--- title: TextPad Reviews meta_title: 'TextPad Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 142 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how TextPad works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.4 review_count: 142 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-17' parent_category: name: Editor url: https://www.g2.com/categories/editor --- # TextPad Reviews **Vendor:** Helios Software Solutions **Category:** [Text Editor Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/text-editor) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 142 ## About TextPad TextPad is a text editor for Windows, developed by Helios Software Solutions since 1992. It caters to both general text editing and programming needs, offering a robust set of features that enhance productivity and streamline complex tasks. With support for large files and multiple languages, TextPad is designed to meet the demands of both casual users and professional developers. Key Features and Functionality: - Large File Support: Capable of editing files up to the limits of virtual memory, making it suitable for handling extensive documents. - Syntax Highlighting: Provides customizable syntax highlighting for various programming languages, aiding in code readability and error detection. - Macro Recording: Allows users to record and replay sequences of commands, facilitating repetitive tasks and complex text transformations. - Regular Expression Search and Replace: Supports advanced search and replace operations using regular expressions, including multiline patterns. - Block Selection and Editing: Enables column-based text selection and editing, useful for modifying structured data. - Integration with External Tools: Can call external programs, such as compilers, and integrates seamlessly with Java JDK if installed. - Multi-Document Interface: Supports editing multiple files simultaneously with tabbed document selection and synchronized scrolling. - Clip Libraries: Offers snippet management for reusable text portions, enhancing efficiency in code and text editing. - Multi-Language Support: User interface available in multiple languages, with spelling dictionaries in ten languages. Primary Value and User Solutions: TextPad addresses the need for a powerful yet user-friendly text editor that bridges the gap between simple text editing and complex programming environments. Its extensive feature set, including large file handling, syntax highlighting, and macro capabilities, empowers users to efficiently manage and edit text and code. By integrating with external tools and supporting multiple languages, TextPad enhances productivity and adaptability, making it a valuable tool for developers, writers, and anyone requiring a reliable text editing solution. ## TextPad Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users love the **cross-platform capabilities** of TextPad, enabling easy editing across multiple devices with reliability. (1 reviews) - Users find TextPad to be **user-friendly** , enabling quick editing and efficient management of multiple projects effortlessly. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **free and easy usage** of TextPad, making it ideal for quick editing and note-taking. (1 reviews) - Users value the **robust language support** in TextPad, enabling efficient handling of multiple programming languages and projects. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **great handling of very large files** in TextPad, making editing effortless and efficient. (1 reviews) - Lightweight (1 reviews) - Note-taking (1 reviews) - Speed (1 reviews) - Text Editing (1 reviews) ## TextPad Reviews ### 1. Great for coding **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vivian W. | Software Developer, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Textpad is extremely easy to use. My company has a proprietary language, but Textpad still worked well with it. We integrated some Tools to use with Textpad which makes our work so much easier. The color coding also helps a bunch. Overall, coding with Textpad is simple and easy. No complaints! **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Nothing, Textpad is easy to use. I like everything about Textpad as of now. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** My company uses its own programming language, but even then, Textpad works well with the language. We created some Tools that would make our work easier such as linking us to certain parts of the code as we are searching for them. ### 2. Friendly and light weight Text Editor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** TextPad is a powerful editor for text files. I have been using TextPad for many years now - primarily to look at the position of records in a text file, compare files and to make notes while working on my day to day assignments. I have a TextPad window always opened at my desktop since the amount of memory usage is close to none. So I use it keep recording steps which I have been performing to resolve complex business issues. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Not much to "dislike" in TextPad really. It's super easy to use and contains a lot of features IT users need. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's a Text Editor so it doesn't really solve any business problems. But looking at the ton of features it provides, it's a "must-have tool for every IT person. ### 3. TextPad **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Will V. | EDI Developer, Apparel & Fashion, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** The ease of manipulating text data for analysis. The file comparison function is fantastic when looking for micro-differences between multiple documents. Block Selecting is fantastic as well! **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There is no HEX editor that I am aware of. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Give it a try. It's free! It won't be the most powerful Text editor but it's the best one that is free, in my opinion. I give it a solid 2nd place next to UltraEdit. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used this application for the last 12-15 years. I use it to look at X12 and XML data. Make changes, analysis, comparison between multiple files, etc. I'm able to replace characters in standard or regular expression. I also use it as a staging area to write scripts and copy/change other scripts for my purposes. Lots of use cases for this great free tool! ### 4. Fantastic text editor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Perfect for web developers who do stuff the old fashioned way (in code). It uses color coding to show you which tags or quotes are opened or closed. Allows you to have hundreds of documents opened all at the same time. The ability to create Macros is also extremely helpful if you need to use this to create data files. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** The color coding is great for html, but it isn't available for classic ASP or Javascript. It also does not support Chinese characters, but it can be used to edit files containing Chinese characters. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** So much better than just using Wordpad or Notepad. This is an absolute must for any web developer who likes to program in code and not with software. