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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    GNU Emacs

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AGNU Emacs is described as a free extensible and customizable text editor for the Lisp programming language.N/A

    Notepad++

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ANotepad++ is a popular free and open source text editor available under the GPL license, featuring syntax highlighting and folding, auto-complete, multi-document management, and ac customizable GUI.N/A
    Pricing
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Considered Both Products
    Open Source
    Chose GNU Emacs
    While Notepad++ is a very capable editor, it is not nearly as customizable and extendable as GNU Emacs.
    Microsoft OneNote is a nice, easy-to-use note-taking and organization tool. Its advantages are that it is GUI based, and it is easy to embed images, audio, and other media. …
    Incentivized
    Open Source
    Chose Notepad++
    Does the same but in my opinion better. It might [be my] preference but the other options are either too technical or not technical enough. Notepad++ seems to tow this perfect balance, at least in my eyes, of being friendly enough for beginners and deep enough for experts. With …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    41 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    41 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    41 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    26 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Small Businesses
    BBEdit
    Score10 out of 10
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    Medium-sized Companies
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Vim
    Score9.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    8.5
    (62 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    8.1
    (15 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GNU EmacsNotepad++
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Open Source
    Emacs is best utilized on a Unix system where it can be easily installed and accessed. It allows for quick editing of files on a system whether you are accessing it locally through the console or remotely via an ssh connection. Once users familiarize themselves with the Emacs shortcuts, it becomes a pretty efficient text manipulation program. On a standard Windows computer, it is less likely to use Emacs for code editing, especially if you have a local repository on your host machine.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    well suited for 1) Coding and Development - Writing and editing code, Quick prototyping and testing of code snippets, Debugging and inspecting code using syntax highlighting and line numbering, 2) web development - Creating and editing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web-related files .Managing and organizing web projects with multiple files and directories. Not suited for - 1) processing huge files 2) graphic designing 3) complex gui designs 3) Data Analysis and Manipulation - Editing and cleaning up text-based data files before importing them into analytical tools. Applying regular expressions to extract, transform, and manipulate data. 4) System Administration and IT - change system configuration file
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Open Source
    • GNU Emacs is a text editor that can do almost anything that you want to do with it. It is fairly easy to extend the functionality using Emacs Lisp with a large library available.
    • It can be easily customized using themes as well as custom code to change the look and feel as well as how everything works.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • Notepad++ allows us to keep open files in tabs. Like in a web browser, these tabs let us access these files quickly and easily. Furthermore, even if we forget to save the files when closing the program or shutting down the PC, Notepad++ retains them in the open tabs when we reopen it.
    • Notepad++ supports many different file types. We usually save our files created in Notepad as normal text files, but sometimes as JSON, PHP, and HTML files.
    • Notepad++ is lightweight and requires little resources. Using it is snappy and responsive.
    • The developer of Notepad++ frequently updates the software with bug fixes, performance improvements and new features.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Open Source
    • Emacs is old, so it's a little crufty and not too easy to pick up and start using. There is a community package called Spacemacs that simplifies a lot of things that you do with Emacs. It is probably better suited to beginners.
    • Sometimes, the choices that were made to integrate certain functionality change the basic models for that functionality. This is seen primarily in the version control system support, where multiple version control systems are supported and "unified" to a standard Emacs-y way of doing things. This can be confusing to the new user not familiar with the Emacs way.
    • Emacs has, as its foundation, a lisp interpreter. This means that the extension language for Emacs is emacs-lisp. Some people find lisp hard to understand and have difficulties writing Emacs extension code, or understanding existing code.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • UI looks a bit dated.
    • Sometimes the number of options are overwhelming and require a quick search to figure out where to locate a particular function.
    • Some way to do a diff between files would be great. Still need to resort to another paid app for that - unless it is a buried function I don't know about or there's a plugin for it.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    I use it every day for 13 years already and it never disappointed me
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Open Source
    There are lot of features to talk about. Especially the usability is good. Everyone can easily to use and user-friendly. Can also update easily. Can also write and execute the programming languages like C, C++ etc. Encoding is also the major feature that helps me a lot and converter as well.
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    Support Rating
    Open Source
    Everything that you need to know about Emacs can be found on the internet. There are many Emacs "cheat sheets" that list out all of the shortcuts for Emacs. There are videos on how to use Emacs. Emacs is easily installed using the standard Linux package managers and can also be easily updated through them as well. There are tutorials on how to customize Emacs to your liking.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    I haven't needed to utilize any support related to Notepad++. I guess this is a good thing because I found it to be quite intuitive. There are almost infinite features you can tweak and plugins you can download but I haven't had to do that because Notepad++ is really good right out of the box.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Open Source
    Of course, Vim is a good contender for comparison as well, so I'll include it. I find Emacs much easier to learn, which will help speed up productivity for newer users. It seems much faster than VIM and VSCode, especially under load. It's highly highly customizable, in ways other editors don't stack up against. Its lack of bloat also is a nice addition to a great product.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    Notepad for Windows, Microsoft Word...LibreOffice Writer....I have used all of these for code writing and editing. Once again I like the universal feel of Notepad++. Basic Notepad, is just that, basic...and kind of clunky for what it is. This is a cool that I have installed on all my computers and also keep it on a thumb drive if I need it elsewhere.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Open Source
    • Emacs is free software, there is no cost at all.
    • It has helped tremendously in situations where many, or large, log files need to be searched.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • Productivity has increased for developers.
    • It's free so instead of buying a piece of software, you can use this to replace many of them that may only specialize in one thing.
    • It gives our developers confidence knowing they have such a reliable, free tool at their disposal.
    Incentivized
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