What users are saying about

BBEdit vs TextPad

BBEdit
9 Ratings
TextPad
3 Ratings

BBEdit

9 Ratings
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Score 9.3 out of 100

Based on 9 reviews and ratings

TextPad

3 Ratings
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Score 8.8 out of 100

Based on 3 reviews and ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

BBEdit

I'm primarily a graphic designer who does occasional web development. For me, BBEdit works very well. I use it both for developer projects (editing code, editing system files) and for general text processing (cleaning up, formatting, or extracting text). I like that it offers real-time previews of edits to web project files. It comes with some nice editor themes and supports adding more or customizing them. I expect that for some coders, it will be inadequate. It is not an IDE. On the other end of the spectrum, someone who expects an experience more like Microsoft Word will be very disappointed; or if they wanted something more along the lines of Windows Notepad, they may find it to be overkill. It is an ASCII text editor with many advanced commands and tools built-in.

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Michael Prewitt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Michael Prewitt
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TextPad

I like the macro feature for transforming text. For example, taking a CSV file of data and quickly turning it into a set of SQL "insert" statements. Also, useful for this is the find/replace feature using regular expressions such as taking a URL QueryString and breaking all the parameters into separate lines and perhaps sorting them for review.

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Gary Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Gary Davis
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Pros

BBEdit

  • BBEdit remembers what I had open, so I never have to worry about losing work when I accidentally close the software. It will hold onto information almost indefinitely, so that the next time I open a program, I can access the information that I may have forgotten to save. Thankfully, its save function is also very simple to use, so I recommend still saving your work as needed.
  • Scripts are the most important aspect of BBEdit for the company I work for. Being able to import scripts and create new ones all in the same location are great.

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Courtney Birnbaum | TrustRadius Reviewer
Courtney Birnbaum
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TextPad

  • Quick to load.
  • Very fast searching algorithm for finding and replacing text.
  • Macros are very useful.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Cons

BBEdit

  • The cost of this product has just become too much for the functionality that most people need. You can find free or $10 tools that do what most people need to do.
  • The BBEdit program has lots of functionality, but could it be too much? Are there too many options?
  • It seems that there are too many upgrades.

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Jason Smith, DPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jason Smith, DPA
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TextPad

  • I would like a "delete non-bookmarked lines" so I can skip the "invert bookmarks" step.
  • The "Compare Text Files" could be streamlined to compare text in 2 tabs without going through the save steps.

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Gary Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Gary Davis
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Support Rating

BBEdit

BBEdit 9.4
Based on 9 answers
I've been using BBEdit — no joke — for nearly three decades now. Believe it or not, I'm still getting "upgrade pricing" 13 versions later. Bare Bones' support has always been stellar, and pricing continues to be affordable compared to similar tools.

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Jeff Eaton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jeff Eaton
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TextPad

TextPad 8.9
Based on 2 answers
I never had to use support, so I can't answer this. I would hope that it is good though.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Alternatives Considered

BBEdit

BBEdit wins over TextEdit every time. They are as different as chalk and cheese. I am so glad we moved to BBEdit.

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Kevin O'Grady | TrustRadius Reviewer
Kevin O'Grady
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TextPad

When you want to quickly edit a file, TextPad starts up quickly and has many features over Microsoft Notepad. Visual Studio Code is an alternative in that it is full-featured and will edit text files but is slower at startup. I prefer the macro feature in TextPad due to its simplicity.

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Gary Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Gary Davis
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Return on Investment

BBEdit

  • It saves me time, not only with web projects, but even with design, when I want to strip out formatting in text, I bring it in to BBEdit to clean it up.

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Audrey Hoffman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Audrey Hoffman
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TextPad

  • Made my job easier, so I would say it had a positive return on investment. Especially for it's overall low cost.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Pricing Details

BBEdit

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

TextPad

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

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