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Textpad exclusively for programming our web page. In addition to that I also use it for cutting and pasting code that I will need to use on other computers. I started using TextPad originally when I was programming standard html (enhanced for Netscape 1.1 of course), I then graduated to classic ASP and Javascript, and now I use it for Bootstrap and CSS. ### 5. Workhorse for large files **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nick H. | IT Infrastructure Engineer, Insurance, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 12, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** TextPad can handle virtually any size file you throw at it. Very fast for doing regular expression search/replace on those large files. Therefore it still is the editor I use for handling very large logfiles or datafiles. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It used to be the editor I used for all editing of plain textfiles, but there are nicer looking alternatives for that, like SublimeText or Atom. Regular expressions in TextPad take a little time to get used to when it comes to escaping special characters. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** For general purpose textediting there are nicer alternatives, but for very large files this is a great editor. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ability to handle very large files (hundreds of megabytes to a couple of gigabytes) with relative ease. ### 6. Great software with Robust features **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shashank K. | Staff Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** This is a great software for a lot of reasons: The features are very reliable and I feel all the help with spell check and transposition of characters, etc. are pretty cool. I feel this is a software that can help a lot of people with their writing and speech dictation. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There is really nothing to dislike here. I feel it is something that will really help a lot of professionals in their respective spheres. There si not a lot to dislike here to be honest. Overall, it is a great product and deserves a shot by most professionals. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Give it a shot and it might just surprise you. It has some great, robust features and can really help a lot of professionals in their writing skills. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps with good spell checking and also transposition errors, etc. Overall, a great software for sure. ### 7. TextPad to view code and make notes **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospitality | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I use TextPad when I need to read through a file that contains long lines of data that I don't want to wrap. I also use it to copy and paste notes. I review logs in this application as well. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** When you go to search for a word and do a CTRL F, if you hit enter it goes to the first occurrence of your search. If you hit enter again, it doesn't go to the next occurrence but instead it enters a new line. This is pretty annoying that you have to use your mouse to click next instead. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** TextPad allows for us to search through logs to find data. ### 8. Quick text file view **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** It comes with Windows, preloaded, easy access and easy to use for any txt document. It has line numbers and easy to edit. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I have not found anything I do not like yet. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Comparing machine data. I found that I can compare 2 data files at the same time. ### 9. Spell Check of different languages **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Unlike other text editors it provides spell check in many different languages **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There is nothing more to dislike about this software, but the only thing is prefer less for this software is the installation space. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it as a plain text editor in place of notepad or wordpad and even for programming IDE ### 10. textpad rocks **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian L. | Senior E-Commerce Product Manager, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** best utility text editor. handles files of any sizes. very easy and intuitive to use. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** hex editor is a little clumsy to launch. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** similar to notepad++ but without all the bells, whistles and customization. lightweight to use. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** replacement for MSOFT editors. doesn't play games and preserves whitespace. can edit any text based-file, even XML. search and replace is first class. ### 11. TextPad Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 22, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** The ease at which it works across many formats **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It is a little clumsy doing find and change I think **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** You will really like it **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allow me to view dump files that are very large in a readable format ### 12. TextPad review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Honestly, what stands out most to me when I'm using TextPad is it's ease of use. This makes it a complete draw to me and it makes me recommend it to other people as well because it doesn't take long to learn to use. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I can honestly say that I do not know one thing I can think of that makes me want to say I dislike anything about this software. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** My recommendations for considering textpad would be to try it out. It is so easy to use, that it is a complete draw for people. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use textpad to take down notes. The ease of use are all the benefits you need. ### 13. TextPad is an essential tool for manipulating text files **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jonathan O. | Project Manager/Senior Trial Support Coordinator, Legal Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 30, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** TextPad gives me the ability to easily copy, paste and replace text. It supports unicode and other characters that word processing programs like Word do not. The ability to use regular expressions is also an invaluable tool. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** The interface feels a bit dated and boring, but then again, you're working with plain text files, so there's really no need for fancy graphics. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it every day to create and manipulate database load files. The simplicity and ease of use allow me to accomplish this faster and without hassle. ### 14. TextPad evaluation **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 28, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Ability to easily manuever lines of code, input files, and text documents for simple editing **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Interface is a little dated, has a feel of an order GUI **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Comparison of analysis input files to investigate differences. As previously stated, comparison of files and quick file manipulation is the biggest benefit. ### 15. Super easy to use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yaochiem C. | Electrical Engineer, Utilities, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 26, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Very easy to use, and simple in its functionality. Basic note keeping abilities without added baggage. