Bare Bones Software, the company behind popular code editors BBEdit and TextWrangler, this week announced plans to retire TextWrangler as it focuses development on BBEdit.

Going forward, TextWrangler will not be updated for the next version of macOS, but it will continue to be functional so long as the new version of macOS doesn't introduce any software-breaking bugs.

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Bare Bones is instead recommending its customers download BBEdit 11.6, which was released in July. Customers can use BBEdit 11.6 unlicensed indefinitely, and the unlicensed version contains the same features that are available in TextWrangler. BBEdit is not available through the Mac App Store like TextWrangler, but can be downloaded from the Bare Bones Software website.

What you may not know is that last July, we released BBEdit 11.6. You can use this version unlicensed, forever, for free. Without a license, BBEdit now includes all of the features that TextWrangler offers, plus quite a few others. That's right. You no longer have to pick between them.

BBEdit is free for 30 days, after which a license costs $49.99. Customers who don't wish to purchase a license can continue to use the software's free features indefinitely.

Top Rated Comments

ike1707 Avatar
82 months ago
Who here remember the days of ResEdit?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jeabraham Avatar
82 months ago
I think you're confusing "identified developer" and "app store". You can't submit apps to the app store without being an identified developer, but you can still sign your apps as an identified developer even if you release them outside of the app store. Your own screenshot shows that you can install apps that aren't on the app store, as long as they're signed.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jmh600cbr Avatar
82 months ago
These guys make super bad icons
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dredlew Avatar
82 months ago
textmate is free. bbedit can die now.
Did you even attempt to read the article?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Evil Spoonman Avatar
82 months ago
Text editors come and go with advantages and disadvantages. None has been more trusty than BBEdit. You always think you've come up with a new flashy editor and then you need to open a 500MB text file, or do complex multi-file processing, or some other damn thing... and your new flashy editor slows to a crawl, or doesn't behave properly, or crashes. And... back to BBEdit.

Although I do use Coda 2 for most of my development, I continue to use BBEdit for many, many things. And have done since BBEdit... 5 I think? Going on 20 years now. Some of the most robust software I've ever used.

I see it as only a good thing that they are unifying their code base.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chrfr Avatar
82 months ago
Not making it available on the appstore is a very bad idea.

Lots of corporate policies got security requirements that computers run apps from only app store or trusted developers... and here when they mention trusted developers, it's developers that got signing certificates trusted by that company.
There's no worry. BareBones is a trusted developer, so you don't need to change settings regarding Gatekeeper.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)