Spacemacs
A community-driven Emacs configuration that combines Emacs with Vim-style editing and mnemonic key bindings.
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1 more ways to get Spacemacs
Package managers
- Chocolatey
choco install spacemacs
About Spacemacs
Spacemacs is a ready-made configuration for Emacs, installed by cloning its repository into the Emacs configuration folder. It uses Evil for Vim-style modal editing and groups commands under mnemonic prefixes, such as b for buffers, p for projects and s for search, with a live display of the available key bindings.
Features come in layers, curated sets of packages tuned by the community, which you switch on for the languages and tools you use. It suits Vim users who want Emacs packages, and Emacs users who want a consistent, discoverable setup.
Strengths
- Vim key bindings on top of the Emacs package ecosystem
- Mnemonic, consistent key bindings with a live key hint display
- Layers bundle curated packages for each language or tool
- Beginner tutorial and guide for Vim users
Limitations
- Requires Emacs to be installed separately
- Large configuration can make startup and troubleshooting slower
- Learning curve for people new to both Emacs and Vim
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree, community-maintained configuration for Emacs.
- License
- Open source, license not stated
- Developer
- The Spacemacs contributors
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Vim users who want Emacs packages with a ready-made, consistent setup
- Categories
- Code editors
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Spacemacs
Compare allSoftware that can replace Spacemacs for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Doom Emacs
An opinionated configuration framework that turns GNU Emacs into a fast, modular editing environment.
Doom Emacs is another ready-made Emacs configuration with a modular setup and command-line package tooling, officially listed for macOS and Linux rather than Windows.
GNU Emacs
An editor that is really a Lisp environment, extensible to the point where people run their email, calendar and shell inside it.
GNU Emacs on its own means building your own configuration in Emacs Lisp, without the Vim bindings and curated layers Spacemacs provides.
LazyVim
A Neovim setup built on lazy.nvim that turns Neovim into a preconfigured IDE.
LazyVim moves you to a preconfigured Neovim IDE setup built on lazy.nvim, trading the Emacs package ecosystem for Neovim plugins and a terminal-first editor.
AstroNvim
A ready-made Neovim configuration with preset plugins, language tooling and a modular structure.
AstroNvim is a ready-made Neovim configuration with Mason-installed language tooling, replacing Emacs Lisp with Neovim's Lua configuration.
NvChad
A Neovim configuration base with fast startup, built-in UI plugins and dozens of themes.
NvChad is a small Neovim base configuration with fast startup and dozens of themes, meaning native Vim editing instead of Vim bindings on Emacs.
Lem
A general-purpose editor and IDE written in and extensible with Common Lisp, with Emacs and Vim keybindings.
Lem offers Emacs-like and Vim-like modes in an editor extensible with Common Lisp rather than Emacs Lisp, with built-in LSP support.
Aquamacs
An editor based on GNU Emacs and adapted to feel at home on macOS.
Aquamacs is a Mac-only Emacs adapted to macOS conventions, without Spacemacs's Vim-style bindings and based on an older Emacs in its stable release.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Magit
A complete text-based Git interface that runs inside GNU Emacs.
Denote
An Emacs note-taking package that organises plain-text notes through a predictable, descriptive file naming scheme.
Ement.el
A Matrix chat client that runs inside GNU Emacs.
PDF Tools
Emacs package for viewing, searching and annotating PDF files inside the editor.
Neovim
A modern rewrite of Vim with a built-in language server client, Lua configuration and an embeddable API.
Vim
The editor that is already on every server, with a graphical build for Windows and a licence that asks you to donate to Ugandan children.
