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Atom

Atom

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What is Atom?

Atom is a free and open source text editor offering a range of packages and themes.

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Atom is a versatile and widely-used text and code editor that offers numerous features and benefits to its users. It is favored by …
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What is Atom?

Atom is a free and open source text editor offering a range of packages and themes.

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What is Sublime Text?

Sublime Text is a highly customizable text editing solution featuring advanced API, Goto functions, and other features, from Sublime HQ in Sydney.

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Product Details

Atom Technical Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Atom is a free and open source text editor offering a range of packages and themes.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.6.

The most common users of Atom are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Reviews and Ratings

(89)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Atom is a versatile and widely-used text and code editor that offers numerous features and benefits to its users. It is favored by developers across various organizations and industries for a range of use cases. Users appreciate Atom's clean and simple user interface, making it easy to navigate and use without any issues. With support for multiple programming languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, C++, and more, Atom is suitable for diverse coding projects.

One key use case of Atom is as a powerful tool for web development. It enables developers to efficiently write code for websites using languages like PHP, CSS, JS, and HTML. Its features, such as syntax highlighting and autocompletion, make coding in these languages more efficient. Additionally, Atom's integration with Git provides version control capabilities, allowing teams to collaborate on website development projects seamlessly.

Another notable use case of Atom is its popularity among data scientists and analytics professionals. With support for programming languages like Python, R, and Unix, Atom serves as an effective code editor for editing multiple codes in analytics workflows. Its customizable nature allows users to tailor the editor to their specific needs, making it a valuable tool for data analytics and machine learning projects.

Furthermore, Atom is recommended by developers as an alternative to Visual Studio Code due to its relatively basic interface and extensive selection of plugins contributed by the community. This attributes to its widespread usage within organizations as a preferred IDE text editor.

Overall, Atom's versatility, ease of use, extensive plugin ecosystem, and compatibility with various programming languages make it a go-to choice for developers seeking a customizable and efficient coding environment.

Highly Customizable: Many users have praised Atom for its high level of customization. They appreciate the ability to tailor their coding environment to their preferences, with various themes and extensions available. This feature allows them to make their code easier to read and navigate, enhancing their overall coding experience.

Code Hinting Features: Several reviewers have been impressed with Atom's code hinting capabilities. This feature helps them write code faster and integrates well with services like LINT, allowing them to clean up their code according to their team's style choices. Users find this functionality particularly useful in speeding up their coding process.

Free Software: The fact that Atom is free has been seen as a major advantage by many users. They appreciate not having to invest in expensive software while still being able to access a robust coding environment. This affordability makes it accessible to a wide range of developers.

Limited API Requests: Some users have experienced the issue of receiving an error message stating "Error: Request failed with status code 429." Several reviewers have expressed frustration with this limitation, as it hinders their ability to make API requests effectively.

Performance Issues: A number of users have reported performance issues while using Atom. They have noticed sluggishness and lag in the software, particularly when dealing with larger files or projects. This has led to delays and inefficiencies in their workflow.

Lack of Intuitive UI/UX: Several reviewers have mentioned that they find the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of Atom to be less intuitive compared to other text editors. Users have struggled with finding certain features, customizing their workspace, and navigating through the application smoothly.

Users recommend using the self-hosted version of Atom instead of the cloud version and taking advantage of Atom's package manager. They suggest that Atom is suitable for both beginners and professionals, as well as for web development, Ruby on Rails development, and front-end development. Atom is also considered a lightweight and visually appealing text editor. Users often suggest it as an alternative to Sublime Text and for languages without a dedicated IDE. They encourage exploring the wide range of packages available in the Atom community and customizing Atom to personal preferences. Atom is frequently recommended for learning to code and simple web development projects. However, users caution that it may not be suitable for large projects and advise learning the keyboard shortcuts for improved efficiency. Additionally, they recommend using Atom on a PC with higher RAM capacity and exploring Atom's plugins for added functionality.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 31)
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January 02, 2024

Joyful coding

Flavio Mauri | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Atom for coding emails. I was having a weird problem with Dreamweaver (the licensed software my team uses) for which the program would lag, despite having the same machine as other members... so I picked Atom, which I knew was freely available and I had used in a previous job.
Atom works flawlessly, it's super lightweight, and has wonderful themes that are really pleasing to the eye compared to Dreamweaver or Visual Studio Code
  • Lightweight
  • Beautiful themes
  • Plugins
  • Customisable
  • Easily integrates with version control
  • remember window configuration (reopens always the same panels despite closing them)
  • remember code preferences (I use word wrap and i have to switch it on every document)
Atom is great for simple HTML coding. It's fast, has intuitive shortcuts and several options. I particularly love the "convert spaces to tabs" function that I haven't seen in other editors.

