--- title: Bluefish Reviews meta_title: 'Bluefish Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 51 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Bluefish works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.1 review_count: 51 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: Software Design url: https://www.g2.com/categories/software-design --- # Bluefish Reviews **Vendor:** Bluefish Editor **Category:** [Web Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/web-design) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 51 ## About Bluefish Bluefish is a robust, open-source text editor tailored for programmers and web developers, offering a versatile platform for creating websites, scripts, and code across various programming and markup languages. Designed to bridge the gap between simple text editors and full-fledged integrated development environments (IDEs), Bluefish provides a lightweight yet feature-rich environment that is both fast and easy to learn. Key Features and Functionality: - Multi-Language Support: Bluefish offers syntax highlighting and auto-completion for 47 different programming and markup languages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and C. - Advanced Editing Tools: Features such as code folding, auto-recovery, and a code-aware spell-checker enhance the coding experience. - Project Management: Supports multiple projects with the ability to open multiple files simultaneously, facilitating efficient workflow management. - Remote File Access: Integrates with GNOME Virtual File System (GVfs) to enable seamless editing of files over FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and more. - Customizable Interface: Offers a user-friendly interface with configurable toolbars and dialogs, allowing users to tailor the environment to their preferences. Primary Value and User Solutions: Bluefish addresses the needs of developers seeking a powerful yet lightweight editor that supports a wide range of programming and markup languages. Its extensive feature set, including advanced editing tools and project management capabilities, streamlines the development process, enhancing productivity. The ability to access and edit remote files directly within the editor simplifies workflows for developers working on web projects. By providing a customizable and efficient coding environment, Bluefish empowers developers to focus on writing quality code without the overhead of more complex IDEs. ## Bluefish Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users find Bluefish's **ease of use** perfect for quick setup, collaborative editing, and reliable editing support. (2 reviews) - Users value the **seamless collaboration** features of Bluefish, enhancing teamwork through efficient file editing and multi-tap support. (1 reviews) - Users value the **excellent customer support** from Bluefish, enhancing their collaboration and editing experience significantly. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **editing ease** of Bluefish, benefiting from one-click installation and robust FTP support for collaboration. (1 reviews) - Users find Bluefish to be **easy to use with a wealth of features** that enhance their experience. (1 reviews) - Installation Ease (1 reviews) - Tab Management (1 reviews) - Website Design (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users face challenges with **difficult editing** in Bluefish, impacting their overall user experience and satisfaction. (1 reviews) - Users struggle with **difficult implementation** and inadequate customer support, leading to frustration and challenges in use. (1 reviews) - Users experience **poor customer support** and find implementation challenging, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction. (1 reviews) ## Bluefish Reviews ### 1. Reliable for Speed and Compatibility Checks, Less Needed in the Age of AI **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 10, 2026 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** I have tried before to test and compare its outputs with Google Antigravity in terms of web development, motion features, browsers compatibility, and security. It helped compare it with GA in terms of speed, reliability, level of confidence. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** With the rise of AI and its ability to interact with the user, I no longer need to use them, except for checking high complex assignments and so, I assign this task to a developer to work on. The biggest challenge is the non-integration of AI and that if so, it needs to compete with other tools out there. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** As I said, the problem, Bluefish has tried to solve, has to do with development of applications. It provides another tools that allows my colleagues in other developers to test a number of new ideas, including language, translation, HTML code video and coding, complex small web applications within the website. The benefit has been to work on the code in ways that was not possible before. The layout it's a little bit outdated, but it has been effective over the years. Because the company has been around for a long time he has a very strong base of followers. He has been generally beneficial for us, but recently that has changed with the rise of AI tools. Some of my colleagues are interested in keeping it for now to ensure that we don't entirely rely on AI who is known to have hallucinations. ### 2. It’s a very helpful app for side earnings **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Srijita J. | Public Relations Executive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2025 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Their product is easy to use and too many features **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** Difficult implantation and customer suport **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy and time saving which helps to edit texts ### 3. A Pretty Great Software for Writing Code **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 24, 2021 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** The Bluefish software does have a lot of capabilities that other text editor software has. The software is available to everyone for free, too, which I thought was awesome. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** It can be very difficult to actually download and install. Also, I sometimes feel like the interface is really clunky and hard to navigate through. I would love an update. