- There are many other text editors apart from the above text editors but for more ease these are some top 10 Free and Best Text Editor for Mac OS. These text editors are versatile and powerful to use for Mac OS.
- Carbon Emacs Package is a Mac-friendly distribution of the GNU Emacs text editor. It’s simple, extensible, and good for technically minded users who value the advanced features it offers. Not the most user friendly app, but worth bearing in mind.
Some of the best HTML editors for Mac OS X are free or available as an evaluation version with no enforced time limit. Sublime Text (the latter) is extremely fast and can be customized without much fiddling.
We have evaluated over 20 free HTML editors for Macintosh against over 40 different criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers. The following applications are the best free HTML editors for Macintosh, both WYSIWYG and text editors, rated from best to worst. Each editor listed will have a score, percentage, and a link to more information.
Best Value: Komodo Edit
What We Like
Lots of add-ons available.
Built-in FTP client.
Auto-complete and syntax checking features.
What We Don't Like
Slow to load.
Feels cluttered.
Difficult to install color schemes.
Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters).
Komodo Edit is not the best HTML editor out there, but it is great for the price, especially if you build in XML. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.
There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.
Best for JavaScript Developers: Aptana Studio
What We Like
Integrated debugger.
Build-in Code Assist feature for tags.
Built-in terminal emulator.
What We Don't Like
No longer in development.
Minimal support for PHP.
Some dependencies.
Aptana Studio offers an interesting take on website development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications.
One thing I really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the document object model (DOM). This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development.
If you are a developer creating web applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice.
A Full Featured Java IDE: NetBeans
What We Like
Version 9.0 released by Apache after acquisition.
Supports the Jigsaw Module system.
Supports Java Shell, new in JDK 9.
What We Don't Like
Needs high-memory computer to run quickly.
Not many plug-ins.
Auto-completion is buggy.
NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications. Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because they don’t often work in the same way that web editors do. But once you get used to it you’ll be hooked.
One nice feature is the version control included in the IDE which is really useful for people working in large development environments. If you write Java and web pages this is a great tool.
Best for LAMP Developers: Bluefish
What We Like
Auto-completion and auto-tag closing.
Powerful search and replace.
Quick to start and load files.
What We Don't Like
Not for novice programmers.
User interface looks intimidating.
Too many tabs and toolbars.
Best Text Editor On Mac
Bluefish is a full-featured web editor for Linux. There are also native executables for Windows and Macintosh. There is code-sensitive spell check, autocomplete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management, and auto-save.
It is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, but if you’re a designer by nature you might not like it as much.
A Powerful Multi-Language IDE: Eclipse
What We Like
Robust debugging and profiling profile.
Code-completion feature.
Fast deployment and implementation.
What We Don't Like
Slow when working with large files.
Not recommended for large businesses.
Steep learning curve for novice programmers.
Eclipse is a complex, Open Source development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on a variety of platforms and with different languages.
Eclipse is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something just find the appropriate plug-in and go.
If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.
A Swiss Army Knife IDE from Mozilla: SeaMonkey
What We Like
Tabs for WISIWYG editing, HTML tags, HTML code, and browser views.
Suitable for building simple, basic websites.
What We Don't Like
Composer element no longer being maintained.
Generates HTML 4.01 Transitional code.
SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one internet application suite. It includes a web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and Composer, the web page editor.
One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that the browser is built-in, so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP client to publish your web pages.
A Basic HTML Writer: Amaya
What We Like
Useful for up to HTML 4.01.
Supports SVG and MathML.
What We Don't Like
Last updated in 2012.
No longer in development.
Amaya is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web editor and web browser. It validates the HTML as you build your page and displays your Web documents in a tree structure, which is useful for learning to understand the DOM.
Amaya has a lot of features that most web designers won’t ever use, but if you want to be certain that your pages follow the W3C standards, this is a great editor to use.
Straightforward and Stable: BBEdit 12
What We Like
Supports HTML5.
Opens large files.
Great customer support.
Rock-solid software.
Text Editor For Mac High Sierra
What We Don't Like
Advanced features require paid version after 30-day free trial.
Must search menus for features and options.
BBEdit is a paid program that has a set of free capabilities (the same capabilities that the now-defunct TextWranger had. While Bare Bones Software, the makers of BBEdit do offer a paid version, you may find the free version does everything you need. You can review a feature comparison here.
Note
If you're using TextWrangler, it is not compatible with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). However, the free (and paid) version of BBEdit is.
