BBEdit Alternatives for Mac Text Editing and Coding

BBEdit is Bare Bones Software's text and code editor for the Mac, and it is still maintained and sold. Version 16.1 is a universal app for Intel and Apple silicon and needs macOS 14.0 or later, per the BBEdit product page. You get a 30-day evaluation, then the app keeps running in a free mode, with no nag screens, for as long as you like. A licence is a one-time $59.99 purchase and adds the extras.

So most people looking for a replacement are not escaping a dead app. They want something cheaper than a licence, a Windows or Linux version for a mixed team, newer AI features, or an editor that runs on an older macOS. The list below starts with native Mac editors, then moves to the cross-platform ones. Windows-only tools are left out; if you work on a PC, our Notepad++ alternatives guide covers that side.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

CotEditor

CotEditor is the nearest thing to BBEdit's free mode that is free from the first day. It is a plain-text editor written for macOS only, with syntax highlighting for more than 60 languages, find and replace on the ICU regular expression engine, split panes, and an outline menu that jumps between functions or headings. It is open source and also on the Mac App Store.

A few features go beyond what most editors offer. The Character Inspector shows the Unicode data of any character, the app warns about characters that will not survive a change of encoding, and it can lay out Japanese or Chinese text vertically. Macros can be written in Python, Ruby or JavaScript, which covers some of what BBEdit users do with text filters.

Best for: Mac users who mostly edit plain text, config files and logs and want a free native app.

Pricing:

• Free and open source
• Also free on the Mac App Store

Watch out for:

• The 7.1.2 release notes (October 12, 2026) list macOS 26 as the minimum, so a Mac on macOS 14 or 15 needs an older CotEditor.
• There is no SFTP or FTP editing and no Git tools, two things BBEdit includes.

Official site: CotEditor.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is the pick when the only real complaint about BBEdit is that it is Mac-only. One licence key covers all your computers on macOS, Windows and Linux. Build 4215 came out on September 25, 2026 and still runs on macOS 10.13, four major versions older than BBEdit 16.1 accepts. It opens large files quickly, and multiple cursors and the command palette are why many people buy it.

Pricing differs from BBEdit's. A personal licence is $99, paid once, and includes three years of updates, per the Sublime HQ store. After three years you keep the version you have or pay to upgrade. Business seats are sold per year instead. Package Control adds language support, linters and themes written by the community.

Best for: People who split their week between a Mac and a Windows or Linux machine.

Pricing:

• Free evaluation; a licence is required for continued use
• Personal: $99 once, three years of updates
• Business: $65 per seat per year for 1 to 10 seats, falling to $50 per seat per year beyond 50

Watch out for:

• A licence bought more than three years before a new build shows a licence upgrade message. Users hit this after build 4180 in August 2024, as a long Sublime Forum thread shows.
• There is no free mode like BBEdit's. The evaluation keeps working, but the store says a licence is required for continued use.

Official site: Sublime Text. Our listing: Sublime Text.

Nova

Panic, the company behind Transmit, built Nova as a native Mac code editor and the successor to Coda. It feels like a Mac app in the way BBEdit does, but its focus is web and app development. Editor, terminal and Git share one window, you can browse and publish files on remote servers, build and run tasks sit on toolbar buttons, and Nova can install language servers for you. The current release is Nova 14.1.

The Nova buy page lists $99 plus tax for a new licence, or $79 if you own Coda 1 or 2. That includes one full year of updates. After that, an opt-in plan costs $49 a year, and if you cancel you keep the version you have. The trial is full-featured for 30 days.

Best for: Mac web developers who want a polished native editor with Git, terminal and remote editing in one window.

Pricing:

• New licence: $99 plus tax, paid once, one year of updates included
• Upgrade from Coda 1 or 2: $79 plus tax
• Updates after year one: optional $49 a year
• 30-day free trial

Watch out for:

• Nova needs macOS 15.6 or later, a higher bar than BBEdit's macOS 14.
• It is Mac-only, and after the first year updates cost money every year, so it can cost more than BBEdit over time.

Official site: Nova.

Visual Studio Code

Microsoft's free editor wins on reach. VS Code runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, ships a new version almost every week (1.145 arrived on November 4, 2026), and has an extension for nearly every language, linter and framework. Git, debugging, a terminal and Remote-SSH editing are built in or one extension away, so it covers BBEdit's server editing and the licence-only Git features at no cost.

