogs that funnel content to users all around the world.

Without the right program, none of this would be possible. This is why modern-day text editors cater to the needs and language of coding.

 It’s also why the best text editors include features such as syntax highlighting, auto-indentation, and tools that help with debugging.

If you’re not new to coding, then you’ll understand what we’re talking about. If you don’t code, then you can still make use of certain text editors as they offer great functions and capabilities for the everyday user, too!

What a Text Editor Can Do

Bare-bones text editors like Notepad don’t have much functionality at all they let you write text and that’s it. It’s almost like writing with pen and paper.

It’s totally fine to use a text editor like Notepad. But if you choose a more powerful text editor, you’ll get extra features that make coding easier for you. Here are just some of the things text editors can do:

• find text and replace it with other text
• highlight syntax (display different types of code in different colors)
• indent lines automatically
• tell you when there’s an error with your code
• open multiple files in tabs
• create and delete files inside folders
• type in multiple places at once (yes, really)

A word of warning to finish up. Some text editors are packed with features to the point where their interfaces can be quite intimidating. You don’t have to use these features, but they’re nice if you do know how to use them.

6 BEST TEXT EDITORS FOR PROGRAMMING AND WEB DEVELOPMENT

The best text editors make it easy to code accurately and correctly without formatting issues corrupting it.

This is especially when most people new to programming learn the hard way that their first choice for coding causes problems with the code itself, such as not properly displaying formatting.

At their heart, the best text editors shouldn't just be simple but also functional and good to work with. It doesn't matter whether you're coding with Linux, on a Mac, or a Windows PC, a text editor should be easy to use and do the job the way it was intended to be done.

When you’re a programmer or coder, opening your favorite text editor is just like slipping into an old pair of jeans. And there’s a pair that fits everyone.  

Sublime Text

Price: $80 (free indefinite preview)

Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

SublimeText is the editor that really changed the way the best code editors worked. It is lightweight, open, and ready to edit your file almost as soon as you've managed to click the button. This responsiveness is one of the things that makes it the best code editor in its class. If you want to open a file and make a quick edit, waiting for a few seconds for loading may not sound like much, but the delay can grow tedious. 

Another big benefit of Sublime Text is that it's crazily extensible, with a huge and ever-growing list of plugins available to install via the package manager. Options include themes with which to customize the editor’s appearance, code linters (which can assist with more quickly locating any errors in your code), Git plugins, colour pickers, and more.

Sublime Text is free to download and start using, but for extended use, you'll need to shell out $80 for a licence – and the programme will remind you fairly regularly about payment until you cough up. If you decide to pay, the same licence key can be used by you for any computer that you use, so you can enter the same code on all your machines to make the payment reminder popup go away. The paid licence, however, is perhaps Sublime Text’s biggest downside – there are a number of competitive products available to developers for no cost.  

Brackets

Price: Free 

Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

Brackets is Adobe’s open-source editor and seems to be a very well rounded software. It doesn’t natively support as many languages for syntax highlighting as some of the others (but it still has quite a few). Because of its focus on front-end technologies, it also supports CSS preprocessors like Less and Sass. 

Brackets doesn’t come out on top on many of the usual speed and reliability metrics, but it does have several unique features worth investigating. It is mostly configurable via its menus, whereas most of the other editors in this list require you to edit configuration files (you can also edit the configuration file in Brackets if you prefer). 

There's also an interesting feature for quick CSS editing. You can use a hotkey to pop out a small section on an HTML page, then edit any CSS rules that are currently affecting the element that you have selected. This means you can quickly locate a styling problem and fix it without having to waste time searching around.  

Visual Studio Code

Price: Free 

Platform: Windows, Mac OS

VisualStudio Code is a code editor developed by Microsoft, and surprisingly, is open-source software. Of the code editors in this list, it's probably the closest to being an IDE. It's very robust and is also one of the slower programs when starting up. However, while using it, VS Code is quick and able to handle quite a few interesting tasks, such as quick Git commits or opening and sorting through multiple folders’ worth of content.

VS Code has seen a meteoric rise in popularity – it is continually growing its user base and attracting developers away from other editors. VS Code has a built-in terminal, as well as built-in Git support, both of which are big winners for fans of this program. Its ‘IntelliSense’ feature offers autocompletion of code as well as information on the parameters of functions and known variable names.  

Atom

Price: Free 

Platform: Windows, Mac OS

Atom is open source and developed by GitHub. In its initial development, it was heavily influenced by the new style of editor made popular by Sublime Text. However, there are key differences: Atom is free and open-source and offers easy out-of-box integration with Git and GitHub. Atom has historically had performance and stability problems, but those have diminished significantly as it has matured. It’s true that it still launches slower than some code editors, but it’s just as reliable and quick to use as any of the rest after that.  

Notepad++

Platform: Windows

Price: Free

Notepad++ is a free, open-source HTML editor developed for Windows-based computers. The program is lightweight and comes with a straightforward user interface. A mobile version is available for developers to code on the go without installing it into Windows.

Notepad++ is distributed as free software, and its repository is available on GitHub. Although this HTML editor is exclusive for Windows platforms, Linux users can use this program via Wine to add a compatibility layer.

Its flexible user interface allows users to choose between split or full-screen layouts when coding. On a split-screen layout, users can work on two different documents simultaneously.

 This advanced text editor also has multi-language support for web development, from HTML and CSS to JavaScript and PHP. 

Vim

 Price: Free 

 Platform: Windows, Mac OS,

Vim is perhaps the most contentious code editor in this list. Vim is a command-line software, included natively with Linux operating systems and macOS, and available for download for Windows. Vim is a favorite for many old-school programmers and keyboard enthusiasts. 

The program is navigated entirely via the keyboard, making it much faster and more efficient – but only if you make the effort to learn how to operate it. It is also extremely customised. You can use a number of keyboard shortcuts to speed up the code editing process, and even better, create customised commands to fit your own workflow.

Vim earns the award for the steepest learning curve and perhaps one of the worst user experiences overall, due to its complete lack of UI. Learning how to navigate Vim isn’t all that challenging, but building the muscle memory of shortcuts and figuring out how best to customise the editor takes a lot longer. 

Vim is incredibly stable, fast, and a real joy to use for veteran command-line aficionados and new, interested users alike. If you have the time to learn it, Vim can really increase your coding productivity, and it’s a nearly seamless cross-platform experience, with so little UI to consider.

Which code editor should I use?

You can start figuring out which text editor works best for you. Fundamentally, the basics of every text editor are the same. They all provide a place to interface text, most have syntax-based color coding.

Virtually all offers hotkeys and intuitive text features to lighten the load of a long coding project. But obviously based on your working process and OS compatibility you have to make the final decision.

Final Thoughts on Best Text Editors

As you start out coding, you'll shortly find your text editor is your best friend. Getting the right text editor is a tough call to make as a new programmer indeed. You have to choose the software so you can learn the basics without being frustrated over how to use the program itself.

Here are a few helpful posts you might want to read, too:

How to learn html for beginners in 2021?- A Guide to Learning Hypertext Markup Language

What is CSS, How Does It Work, and What Is It Used For?

WHAT IS JAVASCRIPT? HOW TO LEARN JAVASCRIPT FAST?

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