Everyone, who wants to develop websites, needs an HTML editor or rather a development environment. There are, of course, several fee-based editors of high quality, but if you do not need your development environment every day, a free application will be perfectly fine. That an editor is free of charge does not mean that it is of low quality. One of the best development environments is available as permanently free evaluation version. You can “test” it as long as you want. However, if the editor suits you, you should be fair and purchase it. Below, we present you a selection of the best free HTML editors for macOS.
CotEditor 2.o
CotEditor is a relatively new and fresh development for everyone who doesn’t need his editor on a daily basis and simply wants a good editor with syntax highlighting. You can consider CotEditor as Notepad++ for OS X. It provides, besides a viable code completion, a very good search-and-replace function, a split view to partition the editor window in several fields, good syntax highlighting for 40 programming languages and comes with eight themes. For a simple editor, you can customize the application more than you’d have expected; the editor is certainly worth trying out.
This is one of the eight themes:
Brackets
Brackets is a modern open source editor with several extremely interesting features. For example, when used in combination with Adobe Creative Cloud Extract (=preview) it can read design data such as colors, types, histories etc. directly from a PSD file and transform it into minimalistic, correct CSS code. Likewise, you can extract layers as images, use the information from the PSD as variables in a preprocessor, and easily determine distances and proportions of elements – all without exiting the editor. Please remember: Using Adobe Creative Cloud requires a paid subscription.
Another significant advantage of Brackets are the expansions, which you can use to customize the editor to your needs. Every three or four weeks another extension becomes available. The full support of preprocessors should also be mentioned. With Brackets, you can use “quick edit” and “live preview” when working with LESS as well as SCSS files, which makes the working process much easier. Together with the right extensions and Adobe Creative Cloud (Extract), this editor can even cover the needs of a professional.
A short video introduction to Brackets
Sublime Text 2
Sublime Text 2 is the minimalistic favorite of developers, because it can easily be completely customized to one’s own needs by using a JSON file. Moreover, there are several extensions to “stretch” the editor with. For example, a must-have extension is Package Control, which you can use to easily find and install extensions and plug-ins from right within the editor. To describe the full extent of features of Sublime Text 2 is rather difficult, as it can do, through its plug-ins and extensions, basically anything you need it to do. As an example for a useful plug-in, look at the Bracket Highlighter (for finding connected brackets and tags), Emmet (previously Zen Coding – for extremely fast coding) and Sublime Linter (draws attention to mistakes in the source code).
A high-quality auto-completion feature is already built into Sublime Text 2. There are also several themes to choose from. A lot more can be installed. All standard functions such as search and replace are, of course, included. The editor is available as an evaluation version without enforced time limit, so that you may use it for free permanently. Nonetheless, you should purchase the license for fairness sake if you are certain that you will keep the editor on permanent rotation.
Google Web Designer
Yes, Google also provides tools for web designers. However, Google Web Designer works more like Adobe Dreamweaver.. It is not a pure HTML editor, but a combined WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) and text editor. You can work with both interfaces, the graphical interface, and the code-view. Google Web Designer is supposed to generate correct HTML5 and CSS3 code from the graphical interface. Whether it does so correctly, will be determined by an extensive test. Stay tuned…
Without thorough testing, there is little to be said about this editor. Even the information on the website of the editor is rather sparse, which may be down to the fact that it is still in its beta phase. However, the concept is interesting.
Aptana Studio 3
The Aptana Studio is one of the best known and most versatile development environments there are. It is a powerful tool, which supports the most important coding and markup languages, such as HTML (including HTML5), CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby. With Git integration, a debugger for Ruby and JavaScript, an inbuilt terminal with the option for extensions, Aptana Studio is equipped for any purpose. Aptana is available as a stand-alone version or as Eclipse plug-in. The newest web standards are generally supported. What I dislike: a documentation does not seem to be available (anymore) as the link in question leads to another destination. Bummer.
Decided Not to Code? Take a Look at Mobirise
If you just ran into this article to find HTML editors that take away the coding part from you, you’ll have found out by now that this is the wrong place. To not lose you leaving completely disappointed I want to advise you to take a look at Mobirise. Mobirise is an installable editor, too. The difference to the others mentioned here is that it does not let you fiddle with the code. Instead, it completely keeps you away from that. We have written a full-fledged article on Mobirise and I strongly encourage you to check it out.
Mobirise is available for Windows and macOS and comes fully free of charge. If you need a fully responsive website in the fastest way possible, ditch the code editors and head over to Mobirise.
Conclusion
Some of the best HTML editors for Mac OS X are free or available as an evaluation version with no enforced time limit. Sublime Text (the latter) is extremely fast and can be customized without much fiddling. I use Sublime Text 2 as well. However, Brackets also seems to be very interesting. A test will show how good it actually is. It is already installed, and I will use it for the next coding session. A review is, therefore, inevitable.
Related links:
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