CotEditor Reviews in 2026

Audience

Developers and individuals in search of a plain-text editor for macOS to write and edit text content

About CotEditor

CotEditor is exactly made for macOS. It looks and behaves just as macOS applications should. CotEditor launches so quick that you can write your text immediately when you want to. CotEditor is developed as an open-source project that allows anyone to contribute. Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby or Markdown. You can also create your own settings. Split a window into multiple panes to see different parts of your document at the same time. Inspect Unicode character data of each selected character in your document and display them in a popover. There are no complex configuration files that require geek knowledge. You can access all your settings including syntax definitions and themes from a standard preferences window. You don't need to lose your unsaved data anymore. CotEditor backups your documents automatically while editing. Check and list-up the characters in your document that cannot convert into the desired encoding.

Other Popular Alternatives & Related Software

UltraEdit

(2 Ratings)

UltraEdit is a text and code editor built for work that general-purpose editors often struggle with: large files, complex data manipulation, and security-sensitive workflows. It has been in the market for more than 30 years, is used by over 4 million users worldwide, and is trusted by enterprise customers across the Fortune 100, 500, and 1000. Individual users choose UltraEdit when everyday editors start to hit their limits. Common use cases include working with very large files, running advanced search and replace, using column and block editing, and handling more complex text and data manipulation. Organizations choose UltraEdit when they need a more secure and supportable editor behind sensitive workflows. That includes teams in banking, insurance, healthcare, government, and other regulated or risk-sensitive environments where unsupported tools can create too much uncertainty.

Learn more

jEdit

jEdit is a mature programmer's text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it. While jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the terms of the GPL 2.0. Built-in macro language; extensible plugin architecture. Hundreds of macros and plugins available. Plugins can be downloaded and installed from within jEdit using the "plugin manager" feature. Supports a large number of character encodings including UTF8 and Unicode. Highly configurable and customizable. Every other feature, both basic and advanced, you would expect to find in a text editor.

Learn more

CudaText

CudaText is a cross-platform text editor, written in Object Pascal. It is open source project and can be used free of charge, even for business. It starts quite fast on Linux on CPU Intel Core i3 3GHz. It is extensible by Python add-ons, plugins, linters, code tree parsers, external tools. Syntax parser is feature-rich, from EControl engine. Syntax highlight for lot of languages (270+ lexers). Code tree structure of functions/classes/etc, if lexer allows it. Code folding, multi-carets and multi-selections. Find/Replace with regular expressions. Configs in JSON format. Including lexer-specific configs. Tabbed UI, with a split view to primary/secondary, and a split window to 2/3/4/6 groups of tabs. Command palette, with fuzzy matching, minimap, and micromap. Shows unprinted whitespace and offers support for many encodings. Customizable hotkeys. Binary/Hex viewer for files of unlimited size (can show 10 Gb logs).

Learn more

Textastic

Textastic for Mac is the perfect desktop companion to the popular iOS code editor. With support for more than 80 source code and markup languages, Textastic brings the powerful syntax coloring engine of the iOS source code editor to the Mac. You can use your own TextMate, and Sublime Text, compatible syntax definitions. Textastic for Mac is based on the code editor that powers the iOS app. It uses native macOS APIs like Core Text for maximum speed. Code completion, file navigation with the symbol list and support for modern Mac features like Auto Save and Versions make your life easier. With iCloud Drive, you can sync your files across your macOS and iOS devices with ease. The app packs in support for 80 source code and markup languages, iCloud auto-save and macOS Versions. Built with the ability to import syntax definitions, themes and templates from TextMate.

Learn more

Integrations

See Integrations

Ratings/Reviews

Overall 0.0 / 5

ease 0.0 / 5

features 0.0 / 5

design 0.0 / 5

support 0.0 / 5

This software hasn't been reviewed yet. Be the first to provide a review:

Review this Software

Videos and Screen Captures

Other Useful Business Software

Full-stack observability with actually useful AI | Grafana Cloud

Our generous forever free tier includes the full platform, including the AI Assistant, for 3 users with 10k metrics, 50GB logs, and 50GB traces.

Built on open standards like Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, Grafana Cloud includes Kubernetes Monitoring, Application Observability, Incident Response, plus the AI-powered Grafana Assistant. Get started with our generous free tier today.

Create free account

Product Details

Platforms Supported

Mac

Support

Online

Compare This Software

QuickEdit

QuickEdit is fast, stable and full featured text editor for Android. It is optimized for both phone and tablet! Enhanced notepad application with numerous improvements. Code editor and syntax highlight for 40+ languages. High performance and real time feedback on large text files (more than...

Compare
jEdit

jEdit is a mature programmer's text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it. While jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the...

Compare
Textastic

Textastic for Mac is the perfect desktop companion to the popular iOS code editor. With support for more than 80 source code and markup languages, Textastic brings the powerful syntax coloring engine of the iOS source code editor to the Mac. You can use your own TextMate, and Sublime Text,...

Compare
CudaText

CudaText is a cross-platform text editor, written in Object Pascal. It is open source project and can be used free of charge, even for business. It starts quite fast on Linux on CPU Intel Core i3 3GHz. It is extensible by Python add-ons, plugins, linters, code tree parsers, external tools....

Compare
Quiver

Quiver is a notebook built for programmers. It lets you easily mix text, code, Markdown and LaTeX within one note, edit code with an awesome code editor, live preview Markdown and LaTeX, and find any note instantly via the full-text search. A note in Quiver is comprised of cells, snippets of...

Compare

Recommended Software

QuickEdit

QuickEdit is fast, stable and full featured text editor for Android. It is optimized for both phone and tablet! Enhanced notepad application with numerous improvements. Code editor and syntax highlight for 40+ languages. High performance and real time feedback on large text files (more than...

See Software
jEdit

jEdit is a mature programmer's text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it. While jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the...

See Software
Textastic

Textastic for Mac is the perfect desktop companion to the popular iOS code editor. With support for more than 80 source code and markup languages, Textastic brings the powerful syntax coloring engine of the iOS source code editor to the Mac. You can use your own TextMate, and Sublime Text,...

See Software