Best Free Code Editors of 2025

Windsurf is a cutting-edge IDE designed for developers to maintain focus and productivity through AI-driven assistance. At the heart of the platform is Cascade, an intelligent agent that not only fixes bugs and errors but also anticipates potential issues before they arise. With built-in features for real-time code previews, automatic linting, and seamless integrations with popular tools like GitHub and Slack, Windsurf streamlines the development process. Developers can also benefit from memory tracking, which helps Cascade recall past work, and smart suggestions that enhance code optimization. Windsurf’s unique capabilities ensure that developers can work faster and smarter, reducing onboarding time and accelerating project delivery.

Visual Studio Code is a highly extensible AI-powered code editor built for developers who demand flexibility and performance. It combines intelligent coding assistance, modern debugging tools, and collaboration features in one lightweight package. With Agent Mode, VS Code reads your codebase, runs terminal commands, and edits across files automatically until tasks are complete. Its Next Edit Suggestions feature predicts and completes your next move as you type, enhancing speed and code accuracy. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) enables developers to connect their favorite AI models—from OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, or Google—and extend functionality through custom servers. Developers can work in any language, from JavaScript and Python to C#, Java, and Go, while leveraging over 75,000 extensions for added productivity. Seamless integration with GitHub Codespaces, cloud storage, and CI/CD tools allows teams to code, collaborate, and deploy anywhere. Open-source at its core, VS Code empowers both individuals and enterprises to innovate without limits.

IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful and versatile IDE tailored for professional Java and Kotlin developers who want to maximize their productivity and code quality. It provides comprehensive support across the entire development process, including design, coding, debugging, testing, and deployment. With smart code analysis, safe refactoring, and error detection, IntelliJ IDEA minimizes bugs and technical debt so developers can focus on innovation. The latest version adds full support for Java 24 features and enables Kotlin’s K2 mode by default, improving performance and memory efficiency. New interactive Kotlin notebooks allow real-time prototyping and data visualization within the IDE. IntelliJ IDEA also includes advanced debugging tools like the Spring Debugger for managing dynamic database connections. JetBrains prioritizes developer comfort with an intuitive interface and customizable settings. The IDE adheres to strict privacy and security standards, ensuring developers’ data remains protected.

A highly advanced text editor designed for coding, markup, and writing. With the Goto Anything feature, you can quickly access files using minimal keystrokes and effortlessly navigate to symbols, lines, or specific words. This editor allows you to make multiple edits simultaneously rather than repeating one change multiple times. Thanks to multiple selections, you can efficiently modify numerous lines at once, easily rename variables, and handle files more rapidly than you ever thought possible. The Command Palette provides access to less frequently used features, such as sorting, syntax adjustments, and indentation modifications. By entering just a few keystrokes, you can search for exactly what you need without the hassle of navigating through menus or remembering complex key commands. Additionally, Sublime Text boasts a robust Python API that enables the development of plugins to enhance its existing capabilities. With the ability to install Package Control through the command palette, you gain straightforward access to a wealth of community-created packages that can extend the editor's functionality even further. This makes it an invaluable tool for anyone looking to streamline their coding or writing process.

Notepad++ serves as a free alternative to traditional Notepad and is designed for editing source code across various programming languages. Functioning within the Microsoft Windows ecosystem, it operates under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The editor is built on the robust Scintilla editing framework and is developed using C++, making use of the pure Win32 API and Standard Template Library (STL) to achieve enhanced execution speed and a compact file size. By optimizing numerous processes while maintaining user-friendliness, Notepad++ aims to contribute to the reduction of global carbon dioxide emissions. The software’s efficiency allows computers to use less CPU power, enabling them to operate at lower energy levels, which in turn leads to reduced power consumption and a more sustainable environment. This approach exemplifies how software development can align with eco-friendly initiatives.

Apache NetBeans is a dynamic, open-source Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports the development of applications in various programming languages, such as Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML5, and C/C++. Renowned for its modular framework, NetBeans equips developers with a comprehensive suite of tools and features tailored for creating desktop, mobile, and web applications. It boasts advanced code editing, debugging, and profiling functionalities, as well as an integrated visual GUI builder for crafting user interfaces in Java. Additionally, NetBeans provides support for multiple version control systems like Git, SVN, and Mercurial, enhancing collaborative efforts among teams. As a project under the Apache Software Foundation, NetBeans is continually refined by a vibrant community dedicated to expanding its capabilities, ensuring it remains a dependable and adaptable option for developers in numerous fields. Furthermore, its extensive documentation and tutorials make it accessible for both novice and experienced programmers alike.

