Alternatives to Notepad4
A lightweight Scintilla-based text editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, folding and auto-completion. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Notepad4
A lightweight Scintilla-based text editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, folding and auto-completion.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Notepad4.
Notepad3
A lightweight open-source Notepad replacement for Windows with syntax highlighting and code folding.
Notepad3 is another open-source Scintilla-based Notepad replacement for Windows in the Notepad2 lineage, with syntax highlighting and code folding but no bundled matepath file browser.
Notepad++
The fast Windows text and source code editor that replaced Notepad for a generation of users.
Notepad++ is a GPL Windows editor with tabs, split view, regex find across files, macros and plugins, replacing Notepad4's single-document design.
Notepads
Use a lightweight Windows text editor with tabs and Markdown preview.
Notepads is an MIT-licensed Windows text editor with tabs, Markdown preview and change previews, trading Notepad4's auto-completion for a tabbed layout.
PSPad
A freeware text and code editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, hex editing and a built-in FTP client.
PSPad is closed-source Windows freeware with an integrated hex editor, FTP client, code comparison and macro recorder, offering more built-in tools than Notepad4.
EmEditor
A Windows text editor built for very large files, CSV data, logs and code.
EmEditor is a closed-source freemium Windows editor built for very large files and CSV data, with some features requiring the paid Professional edition.
RJ TextEd
A freeware Unicode text and source code editor for Windows with web preview, hex mode and SFTP.
RJ TextEd is closed-source Windows freeware with HTML and CSS preview, FTP and SFTP sync, hex mode and multiple selection editing.
Sublime Text
A fast native editor for code and prose, paid for but with an evaluation that never stops working.
Sublime Text is a paid, closed-source native editor that also runs on macOS and Linux, with multiple cursors, goto-anything and fast handling of very large files.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
micro
A terminal editor with the keybindings you already know: Ctrl-S to save, Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-Z to undo.
Microsoft Edit
Edit text with a familiar interface inside your terminal.
UltraEdit
A commercial text, code and hex editor for Windows, macOS and Linux that handles very large files.
GNU nano
Small terminal text editor with the shortcuts printed on screen.