The trade is that it is an Electron app, not a native Mac one. It looks the same on every system, uses more memory than BBEdit, and the default build sends telemetry until you change the telemetry level setting. For a version without Microsoft's telemetry and branding, VSCodium builds the same code.

Best for: Developers who want a free editor with debugging, Git and a huge extension catalogue.

Pricing:

• Free for private and commercial use
• Optional paid extensions such as GitHub Copilot plans are sold separately

Watch out for:

• A GitHub issue reports 2.2 to 2.5 GB of memory use on a small Python project with extensions turned off.

Official site: Visual Studio Code.

Zed

Zed started on the Mac. It is written in Rust and draws its interface on the GPU, which keeps typing and scrolling quick, and it has what a modern code editor needs: language servers, tree-sitter syntax, multi-cursor editing, a terminal, Git and real-time collaboration. The editor is open source under the GPL. Windows and Linux builds now exist too.

AI is where it differs most from BBEdit. Zed has an agent panel and edit predictions, and the Zed pricing page lets you use them for free if you bring your own API keys or an external agent such as Claude Agent or Codex CLI. Pro adds unlimited edit predictions and $5 of hosted tokens a month.

Best for: Developers who want a fast, open-source editor with AI features and live pairing.

Pricing:

• Personal: $0, using your own API keys or external agents
• Pro: $10 a month, unlimited edit predictions and $5 of tokens; extra usage at API list price plus 10%
• Business: $30 per seat per month, no minimum
• 14-day Pro trial, no card needed

Watch out for:

• It is a code editor first. There is nothing like BBEdit's text factories or shell worksheets.
• On Linux it needs a Vulkan-capable GPU, so some older machines and virtual machines run it badly.

Official site: Zed.

UltraEdit

UltraEdit has been around almost as long as BBEdit and covers similar ground: very large files (it advertises 10 GB and up), column mode, hex editing, and built-in FTP, SSH and Telnet. One subscription covers Windows, macOS and Linux. The Core plan also includes UltraCompare for diffing files and folders, a job BBEdit handles through its own compare command.

Its pricing is a yearly subscription, unlike BBEdit's one-time licence. The UltraEdit pricing page lists Core at $99.95 a year, or $189.91 every two years. Enterprise, at $119.95 a year, adds UEStudio, UltraFinder and UltraFTP.

Best for: People who open multi-gigabyte logs or data files and need the same editor on three systems.

Pricing:

• Core: $99.95 a year, or $189.91 billed every two years
• Enterprise: $119.95 a year, or $227.90 billed every two years
• No free plan

Watch out for:

• The Mac edition trails Windows. Its latest build is 2025.0.0.180 (October 29, 2026), while the Windows product is on UE 2026.1.
• There is no free tier, so after the trial it costs more each year than a one-time BBEdit licence.

Official site: UltraEdit.

TextMate

TextMate was the Mac developer's editor of the late 2000s, and its grammar files still power syntax highlighting in other editors. TextMate 2 is free and developed as open source. It still does the things that made it popular: multiple carets, snippets with placeholders that adapt to context, bundles for languages and workflows, and changed-file markers from version control in the file browser.

For a BBEdit user it is a lighter, keyboard-driven option with no licence to buy. The TextMate site lists macOS 10.12 as the minimum, so it runs on Macs that BBEdit 16, CotEditor 7 and Nova all refuse.

Best for: Mac users who like a minimal, keyboard-first editor and do not need new features.

Pricing:

• Free and open source

Watch out for:

• Development has stalled. The latest release, 2.0.23, is from October 12, 2021.
• There is no built-in language server support, so code completion and error checking lag far behind Nova, Zed or VS Code.

Official site: TextMate.

How to choose

When to stay with BBEdit

Keep BBEdit if you rely on its grep search and replace across folders, text factories or shell worksheets. None of the picks above bundles all three, and the BBEdit feature comparison shows the free mode still keeps FTP and SFTP editing and rectangular selections. Version 16.1 also added Highlight Patterns and a built-in HTML5 checker that works offline, so the app is still moving.

Frequently asked questions