Atom is a modern text editor tailored for the 21st century, developed on the Electron framework, and inspired by the features that we cherish in our preferred editing tools. It has been crafted to offer extensive customization options while remaining user-friendly with its default settings. As a vital component of a developer's toolkit, a text editor often collaborates with other tools rather than functioning in isolation. With the integrated GitHub package, you can seamlessly manage your Git and GitHub workflows directly in Atom—creating branches, staging and committing changes, pushing and pulling updates, resolving merge conflicts, and reviewing pull requests, all from within the editor. This package comes pre-installed with Atom, meaning you can start right away! Atom is compatible with various operating systems, including OS X, Windows, and Linux, ensuring a wide accessibility. You can easily search for and install new packages or even develop your own straight from the editor. Additionally, Atom enhances your coding efficiency with its intelligent and adaptable autocomplete feature, and it allows you to conveniently browse and open individual files, entire projects, or multiple projects simultaneously within a single window, making it a versatile choice for developers. Overall, Atom is designed to make coding smoother and more efficient, catering to both novice and experienced developers alike.

SeaMonkey is a community-driven, open-source Internet suite that brings together browsing, communication, and development tools under one unified interface. Designed as a successor to the Netscape Communicator and Mozilla Suite, it offers an integrated experience combining a web browser, email and newsgroup client, RSS reader, IRC chat, and HTML editor. Powered by the Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird engine, SeaMonkey ensures fast performance, tabbed browsing, popup blocking, and secure mail handling. The email client supports S/MIME encryption, adaptive spam filtering, and LDAP-based address books for professional-grade communication. Developers benefit from built-in tools such as the DOM Inspector and support for numerous add-ons to extend functionality. The suite runs across Windows, macOS, and Linux, maintaining a consistent experience for diverse users. With regular updates and multilingual support, it continues to evolve while preserving the stability of a classic Internet toolkit. Whether you’re managing mail, building websites, or simply browsing, SeaMonkey delivers power, privacy, and versatility in one streamlined package.

BlueGriffon® is an advanced Web and EPUB editor that utilizes the rendering engine originally developed for Firefox. With a rich legacy that includes notable predecessors like Netscape®, Mozilla® Composer, and Nvu, it stands out in the market. Powered by Gecko, the same engine that underpins Firefox®, BlueGriffon® boasts an array of robust features designed for both novice and experienced users. This editor has garnered a significant user base, with millions relying on it across various sectors, including educational institutions, governmental bodies, and even the European Parliament. Additionally, it has received official endorsement from the French Government, which recommends it as the Web Authoring Tool for its administration, highlighting the importance of promoting Free Software initiatives. Its widespread adoption and recognition underscore its effectiveness and reliability in web development.

Visual Studio by Microsoft is a complete ecosystem for professional developers, combining robust coding environments, integrated AI capabilities, and advanced collaboration tools. The flagship Visual Studio 2022 IDE delivers an all-in-one workspace with compilers, debuggers, designers, and performance profilers for .NET, C++, C#, and Azure development. Meanwhile, Visual Studio Code (VS Code) offers a lightweight yet powerful editor that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, ideal for web, JavaScript, Python, and container-based workflows. With GitHub Copilot integration, developers receive intelligent code completions, automated refactoring, and natural language explanations of complex logic. Agent Mode introduces an AI-driven assistant that can edit across files, execute builds, and resolve compile or test errors autonomously. Built-in tools like unit test generators, CI-aware policy enforcement, and style validation help ensure clean, testable, and secure code. Thousands of extensions from the Visual Studio Marketplace expand functionality for database, cloud, and DevOps workflows. Together, these platforms redefine productivity, helping teams code smarter and deliver innovation faster.

Many people consider NoteTab to be the premier replacement for traditional Notepad. For webmasters, it serves as the quickest HTML editor available. Others find it to be the most adaptable text editing tool. For those who are more experienced, it functions as a powerful text-processing machine. What will it become for you? Soon, we will share the ten key features that have contributed to NoteTab’s reputation as one of the most celebrated text editors in history. But before that, here's a fascinating tidbit for those unfamiliar with NoteTab: the tab bar. This beloved feature allows users to open multiple files simultaneously, each represented by its own tab, and provides the flexibility to rearrange these tabs within the handy tab bar to suit personal preferences. With such versatility, it’s no wonder NoteTab continues to be a favorite among many.

EmEditor is a quick, lightweight, and highly customizable text editor designed for Windows, offering user-friendly features. It comes in both native 64-bit and 32-bit versions, with the 64-bit variant additionally providing distinct builds optimized for SSE2 (128-bit), AVX-2 (256-bit), and AVX-512 (512-bit) instruction sets, catering to a wide range of user needs. This versatility makes it a popular choice among various coding and editing professionals.

