TextPad vs. Vim

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
TextPad
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
TextPad is a free and open source general purpose plain text file editor, for Windows.N/A
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
Vim is an open source configurable text editor.N/A
Pricing
TextPadVim
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
TextPadVim
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
TextPadVim
Considered Both Products
TextPad
Chose TextPad
Textpad and Notepad++ are by far my preferred programs to use for the development process.
Vim

No answer on this topic

Best Alternatives
TextPadVim
Small Businesses
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 9.9 out of 10
BBEdit
BBEdit
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Vim
Vim
Score 9.3 out of 10
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Microsoft Visual Studio Code
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
TextPadVim
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(2 ratings)
10.0
(9 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(2 ratings)
6.0
(5 ratings)
User Testimonials
TextPadVim
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
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.
Read full review
Open Source
I would recommend Vim in any scenario where text files have to be viewed, created, or edited on GNU/Linux computers. Regardless if you need to quickly change a few things in a configuration file, or you need to write up a full document, Vim is great. I wouldn't use Vim to view, edit, or create anything that requires "rich-text". In other words, if you need to format the text (bolding, font colours, word-art, etc), then Vim isn't the tool to use.
Read full review
Pros
Open Source
  • Quick to load.
  • Very fast searching algorithm for finding and replacing text.
  • Macros are very useful.
Read full review
Open Source
  • The efficient modal editing makes it very fast to write/edit code as I think of it.
  • The customization and wide range of plugins let me do very specific things and automate parts of my workflow.
  • The fact that it runs inside a terminal simplifies my window management and just becomes another Tmux window in my workflow.
Read full review
Cons
Open Source
  • 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.
Read full review
Open Source
  • Without a doubt the hardest program to learn. It is a completely different paradigm of thinking compared to other editors
  • By default it doesn't have lots of fancy features you would find in larger IDE programs like code completion and linking
  • It lives in the command line so a user has to be comfortable with this interface
Read full review
Usability
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Open Source
I don't consider the steep learning curve to be a hinderance on the overall usability. I would rate this a ten, but to be honest a lot of people do get hung up at the beginning and just abandon it. However, for people who have made the moderate effort to get over the hump, nothing can be more usable.
Read full review
Support Rating
Open Source
I never had to use support, so I can't answer this. I would hope that it is good though.
Read full review
Open Source
There is no commercial support for Vim. Thus, it will not get a mark beyond 5. However, community support is very good. You can easily find solutions for most of the problems in the community.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Open Source
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.
Read full review
Open Source
Vim's keybindings are a lot more complex than Notepad++. With that, comes a whole bunch of capability that Notepad++ just can't match. Emacs is comparable, in terms of capabilities--because Vim is built into so many unix systems, I chose to learn it instead of Emacs. Knowing both probably isn't a bad idea, but there's enough to learn in either camp to keep you busy
Read full review
Return on Investment
Open Source
  • Made my job easier, so I would say it had a positive return on investment. Especially for it's overall low cost.
Read full review
Open Source
  • It always increases productivity.
  • Sometimes feature discovery is not easy. It could be documented well like how to install a plugin and if it supported well or not.
Read full review
ScreenShots