Compare Caxton vs. WildEdit

Caxton is a native macOS large file text editor and CSV editor in one: a workbench for logs, CSVs, TSVs, JSON, SQL dumps, and exports of any size. One app instead of a text editor, a spreadsheet, and a log viewer: open the file and work. Every delimited file opens as text and as a typed grid; edits made in either view show in the other, and saving writes the same file back. Nothing is imported, converted, or uploaded. It memory maps the file instead of loading it into RAM. On an M1 Max a 50 GB log (403 million lines) opens immediately, indexes in 75 s, and memory stays under 160 MB throughout. A search returns 8,059,509 matches counted exactly; Replace All across 1,574,039 sites is one undo step. A 10 million row CSV (5.1 GB) opens as a sortable, filterable grid in 4.4 s, past Excel's row limit. Every number, including a run on a base 8 GB M1 Air, is published with its methodology at caxton.app/docs/benchmarks. Text: find and replace with exact counts and regex, Batch Replace, Find in Files, filters that keep line numbers, a log viewer mode with Go to Time and severity filters, follow mode, side by side compare, multi-cursor editing, snippets, clipboard history, 18 encodings. CSV: typed sorting, filter by value, fill series, remove duplicates, split and combine columns, change the delimiter, fixed-width to columns, cell editing in place. Native AppKit and Swift, no Electron. Files never leave the Mac: no upload, no cloud processing, no telemetry. Apple Silicon and Intel, macOS 13 or later, a 5 MB notarized download, also installable with Homebrew. Built for data engineers, SREs, DBAs, and analysts. 7-day trial, no card. After it, opening, searching, filtering, and copying stay free; a license adds editing and saving.

When you have to apply identical modifications across multiple files simultaneously, WildEdit proves to be a significant time-saver. This interactive application allows users to modify various plain text files organized in a folder structure, utilizing wildcard filters for precise targeting. It works exceptionally well for tasks such as updating web pages, altering software source code, or reformatting documents like log files and newsletters. However, it's important to note that it does not cater to files with proprietary binary formats, including Microsoft Word documents. The process involves entering the text to search for—potentially employing a regular expression—along with the desired replacement text and a wildcard filter, after which you can simply let the tool execute the changes. You can repeat this action as many times as needed, with the added benefit of being able to undo and redo the last ten modifications if necessary. Before committing to a purchase, you can try out WildEdit with its trial version, encouraging you to download it now and discover how much more efficient your editing tasks can become. With its capabilities, you can effectively edit any files that contain plain text.