I'm not sure how it would fair in more serious web development today, if there are plugins for live updates of the page you are working on...

But the problem is that it has been discontinued so you know there are no new features or fixes coming through.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization allows us to choose what IDE/text editor we would like to use, and Atom is a popular choice among developers. One of the biggest business problems that Atom addresses is how to efficiently collaborate with other developers while working remotely. Some of its features make it the best possible option for effective and efficient remote collaboration.
  • Remote collaboration
  • Customization
  • Source code integration
  • Ease of use
  • Documentation
Atom is perfectly suited for a developer that wants a highly capable and highly customizable IDE to work in. It has several available packages to integrate with pretty much anything you want and is backed by Github, so that's a huge plus as well. A possible scenario where Atom may not be best suited would be on machines that are a bit slow, as Atom doesn't seem as fast as other text editors or IDE's.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is a powerful editor that is being used by development teams for coding in any given programming language. We were looking to unify the developer's experience and work on a single platform, as opposed to everyone having their own editor. Although it is not made mandatory, we had a pretty good and quick adoption of the product throughout the years. Atom is very customizable, which helps tremendously.
  • Lightweight, intuitive interface that is almost self-explanatory
  • Highly customizable (themes, plugins, language support)
  • Great community support with open-source extensions
  • Some stability issues such as intermittent crashes
  • Developers with advanced needs will not find equivalents to VS Studio
  • Managing plugins at the corporate level can be cumbersome
Atom is great for developers looking for a completely hackable experience. There is a ton of plugins available to you, and you can really build an editor that matches your own personal taste. The performance is also pretty neat and does not impact your CPU as much as the competition.
Laura Glover | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is my favourite free, open-source editor. We have use Atom in our development projects. We have used it as a collaboration tool by integrating with Git hub - it was easy to set it up so that the team can work on the same project at the same time from different computers. The code syntax is coloured by language type - which is helpful to see your code. We use it for HTML, JS, CSS, Sass, and PHP editing.
  • HTML, CSS, PHP and other code or text editing
  • Project collaboration with team and developers
  • Free and Open Source
  • Good looking interface
  • Colour coded syntax
  • High start-up time
Atom is a great scripting tool for individuals, freelancers, and small development teams. The interface is slick, and if you require bits of functionality, there are packages which you can add on. No accounts or activation code - just download it, and the user can start coding and launching their web development project in a flash. I sometimes use it for the find and replace function for modifying and editing large batches of plain text.
Deepshi Sharma | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is used by only the development team in my organization. Atom has a simple UI that makes users use it without any issues. It has support for GitHub and has a lot of plugins. Along with this, a user can write its own plugin. Support code formating for different languages and its minimap feature also helps sometimes. It is being used to develop clean, well-structured code for our product. It is simply perfect because of everything it provides. The next best thing about Atom is that you have git control over it which helps to make things super easy in terms of open sourcing.
  • Adding packages in preferable language
  • Formatting of code making it easy to read for all users
  • Support for GitHub and plugins and plugin development
  • It is able to handle large amounts of data without slowing down
  • There should be a better user tips manual page to learn keyboard shortcuts
  • It would also be beneficial if mathematical and data analytic tools were added
  • it has quite high start-up timing when you open large projects to work on it
  • Sometimes, atom closed suddenly and do not open again
  • It still lacks better options with the previews even though there are already some by users adding plugins
  • It doesn't have self-correct features for lint errors, unlike IntelliJ
Atom is well suited for users who just beginning with their development careers. For developing production level or at the local level, for any use-case Atom is well suited as it provides support for many plugins and version control too. It is not suitable for heavy projects because it takes a lot of time in getting opened and also stops unexpectedly in between. It can be used by early-stage startups who are just beginning their project but when there is an ample amount of code, then they must switch to some other software.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom IDE is a very nice application having inbuilt CLI and it supports multiple extensions and programming languages. I and our coder are using Atom and VS Code mainly because these applications are easy to use and need very low system configurations.
  • Integrated CLI
  • Lightweight
  • Easy to user
  • Support extensions
  • Affects performance
  • Plugins issues
  • Support GIT
I have been using this product since my college days when I had a very low system configuration PC. It's a very good application but sometimes the mix plugins back-end gives unnecessary errors. All features like multiple programming language support, extensions, etc. are personally good. Sometimes we face performance effects when using for the last many hours.
