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BBEdit

Bare Bones Software's veteran Mac text and code editor, with a generous free mode.

Free plan + paidCode editors
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About BBEdit

BBEdit is a professional text and HTML editor for macOS from Bare Bones Software, in continuous development since the early 1990s. It is aimed at writers, web authors and developers who manipulate a lot of text: grep-style pattern matching, search and replace across many files and folders, text transformations, code folding, syntax colouring and function navigation for many languages, FTP and SFTP editing, and deep scripting through AppleScript, Unix tools and shell worksheets. Recent versions add language server support and an optional AI chat worksheet. Every new install gets a 30-day evaluation with all features; afterwards BBEdit keeps working for free, with no nags, with a reduced feature set, and a paid licence or a Mac App Store subscription turns the extra features back on. It runs only on macOS. It is less of an IDE than Nova or VS Code, but for heavy text processing on a Mac it remains hard to beat.

Best for: Mac users who process lots of text, logs or HTML and want powerful search tools.

Pros and cons

What works

  • Free mode keeps working after the trial, without nags
  • Excellent multi-file search, grep and text transforms
  • Native Mac app with deep scripting support

Why people leave

  • macOS only
  • Fewer IDE features than Nova or VS Code
  • Interface feels old-fashioned to some

Top BBEdit alternatives

See all 5
  1. 1Sublime Text logo
    Sublime Text

    Fast multi-platform editor with strong search and multiple cursors.

    76.8
  2. 2Visual Studio Code logo
    Visual Studio Code

    Free, cross-platform and extensible for heavier coding work.

    72.5
  3. 3Nova logo
    Nova

    A native Mac editor with more IDE features like debugging and Git.

    66.5
  4. 4CotEditor logo
    CotEditor

    Free and open source for lighter plain-text work on the Mac.

    62.6
  5. 5TextMate logo
    TextMate

    Free, open-source Mac editor with bundles and multiple carets.

    57.2

Why people left BBEdit

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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BBEdit: common questions

Is BBEdit free?

BBEdit has a free plan and paid plans.

Is BBEdit open source?

No, BBEdit is not open source. Open-source alternatives include Visual Studio Code, CotEditor and TextMate.

What platforms does BBEdit run on?

BBEdit is available for macOS.

What are the best alternatives to BBEdit?

The highest-ranked BBEdit alternatives right now are Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code and Nova. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 5 BBEdit alternatives