Editors (local)

Full IDEs

IntelliJ by Jetbrains

written in Java & Kotlin

well known & common
great code hinting
fairly easy (for and IDE) to set up

proprietary
not free
no public GitHub repo (closed source)

latest release: 2026.2 (July 2026)

Eclipse

written in Java (SWT for UI)
used to be common

free & open source
been around a long time
GitHub repo

bit harder to set up & configure

latest release: 2026-06 / Eclipse 4.40 (June 1, 2026)

Visual Studio

by microsoft

good modern look
common
written in C++ & C#

no public GitHub repo (closed source)
proprietary

latest release: v18.0.2 (Nov 24, 2025)

Netbeans

used to be common

open source
been around a long time
bit easier then Eclipse to set up
written in Java (Swing for UI)
GitHub repo

latest release: v31 (Aug 5, 2026)

KDevelop

open source
been around a long time
cross-platform
modern look
written in C++, built on Qt & KDE Frameworks
GitHub repo
latest release: 6.3.250800 (Aug 14, 2025)

Emacs (personally highly rated) — has a terminal mode option

open source
common
lots of plugins avilable
you can do anything with this and the right plugins
core written in C, extended/configured in Emacs Lisp
GitHub mirror (canonical source is GNU Savannah, no official GitHub repo)

latest release: 31.1 (Aug 24, 2026)
Doom Emacs -- make emacs simular to vim
- rolling release, no tagged versions (tracks latest commits)
- Doom Emacs common key commands

To get doom emacs installed on m-series mac I had issues that the following solved:

brew tap d12frosted/emacs-plus -- formula for macos that offers extra functionality
brew install emacs-plus --with-native-comp --with-modern-papirus-icon
then normal doom-emacs install worked like a gem.

Code Editors

This is what I prefer to use most of the time. They are normally a bit lighter weight (less memory and cpu usage) & normally faster to get up and working.

VScode

Popular

lots of plugins avilable
simple to get started with
modern looking
more friendly to new users.
fairly configurable

plugins can easily affect startup time and memory load.
written in TypeScript, built on Electron
bit slow and a memory hog sometimes

GitHub repo
latest release: 1.135.0 (Aug 26, 2026)

Zed (personally highly rated)

mostly written in Rust

has Vim like mode
fast
more friendly to new users.
modern looking
now is open-source

doesn't seem to have plugins at the moment

GitHub repo
latest release: v1.17.2 (Aug 26, 2026)

My Thoughts: Looks really nice and promising. Really needs a few features that I'm used to in NeoVim for me to consider further.

VScodium — VSCode without the microsoft

more private then VScode
completely open-source
lots of plugins avilable (can plugins designed or VScode)
simple to get started with
fairly configurable
modern looking

same codebase as VSCode: TypeScript, built on Electron
plugins can easily affect startup time and memory load.
GitHub repo

latest release: 1.126.04524 (Jul 7, 2026)

Vim — more information about Vim on my Notes Page — Terminal based

runs in CLI

Popular
been around a long time
very configurable
likely already on your system
easy to use on remote servers
easy to backup/restore configuration

hard to get started with

written in C, scriptable in Vimscript
GitHub repo
latest release: v9.2.1015 (Aug 27, 2026 — patches released near-daily)

NeoVim — more information about NeoVim on my Notes Page (personally highly rated) — terminal based

runs in CLI

easy to install
avilable for every system I can think of
very configurable
easy to use on remote servers
easy to backup/restore configuration
has modern plugins avilable
powerful
uses standard vim keybindings

hard to get started with

quick start to writing your own config file
LunarVim -- opinionated setup for neovim that installs in a seprate confg space from neovim
LazyVim -- opinionated setup for neovim that is easy to customize
AstroNvim -- opinionated setup for neovim
NVChad -- opinionated setup for neovim that is fairly easy to customize
COC — Conguer of Compleation — depends on node and doesn't use lua (i dont recomend this anymore)
written in C, scriptable in Lua (and Vimscript)
GitHub repo
latest release: v0.12.5 (Aug 23, 2026)

Pulsar

Community fork of old Atom editor
github repo

built with Electron
written in JavaScript & CoffeeScript

more up to date then Atom editor
latest release: v1.132.1 (May 20, 2026)

Lapce

looks a lot like VScode
still in early development
built with Rust

built in "vim mode"
fast
open source

GitHub repo
latest release: v0.4.6 (Jan 21, 2026)

Kate

created by KDE

easy to setup & install
open source
looks very good

I personally had a few bugs trying to change some options on the windows & macos install
written in C++, built on Qt & KDE Frameworks
GitHub mirror (canonical source is invent.kde.org)
latest release: v26.08.0 (Aug 14, 2026)

Phoenix

looks simular to VScode

easy to setup & install
open source
suports extensions & has extension manager included
light weight

made with JavaScript
GitHub repo
latest release: v5.2.4 (Aug 10, 2026)

Kakoune

Modal editor
orthogonal design (not standard vim but might be better in some ways)
runs in terminal

good out the door experiance

written in C++
GitHub repo
latest release: v2026.05.21 (May 21, 2026)

Amp

runs in terminal
written in rust
a lot is pre-included
no plugins
vim like keybidings for simple movement

simple to learn and use
good out of box experiance

not very powerful

GitHub repo (unrelated to Sourcegraph's "Amp" AI coding agent, which shares the name)
latest tagged release: 0.7.1 (Sep 27, 2024) — repo still receives occasional commits since