David McCann | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am the only user of Atom at my organization, but it was the editor of choice at my previous job. It is used for quick-and-dirty text manipulation, as well as for C# and Javascript coding.
  • Atom has an amazing plugin library that is easy to use and integrates seamlessly.
  • Specifically, Atom's multi-cursor plug-in functionality provides a powerful method for manipulating text in bulk.
  • Atom provides good syntax highlighting and other interactive support for a number of programming languages through its available plug-ins.
  • Some of Atom's default UX could be improved. Depending on your previous workspace, it can open with two panes and a welcome tab in each, requiring you to close lots of cruft on startup.
  • Atom's documentation and plugin marketplace could be a little more discoverable.
Atom is great as a general-purpose text editor, and is especially powerful for bulk text editing, and scripting languages where a more heavy-weight IDE isn't as appropriate (e.g. Javascript, Coffeescript, Ruby, Python, etc.)
Jonah Dempcy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Atom for C++ development because I enjoy its user interface and I like how extensible it is. I first discovered Atom when a mentor of mine introduced me to the Beta. I was immediately drawn to the fact that it has support for plugins written in Node.js, which I am a big fan of. I also like its Git integration. The fact that the whole app is written in what are essentially web development technologies also appeals to me, given my history in web development. Since I do a lot of Android development, I use Android Studio. However, for the JNI layer and native code (written in C++, in my case) I prefer using Atom over Android Studio.
  • Git integration
  • Plugin ecosystem
  • C++ development
  • Sometimes things do not work as expected. Atom has improved a lot over the last couple of years, but it still could use some polish.
  • Atom needs plugins for quality-of-life improvements. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it allows you to customize Atom to suit your needs.
  • It would be nice if Atom had some recommended starter packages that come with popular plugins for highlighting, soft-wrapping and so on.
  • There are some plugins that could be turned into core Atom features, like Linter and Beautify.
Atom is excellent for writing code in any of its supported languages, although for Java, C#, or Objective C, it would probably not be my first choice. The reason is that there are other more robust IDEs that are made especially for those languages (e.g. Eclipse, Visual Studio, and Xcode). I use Atom for writing C++ but I also love it for web development. It's great when you want to customize your development environment for your particular workflow and have time to spare digging into the nitty-gritty of configuration, as well as trying out a lot of different plugins and removing the ones that don't work well. In general, it's great when you have the time to set it up right, and not as good when you want to get moving quickly without a lot of configuration.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Atom is being used across the entire organization and most of the data scientists in my company are currently using it under local environment. Even though Atom is just an option and not required to be used, most of my colleagues including myself prefer to use it due to its interface.
  • Easy.
  • Clear.
  • Multi-language.
  • Cloud base.
  • ec2.
  • Execution.
Atom is suitable if you are a data scientist who is not easily [intimidated] with code and object oriented programming layout, and actively working on either creating or improving multiple python packages under different environments locally. It is less appropriate for a business analyst who is not used to writing code.
Xiaotong Song | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is widely used in my organization for data scientists. Even though the IDE is not required it is preferred by most of our data scientists. Compared to other IDEs such as PyCharm, the tool is allowing the users to edit multiple codes instead of only python but also R and unix.
  • Integration.
  • Easy to check.
  • Nice structure.
  • Cannot run code directly.
  • Not working with notebook.
  • Wish it can be added onto ec2.
If you are working on the local environment and with multiple type of code in the same time, Atom is one of the best tools you can choose from the market. However, if your work need tons of RAM and you have to get it to run on the cloud, it is not suitable.
Patrick Fong | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used to use Atom as our code editor of choice for our dynamically typed language. Atom comes with fantastic syntax highlighting and other plugins out of the box that make writing code a breeze. Whenever we have to write HTML, CSS, Javascript, or Python, we used to use Atom. Some engineers also use Atom with some extra plugins for quick text manipulation, such as when they need to format strips, strip out lots of whitespaces, or prefix an unnumbered list with numbers. We have since switched over to VSCode (more on that later), but I would say that Atom is still a good choice if you are already using it.
  • Cross platform support for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Helpful community of people on the forums to ask for help.
  • Development on the Atom source code has greatly stalled since Microsoft purchased GitHub.
  • Many plugin developers moved their plugins onto VSCode and stopped maintaining their Atom version.
My recommendation depends on whether my colleague is already using Atom or not. If they are not using Atom, I sincerely find VSCode to be a slightly better editor with a much brighter future in terms of feature development, upcoming plugins, and support. So they should start with VSCode. However, if they are already using Atom, I see no reason to switch for the time being. Atom was a great editor for a long time, and though feature development has stalled, it continues to perform well. It will meet most people's needs when it comes to editing dynamically typed languages.
January 30, 2020

