CotEditor

Free, open-source plain-text editor made just for macOS.

Verified facts: 4 of 4
Alternatives ranked: 4
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About CotEditor

CotEditor is a lightweight plain-text editor for macOS, developed as an open-source project and distributed for free through the Mac App Store and as a direct download. It is built to look and behave exactly like a native Mac app, launching quickly and keeping settings in a normal preferences window rather than configuration files. It colours more than 60 languages out of the box and lets you define your own, offers find and replace with the ICU regular expression engine, an outline menu, split editor panes, automatic backups, a Unicode character inspector and scripting in Python, Ruby, shell, AppleScript, JavaScript and other languages. It is especially good with Japanese and other CJK text, accurately detecting encodings and supporting vertical text. CotEditor runs only on recent versions of macOS. It is a text editor rather than a code IDE, with no language server, debugger or AI features, so developers usually pair it with a heavier tool for projects.

Best for: Mac users who want a quick, free, native editor for text and simple code.

What works

Free and open source
Truly native Mac app that launches instantly
Excellent encoding detection and CJK support

Why people leave

macOS only, recent versions required
No language server, debugger or AI features
Not suited to managing large projects

Top CotEditor alternatives

See all 4

1
Sublime Text
Fast cross-platform editor for people who also work on Windows or Linux.
74.4
2Bb
BBEdit
Far more powerful text processing, with a free mode after the trial.
66.5
3
TextMate
Free, open-source Mac editor with more coding features through bundles.
62.6
4
Nova
A paid native Mac editor with full IDE features for web projects.
59.6

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CotEditor: common questions

Is CotEditor free?

Yes. CotEditor is free, open-source software.

Is CotEditor open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at coteditor/CotEditor.

What platforms does CotEditor run on?

CotEditor is available for macOS.

What are the best alternatives to CotEditor?

The highest-ranked CotEditor alternatives right now are Sublime Text, BBEdit and TextMate. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 4 CotEditor alternatives

CotEditor facts

4 of 4 verified

Price: Free; Checked Oct 25, 2026coteditor.com(opens source in a new tab); “The Plain-Text Editor for macOS It's free! light-weight, neat, yet powerful Why you should choose CotEditor?”
Open source: Yes; Checked Oct 25, 2026coteditor.com(opens source in a new tab); “Open Source CotEditor is developed as an open-source project that allows anyone to contribute.”
Syntax highlighting: 60+ languages; Checked Oct 25, 2026coteditor.com(opens source in a new tab); “Colorize more than 60 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown.”
Distribution: Mac App Store and direct download; Checked Oct 25, 2026coteditor.com(opens source in a new tab); “CotEditor is distributed on the Mac App Store . However, there is also a non-AppStore version just for in case.”