Compare software

Howl vs Geany: catalog facts
Howl	Geany
Free Free and open source under the MIT license.	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux
Extensible with Lua or Moonscript Keyboard-driven interface	Starts almost instantly and uses very little memory Depends only on GTK, so it installs cleanly on minimal Linux systems
The last official release was in 2019 Developed for Linux, with FreeBSD and OpenBSD builds also expected	No language server support in the core, so completion is simpler than a modern IDE's Debugging needs a plugin and is basic
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.