Used Atom about 1 year

Suleman Ahmad | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In our organization (software house), it is totally developers' choice in the engineering department to choose the IDE of their own choice. I was impressed by the shortcuts of Atom like Toggle Comment, Column Selection, Select Same Words, etc. and to install the Packages for ease of development. So that's why I migrated to it.
  • Built-in package manager.
  • Smart auto completion feature was great.
  • Due to some default settings, when I opened the file in Atom and commit it on Git it shows almost every line is changed so my PR is looking too big/ugly.
  • I think omitting the empty spaces should not be the default setting.
  • Performance needs some attention.
Features that Atom has provided were superb. I was able to do a lot of things with shortcuts like duplicate word selections, tree hierarchy of folders, the drag/drop file/folder support, etc.
Samuel Hadid | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom [text editor] is not being used across the whole organization, though many people use it for software development. Its compatibility with many programming/scripting languages is great. It helps a lot with creating programs because it is preloaded with a coloring scheme that highlights libraries, reserved words, and even autofill some functions, which makes it even faster to code. Other users use other text editors, but most of us stick with Atom whenever possible.
  • Compatibility
  • Ease of use
  • C compatibility sometimes is not that great
  • File extensions dictate editing functionality (i.e., no html auto-fill if file not saved as .html)
Atom is great for beginners, for experienced coders, and casual programmers. Is easy to use, easy to export files, easy to identify components, easy to read, and it's pretty good for code reviewing. As we all know, it is always better to review code directly from the compiler/editor used, but if not possible, Atom is an excellent option.
Daniel Städeli | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Atom for coding in different software projects. All developers use Atom, but we also have other editors available. The GIT integration of Atom makes our workflow more manageable. The FTP plugin also helps to connect and edit files on the server directly.
  • Git integration
  • FTP integration
  • Git integration is very complicated to set up.
  • In general Atom offers complex features that require time to get familiarized with.
Well suited for developers and people who are writing with text editors all day. Not so suitable for casual use, as it is rather complex to use efficiently, and it takes a couple of seconds more to open than Notepad.
Jason Smith, DPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Atom to edit code on the Mac and Windows platform. As a technologist, I do recommend this editor to both faculty and students because it is free and open-source. It is a good text editor and code editor with lots of functionality. It is modern and seems rather stable. I think it will be around for quite a while.
  • Edit code in multiple windows.
  • Atom is available on many computing platforms.
  • Atom seems to be a bit aggressive with the "help" and "tip" system. You have to turn that stuff off or it is annoying.
  • On occasion, sometimes a package does not work, they need to pull those.
Atom is quick to install and get going across a variety of platforms. The open-source nature says that this editor will always be around. I would recommend this editor to someone new to editing code. There is a good help and tip system. I don't think that this editor would appeal to minimalists because it is way maximum on what you can do. Lots of features and lots of configuration that is possible.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've been using Atom to code custom websites for my organization, and previously for a small web design company. While I am the sole user in my organization, I use Atom to code in PHP (for custom WordPress sites), HTML, some javascript, and even SASS for CSS. The ability to manage an entire project in one environment is key to a good workflow.
  • Color Coding for ease of organization.
  • Excellent customization - visually and functionally.
  • Integrated SASS compilers (or similar) would be a great asset.
  • The ability to create "draft" or backups of files would be a nice feature.
Atom does a great job of allowing you to work in multiple coding languages (in my case, HTML, PHP, Javascript, and CSS/SASS) with no confusion. The color-coding, organization, and ability to customize your workspace is extremely helpful as well. The addition of packages, for FTP upload, for example, makes for a quick and easy workflow.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Atom as our coding platform for everything on our website. It is integrated with git so we have version control. It is a very fast and free alternative to using Adobe Dreamweaver which is the subscription we have.
  • Integration with GIT.
  • Code coloring.
  • Code hints.
  • A better live HTML code rendering system.
HTML, CSS, and Javascript are flawless. Code hints provide an easy way to code.
Mark Nowowiejski | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is a free text editor that is outstanding for writing made forms of code. I currently use if for composing HTML, CSS, Javascript, and JSON for local testing prior to uploading code to an LMS or CMS.