Introducing the AI-centric Code Editor. Cursor represents a revolutionary AI-enhanced code editor aimed at expediting the software development process through robust, real-time coding support. This platform effortlessly integrates into your existing development practices, providing sophisticated features like natural language code editing, smart auto-completion, and context-sensitive recommendations. By anticipating your next coding step and aligning with your unique coding style, Cursor becomes an essential asset for programmers. Furthermore, it accommodates a diverse array of extensions and themes, balancing a sense of familiarity with innovative AI functionalities. Tailored to enhance productivity, Cursor not only streamlines debugging but also significantly improves coding efficiency, allowing developers to maximize their effectiveness and achieve more in less time. Ultimately, Cursor sets a new standard in coding tools, blending traditional coding techniques with modern AI advancements to redefine how developers approach their work.

Supermaven enables you to code at twice the speed with the help of artificial intelligence. You can engage in discussions with various advanced models like GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and GPT-4, among others. Hotkeys make it easy to instantly view differences, implement changes, begin conversations, and toggle between different models. It's simple to attach files you've recently modified to your messages, as Supermaven Chat connects the model's code suggestions to your original code, allowing for easy comparison and updates. Additionally, you can rectify mistakes effortlessly by uploading your code along with compiler error messages with just one click, streamlining the debugging process significantly. This seamless integration of features makes coding not only faster but also more efficient.

Enhance your coding speed using the integrated development environment tailored for modern web programming languages such as Python, PHP, Perl, Golang, Ruby, and several others. This powerful tool can significantly streamline your development process, making it easier to tackle complex projects efficiently.

Embarcadero Dev C++ is a new and improved fork sponsored by Embarcadero. It's a combination of Orwell Dev C++ and Bloodshed Dev C++. It is a fully-featured Integrated Development Environment, (IDE), and code editor for C/C++ programming languages. It uses Mingw port GCC (GNU Compiler Collection), as its compiler. Embarcadero DevC++ can be used with Cygwin and any other GCC-based compiler. Embarcadero DevC++ is built with the latest Embarcadero Delphi. Embarcadero DevC++ is native Windows and has a small memory footprint. It does not use Electron. Optimized to parallel compile on modern multi-core processors.

Bluefish is a robust text editor designed specifically for programmers and web developers, offering a wide array of tools for creating websites, scripts, and various coding languages. It accommodates numerous programming and markup languages, making it versatile for different coding needs. For a detailed look at its features, users can explore the overview, browse through screenshots, or download the editor directly. As an open-source project, Bluefish is distributed under the GNU GPL license, promoting free use and distribution. This multi-platform application is compatible with a variety of desktop operating systems such as Linux, FreeBSD, MacOS-X, Windows, OpenBSD, and Solaris. The latest version, Bluefish 2.2.12, is a minor maintenance update that introduces some new features, including a crucial fix for a crash that occurred during simple searches. Enhancements have also been made in Python 3 compatibility, and the detection of encoding in Python files has seen improvements. Additionally, the triple-click function now allows users to select entire lines easily, and on Mac OSX, Bluefish has been optimized to better handle new permission features. Furthermore, issues with displaying the correct language in the Bluefish user interface for certain languages on OSX have been resolved. With these updates, users can expect a smoother and more efficient coding experience.

When embarking on PHP development, one of the initial challenges is selecting an appropriate Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Many commercial IDEs come with steep price tags ranging from $100 to $500. In contrast, we present a versatile, portable IDE that is completely FREE and packed with essential features, including syntax highlighting for PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; enhanced autocomplete for those languages; a robust debugger specifically for PHP; contextual and dynamic assistance; a code validation tool; a SQL management system; and much more. CodeLobster IDE efficiently facilitates the PHP development workflow, allowing you to focus on coding without needing to memorize function names, arguments, tags, or attributes, thanks to our comprehensive autocomplete capabilities across PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Additionally, users can easily access helpful information by pressing F1 or utilizing the dedicated Help feature. Our built-in, complimentary PHP Debugger further ensures that you can validate your code seamlessly and locally. Furthermore, CodeLobster IDE's user-friendly interface and extensive support make it an ideal choice for both beginners and seasoned developers alike.

Zed is an advanced code editor crafted for seamless collaboration between humans and AI, emphasizing high performance. Developed entirely in Rust to maximize the efficiency of multiple CPU cores and GPU resources, it allows for the integration of emerging LLMs into your coding workflow for tasks such as code generation, transformation, and analysis. The platform facilitates real-time communication with team members, enabling collaborative note-taking, screen sharing, and project management. With its multibuffer system, users can edit selected excerpts from the entire codebase on a single interface. It also supports inline code evaluation through Jupyter runtimes, allowing for joint notebook editing. Zed is compatible with numerous programming languages, thanks to Tree-sitter, WebAssembly, and the Language Server Protocol. Its quick native terminal is integrated with Zed's language-aware task runner and AI features, enhancing productivity. The editor offers first-class modal editing through Vim bindings, incorporating functionalities such as text objects and marks for efficient navigation. Built by a diverse global community of thousands of developers, Zed encourages users to enhance their experience with a wide array of extensions that expand language capabilities, provide various themes, and more. Furthermore, its user-friendly design aims to streamline development workflows, making it an ideal choice for programmers looking to elevate their coding efficiency.

