Notepad++ Code Editor Comes to Mac After 20-Year Wait - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Notepad++ Code Editor Comes to Mac After 20-Year Wait

The popular Notepad++ coding editor is now available as a native macOS app, following a successful open-source community port of the original Windows codebase. The Notepad replacement runs as a universal binary, so it works on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

Notepad++
Notepad++ has been one of the most popular text editors on Windows for more than 20 years. Until now, Mac users who switched from Windows, or who worked across both platforms, had to choose between giving up the editor and running it through a Wine or CrossOver compatibility layer. Now those users have no such dilemma.

The editing experience is identical to the Windows version, right down to the Scintilla engine, tabbed editing, syntax highlighting for 80+ languages, search and replace, macro recording, and plugin support. The only difference is that the menus, dialogs, file pickers, keyboard shortcuts, and windowing all use native macOS Cocoa APIs.

Notepad++ for macOS is maintained by Andrey Letov, who wrote the Objective-C++ Cocoa UI that replaces Notepad++'s Win32 front-end. The app is available to download from the Notepad++ website. It's completely free and released under the GNU General Public License, so there are no ads, subs, or hidden costs.

(Thanks, Mike!)

Popular Stories

app store monthly sub commitment

Apple Introduces App Store Monthly Subscriptions With 12-Month Commitment

Monday April 27, 2026 12:52 pm PDT by
Apple today announced the launch of a new subscription option for App Store developers: monthly subscriptions with a 12-month commitment. The new option allows developers to offer subscribers discounted pricing typically associated with an annual subscription but paid on a monthly basis to keep payments more affordable. This new payment option allows you to offer subscribers more affordable...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

This Is What the iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like

Saturday April 25, 2026 10:00 am PDT by
A recent leak provides our best look yet at the design of Apple's upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Leaker Sonny Dickson recently shared images of the first iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone dummy models. The images largely conform with rumors about the designs of the three devices and provide the first real visual confirmation of how they will look. ...
MacBook Pro Low Angle Wide Lens

Apple to Launch 'MacBook Ultra' With These Six New Features

Friday April 24, 2026 10:32 am PDT by
While the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro were just updated with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips last month, bigger changes are reportedly around the corner. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the higher-end MacBook Pro models will be receiving a major redesign by early 2027, and he said that Apple might use "MacBook Ultra" branding for them. If so, the MacBook Ultra would likely be a...

Top Rated Comments

2 hours ago at 01:39 am
Is it better than BBEdit?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StellarVixen Avatar
1 hour ago at 01:48 am

and a team of AI agents ('https://notepad-plus-plus-mac.org/author/').
My initial euphoria just crashed like the Hindenburg.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ry-guy Avatar
24 minutes ago at 02:52 am

Vibe coded? No, thanks
If his resumé is true, it sounds like hes an actual software engineer, using ai to assist in his projects… which is what it excels at in my limited use. As long as you know what it’s doing and can test it, refactor it, know where its wrong,etc i think that’s acceptable. But to each their own.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MasterControlProgram Avatar
1 hour ago at 02:12 am
I'm surprised most people aren't using VSCode these days. With all the extensions and tool integrations it seems like the best option for most projects (other than iOS app development where Xcode is really the only choice).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anthonylambert Avatar
23 minutes ago at 02:53 am
Vim anyone....
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
star-affinity Avatar
1 hour ago at 01:47 am
Downloaded it and gave it a quick whirl. The GUI feels totally of on MacOS in my opinion. Even the settings for the app is in a Settings menu in the menu bar and not under the application menu next to the Apple menu as per usual.

I really like CotEditor ('https://coteditor.com/') which feels right at home to use in MacOS.

But maybe I'm in the minority who thinks about how apps looks and ”feels”, and I'm sure there are many good features unique to Notepad++ that are useful. :)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)