  • Atom is highly customizable and allows for various themes and extensions that can make your code easier to read.
  • Atom has many code hinting features that allow users to write faster and integrate with services likeLINT that can clean up your code once your done to meet your internal teams style choices.
  • It's very fast and manages projects well - Accessing other files within a related folder(s) is very easy and intuitive.
  • It's free!
  • The basic setting it comes with aren't very user-friendly, and if you're new to code editing you might struggle with getting it set-up in an effective way.
  • I sometimes have issues with Atom launching from Command line on a MAC(Hyper).
  • Dreamweaver users my dislike the lack of a 'design view' but there workarounds.
I think Atom is pretty standard to most serious coders as it's lightweight, fast, and free. Some people prefer VS Studio which is a very similar product.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an open-source editor, several people within my organization are currently using the power of Atom as their code editor of choice. Because Atom is relatively basic in interface with the added benefit of countless plugins contributed by the larger community, Atom is generally the most recommended editor in my organization outside of Visual Studio Code.
  • Usability: Atom is very user-friendly. Its interface is clean and the entire application is incredibly simple to navigate even for users new to editors
  • Cross-Platform Experience: No matter your system, Atom works the same which makes providing demos and examples pretty seamless
  • Community Driven Plugin Development: Because the community is able to contribute plugins, Atom is extremely useful regardless of what you are trying to do. Working on the Go? There's a plugin for that. Working with infrastructure as code using Terraform? Plugin for that. Editing chef code? There's also a plugin for that.
  • Memory Hog: Using Atom, Slack, and Chrome on a laptop that isn't completely specked out is a recipe for disaster. Try opening Spotify, I dare you.
As a general rule, I always recommend Atom to someone new to editors or someone looking for a simple editor that is powerful but easy to get used to. For users that are new to any kind of code maintenance, Atom is a real treat. It doesn't have the clutter of Visual Studio Code in the user interface but it is just as powerful and extensible from a plugin perspective.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My team uses it to develop and maintain our websites using HTML, JavaScript and Django, a python based framework. It is also used as a general purpose text editor. It's light weight too. It also gave us functions comparable to that of a IDE without all the memory usage. It's open source and easily customizable. We also found it to have one of the best GIT integrations among its competitors.
  • Opensource : While Sublime is a good editor which is comparable to Atom, it's not opensource. Atom is opensource. Which makes it easier to tailor it to suit your needs.
  • Autocomplete: Atom automatically variable names, functions and constructs, it also closes the brackets as soon as you open one. Which helps me avoid syntax errors.
  • Simplicity : It maintains simplicity without sacrificing important features.
  • GIT Integration : Considering that it's built by GitHub, it's no surprise that Atom has a very good GIT integration.
  • Startup is a bit slow. Memory management can be improved.
  • Support for syntax highlighting for some languages are missing.
  • Some plugins randomly crash and Atom stops responding. Uninstalling the plugin that crashed usually solves this.
  • Search engine does not work as you would expect it to work.
It is well suited for new programmers who are looking for a free editor to start coding. It also supports most major languages out there. You can use the same software to develop a program in Java, python and many other languages. It is also cross-platform. It is a bare-bones code editor that you can build up to your liking using the available plugins to extend the functionalities.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is being used by my team as one of the primary text editors for data analytics and machine learning workflows when it comes to making modifications to code and writing analytic SQL queries. The primary business problem it addresses is a cross-platform analytics tool that all our team members can use to make changes to code. It also allows for plugin extensibility, and thereby reduces the amount of friction when sharing text and code that needs highlighting.
  • Extensibility via plugins.
  • Code highlighting in various languages.
  • Cross-platform support.
  • User-support.
  • Bug and crash handling.
  • Lagging when connected to a server.
Atom is well-suited when you need a cross-platform text editor that is basic and highlights code well. This is not an integrated development environment, and therefore you should focus on finding one of those programs instead if your goal is to have a whole testing, run, and automation suite. This works well for rudimentary editing supported by external tools that do running or testing.
