8 Cool Free Code Editors for Android

Programming can be a nightmare, if you don’t have the right development tools that allow you to write and test source code without being overwhelming. Coding on the computer is the best way, but it surely can’t beat the convenience of viewing or editing source code from anywhere. This is where mobile devices come in handy. Your smartphone and tablet can also be used as a development tool.

Google Play Store is full of apps for all your coding needs, ranging from code editors, compilers and development environments. They are all different and come with a varied set of features and drawbacks, which makes selecting the best tool a challenge. To help you save time and effort, we’ve compiled a list of 8 cool free code editors for Android.

1. DroidEdit (free code editor)

DroidEdit is a text and code editor for Android phones and tablets with a simple interface. It supports several programming languages such as C, C++, C#, Java, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Ruby, Lua, LaTeX, SQL and more. It offers syntax highlighting with deeper contrasting colors and several color themes as well as an option to create your custom color themes. It has powerful tools to help you achieve your goals easily. Emmet lets you expand simple expressions into full fledged HTML code. Other features include:

• Infinite undo & redo
• Search and replace text using normal text or regular expressions
• Extra keyboard line with those hard to type coding symbols
• Preview HTML files in browser
• Keep opened files and changes between sessions
• Open files directly from Dropbox or a file manager

2. Quoda Code Editor

Quoda is one of the best free multi language text and source code editor for Android. It’s easy to use with integrated support for SFTP/FTP(S) servers and cloud storage (Dropbox and Google Drive). Quoda is loaded with many useful features such as find and replace with regex and case (in)sensitivity, syntax highlighting with themes, extended keyboard, cross-session editing, line bookmarking and auto-indentation. syntax highlighting is supported for a variety of languages, including HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, PHP, C, C++, C#, ActionScript, Lisp, Markdown, Haskell and more. Other features include:

• Downloading URL source code
• Auto-encoding detection
• Brace matching
• Undo and Redo
• Color picker
• HTML formatting
• Comment code out

3. Codeanywhere

Codeanywhere is a fast and light code editor for Android. It features a sharing capability so you can get help from a colleague, open your code base to a group, or simply show your latest code to friends. It requires the user to login to be able to synchronize settings across all platforms. Other features include:

• Syntax highlighting of more than 75 languages
• Auto complete for HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and PHP
• Copy or Move files between FTP, SFTP or Dropbox
• Supports most encodings types
• Auto-indentation
• Customizable font sizes
• Undo & Redo

Codeanywhere also works on the desktop (Mac and PC).

4. AIDE — Android IDE — Java, C++

AIDE stands for Android IDE, is a complete integrated development environment for Android devices. It lets you visually design apps, write code with the feature rich editor with code completion, real-time error checking, refactoring and smart code navigation. AIDE features interactive lessons with step-by-step instructions to learn Android app development and Java programming skills (in-app purchase). It supports building apps with Java/Xml and the Android SDK, apps with C/C++ and the Android NDK as well as pure Java console applications. AIDE is fully compatible with Eclipse projects. It can integrate with Dropbox for uploading and downloading files from the popular cloud storage. Best of all, there’s support for Git, and it can edit, checkout, commit and push files directly.

5. Android Web Developer (AWD)

Android Web Developer is a fully featured IDE/code editor for web developers. It supports many languages such as PHP, CSS, JS, HTML and JSON. It supports various productivity features including code highlighting, code completion, error checking, code beautifying, fast navigation, search and replace among other things. It even offers a quick preview of your web pages inside the application. Other features include:

• A lot of ways to reach your project (FTP, FTPS, SFTP, WEBDav)
• Auto detection of file’s encoding
• Tablet ready UI
• Full screen mode
• Fast navigation (by name of classes/functions)
• Git integration

6. CppDroid — C/C++ IDE

CppDroid is a simple yet powerful C/C++ IDE that brings the GCC compiler to Android. It allows you to code, edit, compile and execute C/C++ programs on your Android device without any difficulty. It is focused on learning programming languages and libraries with bundled examples sorted by language and skills level as well as C++ tutorial which makes it a great choice to learn and code C/C++ on the go. Other features include:

• Smart syntax highlighting
• Real-time diagnostics (warnings & errors) and fixes
• Auto-indentation and auto pairing
• Compile C/C++ code (no root required)
• Works offline (built-in compiler)
• Add-ons manager and auto updates
• Dropbox support

7. 920 Text Editor

920 Text Editor is a powerful text editor that can be used also as e-book reader to open text novel. It supports syntax highlighting for ASP, ActionScript, C/C++, C#, Erlang, Frink, HTML/XML/WML, CSS, Javascript, Java, JSP, Perl, PHP, Python, Shell/Bash, Lua, SQL, VB/VBS, Tcl, TeX/LaTeX, Verilog, AutoHotKey, AutoLisp, PowerShell, Pascal, Fortran, ColdFusion and VHDL. You can open different files in different tabs. Other features include:

• List of recently opened files history
• Preview the HTML file
• Auto-indentation
• Change the font and font size
• Auto-encoding detection
• Color Picker
• Session handling

8. WebMaster’s HTML Editor Lite

WebMaster’s HTML Editor Lite is a lightweight web-focused code editor for Android. Despite its name, it supports HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript, which should be enough for most web developers. It has built-in help for HTML, JavaScript and CSS. Other features include:

• Syntax highlighting
• Code completion
• Undo and Redo
• Virtual keys for tags
• Dark and light color schemes

All eight of these code editors for Android are great choices for the developer on the go. They offer some pretty nice features to make coding easier, which may allow you to drop your current computer for a lighter, more modern tablet.

What features do you look for in code editors for Android? Which code editor is your favorite, whether it’s included here or not? Let us know in the comments below!

See also: 20 Best App Builders For Creating Mobile Apps.

Originally published at wikiblinks.com on December 13, 2014.