What is the Mac Equivalent of Notepad [Free and Paid Alternatives]

If you’ve ever used Windows, you are probably familiar with NotePad, a popular text editor well regarded for its ease of use.

When talking about NotePad equivalent for Mac, the first thing that usually comes to mind is Classic NotePad. However, we believe there are much better alternatives available for Mac users. That’s why we have created this article.

We’ve made effort to include apps similar to NotePad, both free and paid alternatives.

At a glance:

Best overall: Sublime Text

Best paid alternative: iNotePad

Best free option: TextWrangler

TextEdit

TextEdit is the most obvious NotePad alternative for Mac as it’s Apple’s default text editor.

This is a simple editing app, but it can also be used for making changes to HTML. To open it in HTML mode, go to File > "Ignore rich content commands in HTML files".

TextEdit comes free with every Mac. It is a good beginner choice, but there are other and more interesting free options.

TextWrangler

If you are looking for a more complex text editor, pay attention to TextWrangler. This is another popular and free editing app like NotePad that’s great for writing notes, but also contains a lot of advanced options.  

TextWrangler app is made by the same team that created BBEdit, and as such has some similar features like robust search and syntax coloring. Programmers will be pleased to know that TextWrangler has a lot of developer tools suitable for numerous programming languages.

All in all, if you are looking for a solid NotePad alternative, TextWrangler is definitely worth checking out.

SubEthaEdit 5

Next, we have a powerful open-source text editor SubEthaEdit 5. What immediately sets it apart from other similar apps is its collaboration feature. With it, you can upload your text files online and let other people edit them in real-time. 

SubEthaEdit can also edit HTML and supports over 20 languages. The code is easily readable thanks to the syntax highlighting feature.

Lastly, SubEthaEdit has a clear-cut interface, for which it won an Apple Design award. This makes it suitable for beginners.  

The editor is completely free and you can find it on the Mac App Store. 

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is one of the richest text editors available for Mac which can be used for code and casual writing.

The app supports a lot of fancy features, such as split editing, macros, snippets, and custom key binds. The interface is clear and text color is customizable so it’s always easy on the eyes. There’s also great auto-correction feature

Programmers will be pleased to know that the app is lightweight and runs very quickly. Sublime Text supports dozens of languages and is beginner-friendly.

You can try Sublime Text for free, but a license will cost you $80. It ain’t cheap, but, considering what you get, this is a very good deal indeed.

DEVONnote

 

DEVONnote is another NotePad equivalent for Mac. It’s a very intuitive note-taking app that will also help you organize plain and rich text documents easily. But there’s even more to it.

DEVONnote can also be used as an integrated browser and note database. With it, you can easily bookmark important sites or copy interesting paragraphs. The app uses a drag-and-drop interface that works wonders for the workflow.  

Best of all, DEVONnote is completely free and can be downloaded here.

Tincta

 

Tincta is a straightforward text editor for Mac. While it’s useful for taking notes and creating records, it can also be used for fundamental HTML coding.

Tincta has most of the things you’d expect from a solid programming editor like auto-indentation, spell checking, and find and replace feature. Best of all, it’s also lightweight and runs quite quickly.  

While this software is free, there’s also a paid version ($13) that contains fancy features such as snippet manager and split-pane view.

iNotePad

If all you need is an editor to organize and write notes, and aren’t concerned with spending money, iNotePad has got you covered. Although it is similar to NotePad, this software is more responsive and powerful.

Along with usual cut and paste options, it lets you drag-and-drop text from other apps. iNotePad also values privacy, so you can easily create a password and secure your work.  

Other things that differentiate it from Notepad are better formatting options and the ability to upload images. Photos can then easily be edited by double-clicking on the image. Text can also be edited in the same way, which can drastically improve your workflow

Conclusion

All in all, there are a lot of quality apps like NotePad for Mac. While there are a lot of great free text editors, if you are dealing with HTML, we recommend that you take one of the premium options.