Steven Puringi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Since I am a semi-professional freelancer, Atom is very useful in my exploits in interactive web development. The packages that can be added onto the IDE are very useful, they save time, assist in code structure and development. packages such as HTML Preview help save time between tests as it capture whatever changes I make to the code and displays it in real time, Text Select is another that identifies text of the same name when clicked upon so I can debug my code much more efficiently if need be, Emmit is another that enable short-hand coding which also saves time in terms of tag creations. These a but o few of packages that Atom has to offer to make web development much more efficient and flexible for developers.
  • Real-time code previewing.
  • Word selection highlights.
  • Shorthand coding.
  • In terms of processing, if too many packages installed it tends to slow the PC.
  • Should also branch out to other languages in terms of ease of use and flexibility.
Definitely well suited if you are a freelancing web developer or student because it is free and is open source. Its ease of use and various functionality, depending on packages, is very helpful for beginners and even experts. it is well suited for any task big or small as long as you have the drive and desire to create.
Dylan Cauwels | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is used as a small scripting tool by mainly myself and a few others. It's a perfect tool for drumming up a rapid solution to any problem-- in our case, aws and infrastructure problems. It has enough tools and plug-ins to help you debug a script, but still remains incredibly lightweight and quick to deploy.
  • Lightweight solution. Unmatched in the ability to drum up a script, test it, and deploy it until a more permanent solution is available.
  • Adaptable to almost any situation. Need to do a SQL script? There's a plugin that will allow you to connect to your database or a sample one and run your code. General scripts can be run straight from the program instead of the command line with the "script" plugin. There are even scripts that will "beautify" ugly code for you to fix "that guy's" code.
  • Should have account-based customization so that plugins sync across machines. Currently, you have to individually install each plugin/environment on every machine that you encounter, which can be incredibly time consuming and frustrating after the first time.
Well suited for small, lightweight solutions to problems that need to be made quickly and effectively. My implementation was used mainly for infrastructure scripting and automation processes through python3 and Ansible. Not very good for large application programming, as it won't remember keywords/class names/method names very well and will often suggest wrong fields that would result in errors. Also not very good at catching errors, as it's meant to be lightweight and therefore doesn't have those indexing capabilities.
Matthew Deakyne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is being used by select individuals at the University of Kansas, and not by the organization as a whole. Its used primarily as a simple text editor, but can be configured to be used as a full IDE. It is highly configurable to domain-specific problems, but its core competency is text editing.
  • Highly configurable. Atom has packages that can be managed through the application or via command line. This gives it incredible power for advanced users.
  • Blank Start. Atom opens up by default to a blank note page which can be saved anywhere. It can also be used to open projects, but sometimes notes aren't attached to specific projects. This is useful for quick notes.
  • Run anywhere. Due to it being an electron application, Atom can run on Windows/Mac and Linux. This is incredibly powerful, and a surprising differentiator for a desktop application.
  • Lack of sync. Atom doesn't have sync built in. I know this can be configured to work with Dropbox or Git, but web applications that sync have a clear advantage.
  • Lack of mobile. Not all notes are taken on a computer, and several other note taking apps have an option to take and review notes on a phone.
  • Lack of built-in IDE features. Atom can be configured to be an IDE, but other applications are IDEs by default. It takes a good amount of configuration to bring atom up to that level.
Atom is great for people that need a desktop text editor, and who like to customize their experience. It's incredibly powerful and serves as a good backup to a full-fledged IDE. It probably won't appeal to those that have to do complex development work, or to those that prefer a web-experience due to the automated syncing.
Dhruba Jyoti Nag | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Atom is mostly used by developers across my current organizations. It is a highly customizable editor with many new developer-friendly features. It can also be custom built to suit individual needs. These customizations have quickly made it a favorite with many developers using Atom. In otherways, Atom brings the best of Sublime Text and Notepad++ together.
  • Customizations
  • Active community for package support
  • Rich user interface
  • Performance: it's resource hungry
  • Stability across OS
  • Issue loading and manipulating big files
Atom is extensible, it has an active package community and integrated package manager. It is ideal for editing in different programming languages. There is also a fair amount of community support for the different issues one may face. But it is slow compared to other light text editors and cannot handle really large files like a database dump well.
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