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed to use a text-editing software for a website we were developing and I stumbled across Bluefish that was free to use and had all of the capabilities I needed. ### 4. Advanced text editor supporting wide range of coding languages **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2022 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Clean and nice interface and it also supports wide range of coding languages python, Java, html, c, c++ **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** There's no FTP upload site button to update website files **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** We can easily connect with messaging channels Facebook messenger, WhatsApp etc., ### 5. Simple editor for web design **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Terrence G. | Web Designer, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2019 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Bluefish is easy to use and allows you to quickly create simple sites of HTML and CSS content, perfect for static content sites such as websites of companies where you only want to show some information about the company and contact forms. Although the application is not bad, I must say that it must be used and understood as the objective of the application, which is to be a basic and simple web editor to perform simple tasks and not for the creation of advanced websites that include technologies such as php and MySQL database management. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** Although bluefish does not pretend to be a first level editor, I must say that it has become outdated and this is especially noticeable in the visual interface. It is also noticeable in the content that is added as part of the web, mainly HTML tags that close badly or use tables that are not for tabulating data. **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** I recommend using bluefish as an editor for simple things, especially if you need to do it quickly, keep in mind that bluefish is not an advanced text editor so you can not demand the same things as a full IDE. I also recommend using it if you are looking for something free for what I have said above. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** I need a light application to make quick fixes to html and css files, but also in some configuration files, bluefish works well for this task. ### 6. Old but still working solution for static HTML sites **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian T. | Web Designer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 11, 2019 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** What I liked most about BlueFish is that it is a very stable and simple editor. The installer is very light, which is consistent with the little RAM consumed by the application and the speed with which it opens and closes. Personally I think it is a particularly useful tool as a fast text editor rather than for the programming of websites because for this purpose I prefer to write the code directly. The best of BlueFish: - Quick and low RAM consumption editor - Multi platform, Personally I have tested the Windows and Linux versions and they are identical. - The HTML code that you create is very clean unlike other similar solutions where you add many unnecessary things to the code. - BlueFish is tottaly free even if you need for your business **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** What I did not like about BlueFish is that it does not get updated too much, the last one is from year 2017, it could be an excellent product if it were to turn more in its development. The graphical interface must also be updated. **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** I recommend using BlueFish if you are starting to program HTML websites and you need to quickly check how your code is represented on the web. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** BlueFish works very well as a text editor especially because it is very light and supports large files without problems. Although sometimes we also use it to quickly visualize HTML code and quick editions. ### 7. Bluefish and The Average Consumer **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Online Media | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Bluefish is pretty easy to use. It is easy to self-teach one's self to use the product and is straightforward. There aren't too many editing and design instruments, which makes it simple to follow and uncomplicated. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** I would have to say that Bluefish when compared to other design programs and platforms, does seem slightly outdated. Because it is so simple and easy to use, it can be mistaken for lower quality and limited in terms of design creation. **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** When it comes to advertising, Bluefish is the best way to go. Bluefish offers a simple and quick way to put together flyers, business cards, brochures--anything to advertise your cause or mission. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being an organization not funded by our university, it is imperative that we find and utilize programs that are free and of high quality. Bluefish is great in regards to our PR chair introducing a program that advertises our mission and doesn't kill our budget. ### 8. Good program for programmers **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Noelia G. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 07, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** This editorial manager is the best of the free decisions. You can alter significantly more effortlessly than essentially everything. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** It doesn't have an application for cell phones. This editorial manager is the best of the free decisions. It could have a superior combination with WordPress too. **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** I would try it out. It's anything but difficult to utilize and has a great deal of devices for a free programming. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have possessed the capacity to effortlessly consider and compose code. It has spared a huge amount of time over utilizing a basic word processor. ### 9. This software is growing on me **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 03, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** It caters to my website editing needs and the results are very dynamic. I also came across the softwares ability to make and alter design projects **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** I started working on my Macbook with this software but it was crashing **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** Good for editing pictures and has lots of tools that you can use for making cards, flyers etc **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its free! simple and easy to use. A good tool for web developers ### 10. Gerat little PHP editor **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Fast and easy to use. Able to create projects. Very easy to edit documents. Frequently updated. