Best Free Code Editors For Web Developers

Published in

Level Up!

6 min readSep 4, 2017

by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — software documentation tool

Today I’ve prepared a list of the best, in my opinion, code editors for web developers. If you prefer any other code editor that is not listed, please comment what’s its name and why do you enjoy it and I’ll add it to the list.

Brackets

Brackets is a modern open-source code editor for HTML, CSS and JavaScript that’s built in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Key features:

Tools shouldn’t get in your way. Instead of cluttering up your coding environment with lots of panels and icons, the Quick Edit UI in Brackets puts context-specific code and tools inline.
Brackets is in sync with your browser. With Live Preview, Brackets works directly with your browser to push code edits instantly and jump back and forth between your real source code and the browser view.
Do it yourself. Because Brackets is open source, and built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you can help build the best code editor for the web.

Atom

Atom is a text editor that’s modern, approachable, yet hackable to the core — a tool you can customize to do anything but also use productively without ever touching a config file.

Key features:

Cross-platform editing. Atom works across operating systems. You can use it on OS X, Windows, or Linux.
Built-in package manager. Search for and install new packages or start creating your own — all from within Atom.
Smart autocompletion. Atom helps you write code faster with a smart, flexible autocomplete.
File system browser. Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in one window.
Multiple panes. Split your Atom interface into multiple panes to compare and edit code across files.
Find and replace. Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file or across all your projects.

Light Table

Key features:

Watches. Next-gen println to keep track of important values in your code. Just add a watch to an expression and the value will be streamed back to LT in real time.
Inline evaluation. No more printing to the console in order to view your results. Simply evaluate your code and the results will be displayed inline.
Open source. Every bit of Light Table’s code is available to the community because none of us are as smart as all of us.
Malleable. Keymaps, behaviors, and Light Table’s Behavior-Object-Tag engine means you can easily shape your IDE to whatever your work requires.
Plugin manager. The plugin manager hooks into the central list of plugins so you don’t have to go hunting all over the internet to find the ones you want.
Powerful editing. Light Table is a lightweight, clean, and sleek interface with all of the power and functionality you need and expect from your editor.

Sublime Text

Key features:

Goto Anything. Use Goto Anything to open files with only a few keystrokes, and instantly jump to symbols, lines or words.
Multiple Selections. Make ten changes at the same time, not one change ten times. Multiple selections allow you to interactively change many lines at once, rename variables with ease, and manipulate files faster than ever.
Command Palette. The Command Palette holds infrequently used functionality, like sorting, changing the syntax and changing the indentation settings. With just a few keystrokes, you can search for what you want, without ever having to navigate through the menus or remember obscure key bindings.
Distraction Free Mode. When you need to focus, Distraction Free Mode is there to help you out. Distraction Free Mode is full screen, chrome free editing, with nothing but your text in the center of the screen. You can incrementally show elements of the UI, such as tabs and the find panel, as you need them.
Split Editing. Get the most out of your wide screen monitor with split editing support. Edit files side by side, or edit two locations in the one file. You can edit with as many rows and columns as you wish. Take advantage of multiple monitors by editing with multiple windows, and using multiple splits in each window.
Instant Project Switch. Projects in Sublime Text capture the full contents of the workspace, including modified and unsaved files. You can switch between projects in a manner similar to Goto Anything, and the switch is instant, with no save prompts — all your modifications will be restored next time the project is opened.
Plugin API. Sublime Text has a powerful, Python based plugin API. Along with the API, it comes with a built in Python console to interactively experiment in real time.
Customize Anything. Key Bindings, Menus, Snippets, Macros, Completions and more — just about everything in Sublime Text is customizable with simple JSON files. This system gives you flexibility as settings can be specified on a per-file type and per-project basis.
Cross Platform. Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses.

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Key features:

Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding;
User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding;
PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace;
GUI entirely customizable;
Document Map;
Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint;
Multi-Document (Tab interface);
Multi-View;
WYSIWYG (Printing);
Zoom in and zoom out;
Multi-Language environment supported;
Bookmark;
Macro recording and playback;
Launch with different arguments.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux and macOS. It is free and open-source, although the official download is under a proprietary license.