Best Plain Text Editors for Mac

The short answer. CotEditor is the lightweight native macOS plain-text editor. Emacs and MacVim are the two long-established ecosystems and are a way of working more than a tool. micro is the terminal editor with modern defaults, for people who find the other terminal editors forbidding. TextMate brings Apple approach to text editing. Plain Text Editor is the distraction-free notepad. The first question is graphical or terminal, and the second is whether you want an ecosystem you will spend years in or an app that opens in under a second.

This guide covers 7 plain text editors for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment.

Quick comparison

What actually decides this

• Graphical or terminal. A graphical editor is faster for a single file and easier to learn. A terminal editor works over SSH and inside any environment you can log into. Most people who need one eventually want both, and the mistake is assuming one replaces the other.
• Behaviour on large files. A two-gigabyte log file is the honest test, and most editors either open it or do not. Syntax highlighting, autocompletion and line numbers are the first things to go when a file is too large, and an editor that degrades gracefully is worth more than one that hangs.
• Encoding and line endings. UTF-8 without a BOM, Latin-1, CRLF and trailing whitespace are the details that quietly corrupt a file. An editor that tells you what it is writing, and lets you choose, removes a whole class of problem that otherwise surfaces in a diff.
• Ecosystem or single app. Emacs and Vim are extensions of the person as much as the machine, and that is either the appeal or the objection. A native single-purpose editor is easier to leave, which is a feature in itself.
• Where configuration lives. A text file you can version and copy to a new machine is a different proposition from a settings panel. The second is easier on day one; the first is easier on the day you get a new computer.

Our picks

• CotEditor — Its record describes a lightweight plain-text editor for macOS, which is the native-lightweight case. Choose it when you want a lightweight native plain-text editor for macOS.
• Emacs — Its record describes the popular Unix-based editor for programmers and system administrators, which is the ecosystem case. Choose it when you want an editor that is also an extensible environment.
• MacVim — Its record describes the Vim editor for macOS, which is the Vim case with a native shell. Choose it when you want Vim as a Mac application rather than a terminal.
• micro — Its record describes a modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor, which is the terminal-with-defaults case. Choose it when you want a terminal editor with modern defaults and no mode to learn.
• TextMate — Its record describes bringing Apple approach to operating systems into text editing, which is the native-conventions case. Choose it when you want an editor that behaves the way Apple software tends to behave.
• Plain Text Editor — Its record describes a simple distraction-free notepad, which is the minimal case. Choose it when you want a notepad and nothing else.

The apps

BeagleEditor

BeagleEditor is a text editor for macOS. A “beagleful” editor with features like syntax highlighting, plugins and… - A bit ugly, but it works. It is released under MIT. Its pricing is not published.

What it does. BeagleEditor Legacy.

BeagleEditor is listed with current version 2024.4.0.1.

Full profile and verified facts for BeagleEditor →

CotEditor

CotEditor is a text editor for macOS. Lightweight plain-text editor for macOS. It is open source.

What it does. Text Editor for macOS.

CotEditor is listed with current version 7.1.1.

Full profile and verified facts for CotEditor →

Emacs

Emacs is a productivity app for macOS. Popular Unix-based text editor for programmers and system administrators. It is open source.

Full profile and verified facts for Emacs →

MacVim

MacVim is a productivity app for macOS. the text editor Vim - for macOS. It is released under Vim.

What it does. Smooth native GUI that supports menus, dialog boxes, toolbars, and scroll bars. Native and non-native full-screen modes. Trackpad gestures, Touch Bar, and Command key shortcuts can be mapped to Vim actions. Integrates with system services, dictionary lookup, and Apple Intelligence Writing Tools.

MacVim is listed with current version 183.

Full profile and verified facts for MacVim →

micro

micro is a productivity app for macOS. Modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor. It is released under MIT.

What it does. Easy to use and install. No dependencies or external files are needed — just the binary you can download further down the page. Multiple cursors. Common keybindings (Ctrl-s, Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v, Ctrl-z, …).

micro is listed with current version 2.0.15.

Full profile and verified facts for micro →

Plain Text Editor

Plain Text Editor is a productivity app for macOS. Simple distraction-free notepad. It is free.

What it does. Simple distraction-free notepad. Simple text editor without any rich text nonsense. The simplicity is a feature.

Plain Text Editor is listed with current version 1.9.0.

Full profile and verified facts for Plain Text Editor →

TextMate

TextMate is a productivity app for macOS. Editor that brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. It is released under GPL-3.0.

What it does. TextMate is a graphical text editor for macOS 10.12 or later.

TextMate is listed with current version 2.0.23.

Full profile and verified facts for TextMate →

How to choose

• Free of charge. Plain Text Editor — no payment is required.
• No licence fee, source available. CotEditor, Emacs, MacVim, micro and TextMate — the source can be read and, under the terms of each licence, reused.
• Pricing not published in our data. BeagleEditor — check the developer’s own site before assuming anything about cost.

Open source: CotEditor, Emacs, MacVim, micro and TextMate (5 of 7).

Common mistakes

• Opening a very large log file in a full development environment and waiting. A plain-text editor is the right tool and the difference is not a matter of preference.
• Saving a file written on a Mac as CRLF for a Unix tool. The extra carriage returns are invisible in the editor and break the script.
• Editing a file with Word-style smart quotes into a configuration file. The characters look the same and are not the same.
• Learning an ecosystem for a task you will do twice. The year of payoff only arrives if you do the thing weekly.

How this guide was put together

Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.

A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.

The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.