Notepad++

windows only

Dated looking to me.
Its been around awhile
has some stable plugins avilable
written in C++ (Win32 API / Scintilla component)
GitHub repo
latest release: v8.9.8 (Aug 23, 2026)

Sublime Text

free to use (under most conditions)
great modern look
easy to use from start

proprietary
no plugins really

written in C++ (Python is used for its plugin API)
no public GitHub repo (closed source)
latest stable release: Build 4200 (May 21, 2025); latest dev build: 4207 (Aug 12, 2026)

Geany

open source
decent UI
easy to use out of the box

no plugins?

written in C, uses GTK
GitHub repo
latest release: 2.1.0 (Jul 6, 2025)

Helix

great looking out of the box
powerful
stable

no plugin system currently (still in development)

keybidings are "simular" to vim.
- just as powerful
- switched around in order
built on rust.
GitHub repo
latest release: 25.07.1 (Jul 18, 2025)

Micro

simple
cli based
built on GoLang.
GitHub repo moved from zyedidia/micro (now redirects) to micro-editor/micro
latest release: v2.0.15 (Dec 31, 2025)

Micro (Rust) — terminal mode

simple
quick

beta

Terminal based
built on Rust with some typescript
GitHub repo/release date could not be reliably identified — this looks like it may be a duplicate/mislabeled entry for the Go-based Micro above rather than a distinct project (verify and update the link)

jmigpin go editor

simple

completely written in Go
latest release: v3.14.0 (Jul 17, 2026)

Online Editors

I mostly use these as quick editors or as ways to share code quickly.

Full IDE like editors

vscode web

almost exact copy of the full vs code
works on most anything that runs a modern web browser

cloud 9

fairly full IDE

amazon controlled
cost is based on CPU & storage inline with AWS services.
integrated into amazon's aws service
requires account

phoenix

fairly full IDE
inclues nice markdown preview for markdown files
included web preview on the side

new & in development
linter issues window
based off of the editor Brackets

replit

Good Collaberation
free for public use
good for beginners
easy to use
has simple code examples in many languages

requires account

simple to us requires sign up
has pivoted heavily toward "Replit Agent" AI app-building, though the plain code editor is still there

shiftedit

fairly powerful IDE
terminal support
realtime collaboration

min $6.oo / month / user

stackblitz

made to quickly get started with Angular or React coding

free for public projects
sync with public github projects
has a minimal console & editor
Quick online text editors with IDE like features

min $8.00 / user / month
no Online IDE after last update, instead you use your own and it uses a CLI to manage volume mounting and ssh'ing into their VMs

These are great way to share code quickly either with a person or with a group
quick to start a fresh environment with Nuxt, React, vanilla js, Vue, Angular, Node.js, Static HTML, Astro, Svelte, Koa, Express, Egg, and more.
homepage now foregrounds their AI app-builder "Bolt.new", but the classic WebContainer-based online IDE still works fine

gitpod — now rebranded as Ona

feels a bit like vscode editor
pulls a git repo and runs it in a container
free for 50 hours a month
Gitpod Classic pay-as-you-go was shut down Oct 15, 2025; company rebranded to Ona — free tier still exists under the new product

google cloud shell editor

Custom VS Code editor
free to try/limited use per month?
most compleate coding environment I've ever experianced in the browser
really great if you are already using google cloud
can transfer code between it and your local vscode install

GitHub Codespaces

full VS Code in the browser, backed by a real Linux VM/container (devcontainers)
free tier: 120 core-hours/month + 15GB storage for individual accounts
tightly integrated with GitHub repos/PRs
$0.18/core-hour beyond free tier

Firebase Studio (formerly Google Project IDX)

Google's Code-OSS-based cloud IDE with Gemini AI assistance built in
looks a lot like vscode.
free to use, browser-only, no local setup
supports JS/TS, Python, Dart, Go; aimed at full-stack app dev

being sunsetted on March 22, 2027

Val Town

free tier is generous, no credit card needed
write & instantly deploy TypeScript "vals" (serverless functions/crons/HTTP endpoints) straight from the browser
built-in SQLite & blob storage per account
fast, modern, minimal UI

TypeScript/JavaScript only
more of a "run small scripts in the cloud" tool than a full project IDE

Simpler

raspberrypi editor

simple clean interface
no login needed to view/use.

designed with young kids in mind
python & HTML/CSS only

Code Sandbox

speclizes in React, Vue, and other frontend web coding frameworks.
live integrated web preview
no login needed to view/use.
now under Together AI; company is repositioning around SDK/infra for AI agents, but the browser editor is still there

Code Share

Emphasis on sharing code and has a video chat option. Its a bit slow to startup sometimes but doesn't require a login to use.

codepen

free to use option

jsbin

simple
quick
no account needed
can be a bit flaky — had a multi-day outage in Jan 2026 due to aging infra (single maintainer); a v5 rewrite is in progress

jsfiddle

Popular choice for a long time, doesn't require login to use. It also includes a fair amount of boilerplates to get you started.

Compiler Explorer

shows compiled assembly output live as you type — specialized, not a general editor
supports 70+ languages/compilers (C, C++, Rust, Go, Swift, etc.)
no login needed, free, open source, huge usage (1M+ compiles/week)