Alternatives to Pulsar

Community-maintained continuation of the Atom text editor. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Pulsar.

  • Visual Studio Code

    Microsoft's code editor, free to use but shipped under a Microsoft licence rather than an open one.

    FreeProprietaryWindowsmacOSLinux

    Visual Studio Code is also Electron-based but has extensions for nearly every language and monthly releases, while being closed source with telemetry.

  • VSCodium

    Visual Studio Code built from the same source without Microsoft’s branding, telemetry or licence.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    VSCodium is an MIT-licensed VS Code build without telemetry, with a larger extension ecosystem through Open VSX than Pulsar's registry.

  • Zed

    A Rust editor from the people who built Atom, written for speed and for two people editing one file.

    FreemiumOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Zed comes from the people who built Atom, written in Rust with GPU rendering for speed, but with a smaller extension ecosystem.

  • Sublime Text

    A fast native editor for code and prose, paid for but with an evaluation that never stops working.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOSLinux

    Sublime Text is a native editor with far lower memory use than Electron, but it is closed source and paid.

  • Lite XL

    Edit text and code in a lightweight Lua-based editor.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Lite XL is a lightweight MIT-licensed editor extensible through Lua plugins and themes, avoiding Electron's memory use and startup time.

  • Lapce

    A code editor written in Rust with GPU rendering, built-in LSP support, optional modal editing and remote development.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Lapce is a native Rust editor with built-in LSP and remote development, faster than Electron editors but still pre-1.0.

  • Kate

    KDE's text editor: syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, split views, multi-cursor editing and an embedded terminal.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    Kate is a native KDE editor with multi-cursor, split views and an embedded terminal, but depends on KDE Frameworks and lacks a macOS build.

  • Geany

    A small, fast IDE built on GTK that starts instantly and does not depend on a heavy desktop environment.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Geany is a small GTK IDE that starts instantly with very little memory, though it lacks language server support and looks dated.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Pulsar as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • GNU Emacs

    An editor that is really a Lisp environment, extensible to the point where people run their email, calendar and shell inside it.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Pulsar continues Atom as a hackable Electron editor with its own package registry, and it inherits Atom's memory use and startup time.

  • jEdit

    A mature, plugin-driven programmer's text editor written in Java for many operating systems.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Pulsar continues the hackable Atom editor with its own package registry, but it is Electron-based with Atom's memory use and startup time.

  • Phoenix Code

    An open-source code editor for web development that continues the Brackets project, with live preview.

    FreemiumOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxWeb

    Pulsar continues the Atom editor with its own package registry, keeping a hackable desktop editor, but it is Electron-based and has a smaller maintainer team.

  • Theia IDE

    An open-source IDE for desktop and browser from the Eclipse Foundation that runs VS Code extensions.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxWeb

    Pulsar is an open-source continuation of Atom with its own package registry, Electron-based and desktop only.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.