Top Alternatives to Caret

Notepad++ is a widely-used free and open-source text and source code editor for Windows. Built on the Scintilla editing component, it offers a rich set of features for programmers, including syntax highlighting for multiple languages, code folding, macro recording, and a tabbed interface for managing multiple files efficiently. Its lightweight design ensures fast performance even with large files.

Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup, and prose. It's known for its speed, powerful features, and extensive customization options. With features like multiple cursors, GoTo Anything, and a robust plugin ecosystem, it's a favorite among developers and writers alike for boosting productivity and creating a tailored editing environment.

Vim is an advanced, highly configurable text editor designed for efficiency, particularly favored by developers. Operating primarily in the terminal, it offers powerful editing capabilities through keyboard commands, syntax highlighting, and extensive plugin support, making it a cornerstone tool for programming and advanced text manipulation.

Atom is a highly customizable and extensible open-source text editor developed by GitHub. Built on Electron, it provides a modern, hackable platform for developers, offering robust features like syntax highlighting, Git integration, and a vast ecosystem of packages to enhance productivity and tailor the editing experience to individual needs.

Geany is a powerful yet lightweight text editor that bridges the gap between basic editors and full-fledged IDEs. It provides essential development environment features like syntax highlighting, code navigation, and a built-in terminal, making it suitable for a wide range of programming tasks.

Brackets is a modern, open-source code editor specifically designed for web development. Built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it prioritizes a streamlined workflow with its innovative features like Live Preview and inline editors, making front-end development more intuitive and efficient.

GNU Emacs is a highly extensible and customizable text editor, renowed for its powerful features and ability to serve as a complete development environment. It is based on the Emacs Lisp programming language, allowing for deep customization and a vast ecosystem of packages.

IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful Integrated Development Environment (IDE) designed primarily for Java programming, but also supporting a wide range of other languages and frameworks. Renowned for its intelligent code assistance, developer-friendly features, and robust tooling, it accelerates development workflows and improves code quality.

TextMate is a robust and feature-rich graphical text editor for macOS, specifically designed for developers. It offers syntax highlighting, powerful macros, bundles for extensibility, and a highly customizable interface to streamline coding workflows.

Komodo Edit is a powerful yet lightweight text editor specifically designed for dynamic programming languages. It offers a comprehensive suite of features for developers working with languages like Python, PHP, JavaScript, and Perl, providing smart editing tools, a customizable interface, and extensibility through plugins.

PSPad is a versatile, freeware text and code editor designed for Microsoft Windows. It offers a rich set of features for developers, including syntax highlighting, a built-in FTP client, project management, and a hex editor, all within a lightweight and portable package.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, open-source, lightweight yet powerful source code editor developed by Microsoft. It supports a wide range of programming languages and offers robust features like debugging, intelligent code completion (IntelliSense), built-in Git control, and an extensive ecosystem of extensions for enhanced functionality. Available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, VS Code has become a popular choice for developers across various disciplines.

Kate, the KDE Advanced Text Editor, is a powerful yet lightweight text editor popular among developers and advanced users. Offering robust features like syntax highlighting, built-in terminal, extensibility via plugins, and comprehensive customization options, Kate caters to a wide range of text editing and coding tasks across platforms.

TextWrangler was a widely-used, free text and code editor for macOS, renowned for its simplicity, reliability, and powerful features derived from its professional sibling, BBEdit. It offered a clean interface suitable for both basic text editing and light coding tasks.

UltraEdit is a powerful and versatile text, hex, and code editor designed for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It offers a comprehensive feature set for developers, programmers, web designers, and general users working with text files, code, and binary data.

SciTE is a free and open-source text and code editor built on the SCIntilla editing component. It's designed to be a lightweight yet powerful tool for programmers and web developers, offering syntax highlighting, code folding, autocompletion, and extensibility across multiple platforms.

Bluefish is a powerful yet lightweight code editor designed for web developers and programmers. It offers a wide array of features for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and many other programming languages, focusing on efficiency and ease of use for building dynamic websites and applications.

EmEditor is a robust yet lightweight text editor for Windows designed for power users, developers, and anyone working with large files or needing advanced text manipulation features and it offers exceptional performance and customization.