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** The interface or skin could be better looking **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** Try it out. There'a a slight learning curve but give it a chance **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it for development of my web applications using PHP, CSS, and JS. Bluefish organizes my projects for easy access and distribution ### 11. Good basic text editor **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kathy D. | Design V&V Engineer, Financial Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** Not going to lie, I love the icon on my Start Menu, task bar and Desktop. It's relatively easy to use and is compatible with all the files I need to see in this delimited format. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** Text editors are all pretty similar but not many of my colleagues know of or use this tool. Notepad ++ pretty much dominates this field so just wish it were more well known. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** I frequently need this tool when testing export files, edit XML tags and see encryption. I don't see any problems with this tool. ### 12. Go correctly and lightly **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** An easy-to-use IDE related to web environments **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** Functionality and somewhat cumbersome, as well as outdated **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** Code editing ### 13. sampled the program **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Photography | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** I used bluefish to check out their Branding & Design- they offer prototype development. They helped me bring my ideas to life. They state they can increase your international orders year-over-year for a lifestyle brand by 78%! **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** The price point and use for small businesses **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** I would see if anyone in your company can do the same type of details first **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** The benefit was helping my business model and perfecting my operational process to ensure that our brand promise is real ### 14. Video Streaming Service **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Victoria S. | Youth Director // Director of Community Organizing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 31, 2016 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** I like that as a business we work with a designer to create custom websites and html that cater to our individual needs and style. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** The actual bluefish info website itself is very dated. Since the purpose of bluefish is to help write html (sometimes complicated), it is weird that the company website is so simple and old school. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to work on multiple projects at a time and have multiple documents open at a time. ### 15. Excellent for developing Web sites **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Law Practice | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 05, 2016 **What do you like best about Bluefish?** It's a free tool for developing websites. What more do you want. **What do you dislike about Bluefish?** It can be a little complex to use, but if you familiar with the basic programming you should be fine. **Recommendations to others considering Bluefish:** If you are in need of developing a website. Look no further. **What problems is Bluefish solving and how is that benefiting you?** We made our business website template with it. ## Bluefish Discussions - [Is Bluefish a good IDE?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-bluefish-a-good-ide) - 1 comment - [View Bluefish pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/bluefish/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=4§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+15%3A07%3A23+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=a7e6da5f-958c-49ba-bf95-66b9b6ed8d22&secure%5Btoken%5D=26ef923ee4e5d8997b8f7c5172514bc4296b2866d8434358e59ef87c3f687fc6&format=llm_user) ## Bluefish Features **Coding** - Syntax highlighting - Autocompletion - Find and replace - Code folding **Platform Basics** - Templates Library - Visualization Tools - HTML and CSS Editors - Content Elements Libraries - Dynamic Content - WYSIWYG Editor - Image Library **Editing** - Collaborative editing - Language Support - Selection Methods **Platform Additional Functionalities** - WYSIWYG Editor Integration - Marketing Tools Integrations - Vector Graphics Tools Importing and Integration - Online Booking Tools - Third-Party Integrations - Social Media Integration - CMS Integration **Functionality** - Extensibility - Cross-platform support - Plugins and integrations - Security **Agentic AI - Web Design** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Multi-Language **Additional Functionality** - Text Editing - HTML5 Technology - Real-Time Updates - Generative AI - Code Editing - Website Hosting - Website Analytics - Widgets - Website Management - Template Management - Search/Filter - Shopping Cart - Image Editing - No-Code - Revision History - Design Management - Automatic Backup - Landing Pages/Web Forms - Content Management - SEO Management - Drag & Drop - AI Copilot - Custom Domains - Forms Management - Animation - eCommerce Management - Customizable Forms - Newsletter Management - Preview Functionality - Website Publishing Options - Customizable Branding - Content Import/Export **Agentic AI - Landing Page Builders** - Cross-system Integration ## Top Bluefish Alternatives - [Adobe Dreamweaver](https://www.g2.com/products/adobe-dreamweaver/reviews) - 4.1/5.0 (2,800 reviews) - [Visual Studio Code](https://www.g2.com/products/visual-studio-code/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (2,658 reviews) - [Notepad++](https://www.g2.com/products/notepad/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (2,413 reviews)