Lapce is an innovative, open-source code editor designed to provide a swift and responsive experience, especially beneficial for developers tackling extensive projects or intricate codebases. Developed using Rust, Lapce takes advantage of native development's performance benefits to ensure a seamless editing experience that minimizes delays. The editor boasts a sleek, contemporary interface alongside advanced features like multi-caret editing, split views, and integrated terminal capabilities. By incorporating support for the Language Server Protocol (LSP), Lapce delivers accurate autocompletion, syntax highlighting, and efficient code navigation for a variety of programming languages, ultimately boosting developer productivity. Its high degree of extensibility, comprehensive plugin support, and emphasis on performance position Lapce as an optimal choice for developers seeking a lightweight yet robust editor that effectively combines simplicity with functionality, making it appealing to both novices and experienced coders alike. Furthermore, Lapce's commitment to community-driven development ensures that it continues to evolve, addressing the needs of users and keeping pace with the ever-changing landscape of software development.

Predator CNC Editor is one of the most popular CNC editor on the market. It has hundreds of features that will improve the productivity of CNC operators, programmers, and machine tool operators. Yet, it is very easy to use. The Predator CNC Editor is a great choice for small shops or large manufacturers.

CodeSandbox aims to make it easier for you to express your ideas with code, and to validate them. It also removes the hassles of setting up development tooling and sharing your project. Join us to help build the future of web coding. Over 4M developers use the platform each month. This includes organizations like Shopify and Atlassian. Since its launch, creators have created over 35M apps. It's used in thousands of open-source projects like React, Vue and Babel. You can invite your friends, colleagues, or team to join you or simply view your creation by using a URL. Use any of 1M+ packages for building real, powerful applications quickly and efficiently. Import and run repos directly from GitHub or choose from hundreds of templates to start in seconds. Boxy, CodeSandbox's AI-powered coding assistant, is now available to all Pro subscriptions.

Build, modify, and launch fullstack applications with just a single click. Design stunning user interfaces made possible through our collaboration with Progress KendoReact. Access Definitions and other fantastic features directly within Visual Studio Code seamlessly. Edit your application in real-time without needing to reload the page, all while maintaining your app's state. Quickly bring any NPM package into your project faster than you would locally, thanks to our innovative in-browser development server. Effortlessly drag and drop files and folders into the editor—eliminating the hassle of copy-pasting, uploading, or using git commands. Your application is hosted, allowing for straightforward live sharing. Initiate new projects by simply submitting the required project data from a form—this is particularly helpful when the use of our JavaScript SDK isn't an option. When your desired StackBlitz project is open, just drag and drop any files or folders that you wish to import easily. Additionally, the user-friendly interface enhances your overall development experience.

Boost Note serves as a dynamic and rapid collaborative environment tailored for developer teams, aiming to enhance their productivity by providing an exceptional note-taking experience specifically designed for developers. It goes beyond just a GitHub-inspired markdown interface by enabling users to incorporate diagrams using tools like Charts.js, Mermaid, and PlantUML, thereby enhancing the clarity of their documents. With the option to select from various keymaps such as Vim and over 150 customizable themes, users can personalize their Markdown editor to fit their preferences. Additionally, documents can be managed programmatically, allowing users to obtain an authentication token to access Boost Note's APIs through straightforward HTTP requests. This functionality enables the automation of documentation tasks through integrations with more than 2,000 external tools via Zapier, streamlining workflows significantly. Users can collaborate seamlessly with team members, sharing information in a manner that suits their needs, while all teams benefit from being housed in a unified workspace. The real-time editing feature permits teams to write documents together, enhancing collaborative efforts. Furthermore, users can easily review the revision history of any document and revert to previous versions with a single click, ensuring that important changes are never lost. Lastly, Boost Note prioritizes the security of vital data through detailed access controls based on the workspace, allowing for tailored permissions for each team member.

Komodo Edit serves as an excellent choice for those seeking a powerful and straightforward editor. On the other hand, Komodo IDE offers advanced features like debugging, unit testing, code refactoring, and code profiling for more complex development needs. As software vendors increasingly serve as the first line of defense against security threats, even a single compromised update can expose countless customers to potential cyberattacks. Avoid becoming another SolarWinds incident by opting for comprehensive solutions. Instead of juggling multiple discrete tools and bespoke coding, the ActiveState Platform offers a ready-made solution that helps safeguard the security and reliability of the open source components you utilize and manage. This proactive approach not only enhances security but also streamlines your development process, allowing you to focus on building innovative solutions.