System default
- E (E.EXE) (default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4)
- gedit (default under GNOME)
- Kate (default under KDE)
- Leafpad (default under LXDE)
- Mousepad (default under Xfce)
- Notepad (default under Microsoft Windows)
- SimpleText (default under Classic Mac OS)
- TextEdit (default under Mac OS X)
- XEDIT (default under VM/CMS)
Free software
- Acme — A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike
- AkelPad - Đ•ditor for plain text. It is designed to be a small and fast. Many plugins.
- Bluefish — Web development editor
- Caditor - Portable text editor with line numbering and syntax highlighting
- Crimson Editor
- Geany — fast and lightweight editor / IDE, uses GTK+
- gedit — a simple GNOME text editor, fairly equivalent to KEdit
- J - Text editor written in Java, part of the ArmedBear Common Lisp (ABCL) project
- jEdit — free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed
- JOVE — Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs
- JuffEd — lightweight text editor written in Qt4
- Kate — basic text editor for the KDE desktop
- Kedit — KDE editor roughly similar in sophistication to Windows Notepad, but with a spellchecker
- Kile — User friendly TeX/LaTeX editor
- KWrite — default editor on KDE, more sophisticated than KEdit
- Leafpad
- Leo — a text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation
- mcedit - text editor provided with Midnight Commander
- Metapad - Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed
- MicroEMACS
- NEdit — 'Nirvana Editor'
- Notepad++ — a tabbed text editor
- Notepad2
- Pe — a text editor for BeOS
- Programmer's Notepad
- RText
- Sam
- SciTE
- Scribes
- Smultron — a Mac OS X text editor
- TeXnicCenter
- The Hessling Editor
- UniRed — Windows text editor supporting many encodings
- X11 Xedit
- Yudit
Freeware
- Arachnophilia
- BBEdit Lite
- ConTEXT
- Eddie — A text editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and Mac OS X.
- GX Text
- Komodo Edit
- LEd — LaTeX Editor
- Notepad+
- NoteTab Light
- Programmer's File Editor (PFE)
- PSPad editor
- RJ TextEd
- q10 — Full screen text editor (Windows)
- TED Notepad
- TeXShop — TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer
- TextWrangler
Personal license (free for individuals)
- HTML Kit
Proprietary
- Alphatk
- BBEdit
- CodeWright
- GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE)
- CygnusEd (CED)
- E Text Editor
- EditPlus
- EmEditor
- Epsilon
- GWD Text Editor
- Inlage LaTeX Editor
- Kedit text editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM Xedit
- MED
- NoteTab
- PolyEdit
- skEdit (formerly called skHTML)
- SlickEdit
- Source Insight
- SubEthaEdit (formerly called Hydra)
- Tex-Edit Plus
- TextMate
- TextPad and Wildedit
- The SemWare Editor (TSE) (formerly called QEdit)
- TopStyle
- UltraEdit
- Ulysses
- VEDIT
- WinEdt
