gedit
Free, easy-to-learn text editor from the GNOME project with tabs, syntax highlighting and plugins.
- Verified facts
- 5 of 5
- Alternatives ranked
- 6
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About gedit
gedit is a general-purpose text editor that has been developed alongside the GNOME desktop since 1998. It opens files in tabs and handles notes, config files and code equally well, with syntax highlighting for many languages, regex search and replace, spell-checking, word completion, line numbers and bracket matching. A side-panel file browser and a plugin system add extras such as code commenting, sorting, bookmarks and document statistics, and it can edit files on remote locations. It is free and open source and runs mainly on Linux. For years it was GNOME's default editor; newer GNOME releases ship GNOME Text Editor instead, but gedit is still maintained by its own team and packaged by most distributions. It sits between a bare notepad and a programming IDE: comfortable for quick edits and light coding, without language servers or project-wide tooling.
Best for: Linux users who want a simple, tabbed editor for notes, config files and light coding.
Pros and cons
What works
- Easy to pick up, with sensible defaults
- Syntax highlighting for many languages and regex search
- Plugin system for extras like bookmarks and sorting
- Can edit files on remote locations
Why people leave
- Linux only in practice
- No language server support or project tooling for serious development
- No longer the default editor in current GNOME releases
Top gedit alternatives
See all 6- 1
Sublime Text67.6Very fast cross-platform editor with multiple cursors and a large plugin ecosystem; paid licence.
- 2
Visual Studio Code65.0Free and cross-platform, for when your editing turns into real programming work.
- 3
Kate56.8KDE's free editor goes further, with split views, a terminal panel and language server support.
- 4
Geany54.4Light and fast like gedit, but adds build commands and a symbol list for coding.
- 5
Notepad++51.2The obvious pick on Windows: free, tabbed and quick, with syntax highlighting and plugins.
Why people left gedit
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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gedit: common questions
Is gedit free?
Yes. gedit is free, open-source software.
Is gedit open source?
Yes.
What platforms does gedit run on?
gedit is available for Linux.
What are the best alternatives to gedit?
The highest-ranked gedit alternatives right now are Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code and Kate. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.