Top 5 Most-Used Code Editors in 2022

Developers are like magicians — like wizards and witches. They create valuable apps, websites, platforms, and services that work like magic. But the process of creating useful products is far from magic. It’s not just getting a paper and writing what you want to build, they’re not using Google Docs or Spreadsheets, and definitely not a voice command thing.

Developers and programmers use a specific tool called “Code Editor” to code. They code and create programs of computer instructions that can be connected to other tools and be implemented on apps and websites.

What is a Code Editor?

A code editor is a text editor specifically designed to write source codes of computer programs. It may be a stand-alone program or part of an IDE or Integrated Development Environment.

To put it simply, code editors are essential advanced tools to build apps and websites more straightforward and efficient. It has functionalities that help to accelerate the development process. For example, the code editor would quickly inform you what line of codes are wrong and needs improvement. This way, you will save time looking for incorrect codes.

If we use the magic and magician analogy again, Code Editors are probably where magicians cast their spells to start magic in apps and websites.

There are many code editors you can choose from out there, and here are the top 5 of the list this 2022:

1. Visual Studio Code
2. Sublime Text
3. Atom
4. Brackets
5. VIM

Let’s dig deeper and talk about each of these tools’ descriptions, features, and pricing.

1) Visual Studio Code

Description:

Visual Studio Code is a Microsoft product. It is a lightweight but powerful source code editor that can be used on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It has built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js. It also has its own marketplace where users can install free extensions.

Key Features:

• Emmet Abbreviations — a shortcut feature to make writing HTML and CSS codes faster. For example, there is a shortcut to create the whole HTML file’s important tags, one line of code creating multiple lines in seconds.
• IntelliSense — an auto-complete code feature. This feature suggests a list of suggestions you type your code. It is a great feature to improve productivity.
• Built-in Git — this feature lets you use Github to share your source code and collaborate with co-developers right within your editor. You can also perform several Git commands such as commit, pull, push, rebase, publish, and check for changes within the file.

Pricing: Free

2) Sublime Text

Description:

Sublime Text Editor is a full-featured text editor for editing local files or a codebase. It’s a multi-language and multi-OS programming editor that helps developers keep track of any changes made with its helpful features.

Features:

• Auto-Completion — a time-saving feature comparable to Visual Studio’s IntelliSense feature. It provides suggestions and auto-completes the code you are trying to type.
• Snippets — a smart feature that inserts lines of codes for you — like the Emmet Abbreviations.
• Sublime Merge — it is a feature that promises “when you use Sublime, you use Git.” It gives you the ability to search for command line integration, specific commits, code and file history, and syntax highlighting. It also helps you solve errors before merging change by comparing code side-by-side.

Pricing: $99

3) Atom

Description: Atom is a modern and easy-to-use code editor with simplicity, flexibility, and effectiveness that appeal to many developers. Its simplicity made it possible to use even for aspiring developers with minimal coding experience. It is compatible with Windows, macOS, OS X, and Linux.

Features:

• Smart autocompletion — this is a common smart feature that helps you code faster by selecting the code you want to insert from the suggestion popup as you type.
• File System Browser — this feature provides easy browsing and opening a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in a single window.
• Code folding — this feature allows you to see the overview of the code file’s structure you’re working on. It simplifies what is shown on your screen by hiding blocks of codes like functions and loops.

Pricing: Free

4) Brackets

Description: Bracket advertises itself as the “code for the web” and is a modern, powerful, and open-source code editor. It has a clear and straightforward interface that makes it easier to use. It was created and released by Adobe Systems.

Features:

• Inline Editors — this feature lets you open a window into the code you care about most without jumping between file tabs.
• Live Preview — this gives you a real-time connection to your browser. You instantly see the changes you make to CSS and HTML on screen.
• Preprocessor Support — Work with preprocessors in a whole new way. We know how important preprocessors are to your workflow.

Pricing: Free

5) VIM

Description: VIM stands for Vi IMproved. I was released for UNIX variants in 1991. It is supported on any known platform. It is known to be fast and powerful, partly because it is a small program that can run in a terminal (but has a graphical interface) and mainly because it can be managed even without menus or a mouse with a keyboard.

Features:

• Marks — this feature lets you jump back and forth between open files using keyboard letters to set a mark to a specific place you want to come back to.
• Visual mode — it is a feature that helps you manipulate a chunk of text a lot easier. You can move a sentence, change a phrase, edit multiple lines of text, indent a set of lines, and more.
• Folding — Like Atom, this feature allows you to focus only on the code file’s structure you’re working on. It only shows you the essential blocks on your screen.

Pricing: Free

Choose Your Favorite

These are the top Code Editors in 2022 based on popularity and usage, but in reality, it is up to anyone using Code Editors. Some have their own ranking where Sublime is the best Code Editor for them, and others would say Atom or the other Code Editors. Everyone has their own favorite tool that they believe is the easiest and best tool to use.

You can have your own favorite, too. You might need to try all of the Code Editors if you have the time to, and this list is a good list to choose from. After all, these Code Editors wouldn’t be this popular if they were not easy to use.