Compare the Top Text Editors as of March 2026

What are Text Editors?

Text editors are software applications that allow users to create, edit, and manipulate plain text files. They are essential for writing and editing code, documentation, notes, and other types of text-based content. Text editors typically offer basic features like syntax highlighting, search and replace, and line numbering for developers, as well as more advanced features like version control integration, autocomplete, and code folding. While simple text editors allow basic editing, more advanced versions are widely used for their versatility and customization options, especially in programming and content creation. Compare and read user reviews of the best Text Editors currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Obsidian

    Obsidian

    Obsidian

    Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. The human brain is non-linear: we jump from idea to idea, all the time. Your second brain should work the same. In Obsidian, making and following "connections" is frictionless. Tend to your notes like a gardener; at the end of the day, sit back and marvel at your own knowledge graph. Note-taking is incredibly personal. Tried every app, but there's always something not quite right? You deserve better. Obsidian is built to be extensible. With 22 core plugins and 149 community plugins, set up your own toolkit and get running in minutes. You'll even be able to install third party plugins or build your own once Obsidian reaches v1.0. Sky's the limit. In our age when cloud services can shut down, get bought, or change privacy policy any day, the last thing you want is proprietary formats and data lock-in. With Obsidian, your data sits in a local folder.
    Starting Price: $25 one-time payment
  • 2
    CryptPad

    CryptPad

    CryptPad

    CryptPad is built to enable collaboration. It synchronizes changes to documents in real time. Because all data is encrypted, the service and its administrators have no way of seeing the content being edited and stored. Store and manage documents with CryptDrive. Create folders, shared folders, and tags to organize documents. Upload and share files (PDFs, photos, video, audio, etc.). Team drives are shared between users and allow for collaborative organization and fine-grained access controls. CryptPad does not profit from user data. This is part of a vision for online services that respect privacy. Unlike the big platforms that pretend to be "free" while making profits from personal information, CryptPad aims to build a sustainable model funded willingly by users. We offer CryptPad's functionality for free because we believe everyone deserves personal privacy, not just people with disposable income.
    Starting Price: €5 per month
  • 3
    WordPad

    WordPad

    Microsoft

    WordPad is a basic text-editing app you can use to create and edit files, include text with different fonts and colors, insert pictures, and add links to other files. You can use WordPad to open and save text files (.txt), rich text files (.rtf), Word documents (.docx), and OpenDocument text files (.odt). Files in other formats will open as plain text files and might not appear as expected. Some features, like headers, footers, and annotations, aren’t supported in WordPad. If you open a file with these features and then save the file in WordPad, you’ll lose the content in these features. If you want to change such a file, but don’t want to lose the original content, tap or click Save as and save the file with a different name. That way you can make changes to a copy of the file while keeping the content in the original file intact. For more info about what each button does, press and hold the button for a description (or if you’re using a mouse, point to the button).
  • 4
    Boost Note

    Boost Note

    Boost Note

    Boost Note is a powerful, lightspeed collaborative workspace for developer teams. Built to empower developers productivity with the most solid note taking experience for developers. Not just a GitHub flavored markdown. Put diagrams with Charts.js, Mermaid, and PlantUML in documents to maximize visibility. Choose from keymaps like Vim, over 150 themes, and more to create your own Markdown editor. Manage your documents programmatically. Grab an authentication token and access Boost Note's APIs via simple HTTP requests. Automate your documentation work with over 2,000 external tool integrations via Zapier. Collaborate with your colleagues and share information your way. Have all your teams in one shared workspace. Write documents as a team with Boost Note's realtime editing. Check revision history of a doc. You can easily roll back to one of the previous versions in one click. Keep your important data safe through granula access control based on workspace.
    Starting Price: $3 per member per month
  • 5
    Typora

    Typora

    Typora

    Typora gives you a seamless experience as both a reader and a writer. It removes the preview window, mode switcher, syntax symbols of markdown source code, and all other unnecessary distractions. Instead, it provides a real live preview feature to help you concentrate on the content itself. Typora allows you to manage your files easily, providing both file tree panel and articles (file list) side panel, allows you to manage your files easily. Organize your files your way, including putting in sync services, like Dropbox or iCloud. Automatically see the Outline structure of your documents in outline panel, which allows you to quickly go through the document and jump to any section with one click. Export to PDF with bookmarks. Go further and export or import. More formats, including docx, OpenOffice, LaTeX, MediaWiki, Epub, etc, can be exported or imported. See how large your document is in words, characters, lines, or reading minutes.
  • 6
    yEdit2

    yEdit2

    Spacejock Software

    It also includes a special .yedit2 file format, which is password-protected. You can put all your web logins, email accounts, etc in yEdit and then save them out in a password-protected file. (The contents of your files are not sent to, nor viewable by, Spacejock Software, and there is no magical backdoor to open your files if you lose your password.) There's also an Android version on the play store, currently available in public beta, and an iOS version is on the way. Due to play store/app store regulations, mobile versions will not have file encryption.
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