Alternatives to Notepads
Use a lightweight Windows text editor with tabs and Markdown preview. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Notepads
Use a lightweight Windows text editor with tabs and Markdown preview.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Notepads.
Notepad++
The fast Windows text and source code editor that replaced Notepad for a generation of users.
Notepad++ is a fast GPL-licensed Windows editor with syntax highlighting, regex find across files, macros and column editing.
Kate
KDE's text editor: syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, split views, multi-cursor editing and an embedded terminal.
Kate adds syntax highlighting for 400 languages, an embedded terminal and live Markdown preview, and also runs on Linux.
Sublime Text
A fast native editor for code and prose, paid for but with an evaluation that never stops working.
Sublime Text is a fast native cross-platform editor with multiple cursors and goto-anything, but it is paid and closed source.
Visual Studio Code
Microsoft's code editor, free to use but shipped under a Microsoft licence rather than an open one.
Visual Studio Code is a full code editor with extensions and Git integration across platforms, but heavier and not open source.
Lite XL
Edit text and code in a lightweight Lua-based editor.
Lite XL is a lightweight MIT-licensed editor for Windows, macOS and Linux, extended through Lua plugins and themes.
Microsoft Edit
Edit text with a familiar interface inside your terminal.
Microsoft Edit is an MIT-licensed terminal text editor with a familiar interface, running in a console rather than a Windows GUI.
Notepad3
A lightweight open-source Notepad replacement for Windows with syntax highlighting and code folding.
Notepad3 is a small, fast Scintilla-based Windows editor with syntax highlighting and code folding, continuing the Notepad2 lineage.
EmEditor
A Windows text editor built for very large files, CSV data, logs and code.
EmEditor is a Windows editor built for very large files, CSV data and logs, with a free edition, but it is closed source with some paid features.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Notepads as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Notepad4
A lightweight Scintilla-based text editor for Windows with syntax highlighting, folding and auto-completion.
Notepads is an MIT-licensed Windows text editor with tabs, Markdown preview and change previews, trading Notepad4's auto-completion for a tabbed layout.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Geany
A small, fast IDE built on GTK that starts instantly and does not depend on a heavy desktop environment.
VSCodium
Visual Studio Code built from the same source without Microsoft’s branding, telemetry or licence.
micro
A terminal editor with the keybindings you already know: Ctrl-S to save, Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-Z to undo.
Markor
An open-source Android text editor for Markdown notes, todo.txt lists and plain text files.
gedit
A general-purpose text editor for Linux that is easy to learn and integrates with GNOME.