VSCodium is a community-driven, freely licensed distribution of Microsoft's VS Code editor. It removes proprietary telemetry and tracking, providing a truly open-source alternative for developers who prioritize privacy and freedom.

TextPad is a robust and lightweight text editor designed for Windows systems. It offers a comprehensive set of features for editing plain text files, source code, and HTML documents. With support for syntax highlighting, macros, and a tabbed interface, it provides a productive environment for programmers and general users alike.

Light Table is an innovative code editor designed to provide developers with instant feedback and a deeper connection to their code. It offers a clean and customizable interface, focusing on interactive development and visualizing data flow.

Komodo IDE is a powerful and flexible integrated development environment designed for building dynamic web applications.

EditPad Lite is a free text editor designed for Windows, offering essential text editing features and serving as an excellent replacement for Notepad. It supports large files, multiple languages, and a tabbed interface, making basic text manipulation simple and efficient for non-commercial users.

Koding is a cloud-based development environment that automates the setup and management of isolated coding workspaces. It provides an online IDE, built-in tools, and team collaboration features to streamline development workflows.

BBEdit is a powerful and robust text, code, and markup editor for macOS. Renowned for its stability and feature set tailored for developers and writers, it offers advanced search and replace, syntax highlighting, and integration with developer tools.

NINJA-IDE is a free and open-source, cross-platform integrated development environment specifically designed for Python development. It offers a range of features to improve productivity, including syntax highlighting, code completion, debugging tools, and a built-in terminal. Its extensible architecture allows for customization through plugins and themes.

RJ TextEd is a powerful freeware text and source code editor for Windows, offering comprehensive features for web development, programming, and general text editing.

Scribes is a free and open-source minimalist text editor designed for programmers and writers who value simplicity and efficiency. It provides a clean interface with essential features like syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and extensibility through plugins, making it a lightweight yet powerful tool for various coding and writing tasks.

SynWrite is a comprehensive and free source code editor for Windows, serving as an excellent Notepad replacement with robust features for various programming and web development tasks. It's designed for performance and extendibility, making it suitable for both novice and experienced developers.

Textadept is a powerful, free, and open-source text editor designed for programmers. Focusing on speed and extensibility, it offers a minimalist interface while providing robust features like syntax highlighting, code formatting, and a built-in terminal, all heavily customizable through Lua scripting.

Mousepad is a straightforward yet capable text editor designed specifically for the Xfce desktop environment. It provides essential text editing functionalities in a lightweight package, making it an excellent choice for everyday tasks and basic code editing.

Editra is a robust, cross-platform text editor designed with developers in mind. It's open-source, highly customizable through plugins, and features essential tools for coding like syntax highlighting, code completion, and an embedded terminal.

Aquamacs Emacs is a robust, free, and open-source text editor specifically tailored for the macOS environment, built upon the powerful Emacs framework. It provides a familiar Mac experience while leveraging Emacs' extensive customization and feature set, making it ideal for developers across various programming languages.

CotEditor is a free and open-source text editor designed specifically for macOS. It offers a clean and intuitive interface, making it a lightweight yet powerful tool for plain text editing, coding, and more.

Scratch is a powerful yet lightweight text editor designed for developers and anyone working with code or plain text. It offers automatic saving, syntax highlighting, and a range of features to boost productivity, all within a customizable and extensible interface.

Zed was a powerful, open-source code and text editor designed for developers who prioritized keyboard-centric workflows and offline capabilities. It aimed to provide a fast, responsive editing experience with advanced features like syntax highlighting, code completion, and integrated tools.

Icecoder is an open-source, browser-based code editor designed for modern web development. It allows you to code directly in the browser, with features like syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and integrated developer tools, making it convenient for development on various platforms and devices.

MadEdit is a discontinued, cross-platform text and hex editor designed with developers in mind. It offers syntax highlighting, a hex editing mode, and various customization options within a lightweight, tabbed interface. While no longer maintained, it provided a range of features useful for coding and binary file manipulation.

HippoEDIT is a robust yet lightweight text editor for Windows, designed for programmers and power users. It offers syntax highlighting for numerous languages, extensive customization options, and a feature set aimed at enhancing coding and text editing efficiency.