The Best HTML Editor Software of 2021

Adobe Dreamweaver CC is a versatile HTML editor. You can build a website using WYSIWYG or text. You can also code with any well-known coding language, so for instance you can include JavaScript or PHP in your HTML document. It also offers many integrations that are available from the Adobe library of assets such as graphics or colors.

There's no free version of Adobe Dreamweaver, although a seven-day free trial is available. The website does not provide any information on pricing, so you’ll need to call the company to get a custom quote.

Atom is an open-source copy editor, originally developed by GitHub, that first appeared in 2014. It supports multiple split screens and autocomplete that helps you write your code faster. Since it’s open source, developers can contribute new features to it at any time.

It refers to itself as “a hackable text editor for the 21st century.” There are almost 9,000 installation packages developed and shared by other developers that you can download. Since it’s open source, it'll work on almost any operating system, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Originally built in 1997, Bluefish is an open-source HTML editor. It works on many operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports multiple screens and autocompletion. It's primarily used by developers who already know HTML and want to tweak the HTML code they’ve written. It works with many programming and markup languages. In that sense, it’s more of a code editor than an HTML editor.

Although it does not include a WYSIWYG editor, it does allow you to preview what you’ve coded in any browser.

Brackets is an open-source HTML editor primarily meant for developers and web designers. It's a text editor and has no WYSIWYG version. It does provide a real-time split screen connection to a browser, so as soon as you make a change in the coding, you can see how the change is reflected on a web page. It’s available for Windows and Macs and offers code completion.

Its Quick Edit function allows you to make faster changes to an HTML page without having to spend a lot of time hunting around for coding.

CoffeeCup offers a free text editor, but you can get access to a WYSIWYG function for an extra fee. It’s not designed for beginning coders. The free version is a very basic HTML editor, but when you buy a copy, you gain full access to its suite of features.

Its free version lets you create HTML or CSS files from scratch. If you have a website already in progress, CoffeeCup HTML editor will open it from your computer or a web server. It has a built-in validation tool that allows you to check your code. It also offers code completion and split screen preview.

There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Komodo Edit. Both versions are currently available for free, with the Komodo Edit being a reduced version of IDE. It’s an open source HTML editor that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

While you can use any browser with Komodo Edit, it works best on Firefox. It has autocomplete and integrates seamlessly with other software. It’s a particularly good editor for working with markup languages like XML or PHP. There are no debugging features on Edit, so if you want that feature, you'll need to upgrade to IDE.

Originally developed as part of a student project in 1996, Apache NetBeans is a free and open source tool. It supports HTML 5 as well as JavaScript, PHP, C/C++, and more. It specializes in working with HTML and JavaScript and features a Java IDE.

It’s primarily a text editor, although there is a WYSIWYG plug-in. Since it’s open source, it has many plug-ins that have been developed and shared, especially since it was elevated to a top project by the Apache Foundation. It offers autocomplete for many coding languages and generates reports you can use to validate your coding.

A free HTML editor, Notepad ++ is quite simple and lightweight and as a result is fast. It was built for working on Windows machines and will only work on other operating systems with help of additional add-ons. Like other open source software, it has many plug-ins you can use with this HTML editor.

While it supports some coding languages, it doesn't integrate with other software. It also doesn’t generate reports to help you validate your coding. Still, it's particularly useful to developers because it's free and easy to download and use.

Sublime Text is what's known as a freemium HTML editor. You can download a trial version for free and evaluate it for as long as you like, but if you want the full feature version, you’ll need to buy a license. If you buy a license, however, you can use it on any computer you own.

Sublime Text encourages the development of plug-ins by users of the software. The company also creates them on its own. It's primarily meant for Windows, although it can be used on Linux. Sublime Text offers split screen monitoring.

This is a free HTML editor from Microsoft. It's very customizable, including the ability to download tools that help you debug the software, and features autocomplete for a variety of coding languages.

The autocomplete tool is called HTML IntelliSense and features auto closing tags. There’s also a color picker that makes it easy to add colors. HTML language support performs validation on all your coding. Like many other features, this can be turned on or off with simple code changes. Visual Studio code is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.