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There isn't much I don't dislike. It is a basic program. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** It's great. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it to jot down quick notes, and it's simplicity in load times vs Word are helpful. ### 16. User friendly and versatile function **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeng-Bang (Tony) Y. | Research Staff Member, Information Technology and Services, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Easy to configure LaTex for technical writing **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Limited number of stationary TeX commands via the virtual keypad, requiring constant swipes to view more commands **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Lightweight design perfect for portability applications ### 17. Textpad review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 03, 2018 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Lightweight tool, ease of use, free to use for developers **What do you dislike about TextPad?** 32bit application. Would like it to be a 64 bit application **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** To view log files, csv files and to create config/ property files ### 18. The best editor on windows **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** auto save and xml and json formatter plugins are the best. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I don’t think it needs any improvement. It’s an open source product. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very handy when working with xml and json formatting ### 19. Textpad review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 13, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I like the ease of use when using textpad. When I need to create a quick note, it's the perfect app. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I don't dislike anything about it but I would say that it's not an application to use if you're looking to use a lot of customized settings. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Highly recommended editor. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating step by step notes for my users to resolve their problems. ### 20. A Powerful Text Editor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emmanuel I. | CBA Support, Banking, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** There are many features i like about Textpad. The key ones are stated below : 1) Macro recording : This feature allows you record commands and functions and also save them. Which can later be played back . Playback can be limited to a number of lines or to end of file 2) Compare Files : You can compare two files to check for similarities or differences 3) Sort : This features does not only re-order/re-arrange the text file, it can also delete duplicates and highlight a specific length of lines **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There is nothing i dislike about the software. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Thinking of a Text Editor that is cheap, rich and easy to use..think TEXTPAD **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I work with a lot of data. And Textpad has helped in data preparation(editing, sorting, cleansing). For example, i might need to create multiple insert query lines (>100,000 lines) for insertion into a custom table. All i'll do is to create a Macro then playback to the End of File ### 21. Vastly superior to notepad...no really. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jason C. | Apprentice, Construction, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 25, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Notepad is to Textpad what beef jerky is to steak. Textpad allows you to so so much with data files that it's mind blowing. And yes, i realize it's a standard computer program but I didn't use it until 2014 and had to work with word, excel and notepad up until that point. Textpad made me laugh because I realized I didn't need to put up with the problems I endured during my time before finding it. Some of the tricks take some tinkering and trial-and-error but once you get them down, you'll be working magic. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It's really hard to turn off or reverse the Split Window function without ruining your work. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Only upgrade things that might need improving for the sake of making said things easier to use. DON'T just change a bunch of stuff around. Don't go the way of Microsoft Vista/8. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Delimiters are easy to move/remove, data is easy to find, importing/exporting to excel is a breeze and loading onto data-based programs couldn't be easier. ### 22. Pleasant experience on Textpad compared to NotePad++ **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Narayan K. | Staff Engineer, Wireless, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I like block selection mode the best on this editor . It is very intuitive and easy to use .Search is also quick **What do you dislike about TextPad?** No wide variety of plugins like on notepad++. Its UI also looks a bit outdated on windows 10 **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** go ahead! **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick turnaround for log file processing . ### 23. Simple yet awesome **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 09, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Simple UI that gets the job done. It's efficient with minimal fuse **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Dated UI look makes you feel like your still in the 90s **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** writing simple code files quickly ### 24. Great **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Notepad++ is great & Confulence, JIRA we use **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Source code control system that we use the oldest one **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its easy to use and no trainings needs ### 25. feature **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** it can display syntax for most of the language. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** should have more plug-in to integrate with application like salesforce. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** integration ### 26. Best software when dealing with data from files **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sai S. | Data Integration / ETL Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** The User Interface, options, customization options, warm start, cheap in cost and maintenance. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Inability to deal with the XML files and also it doesn't have compare files option like ULTRA EDIT does. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** delimited files, data analysis, ### 27. Textpad good for notes **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Farming | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Easy to use, never shuts down, nice editting **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I have never had an issues since i know what i want out of the tool **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** looking at complex text, XML ### 28. textpad for physics **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I like the simple interface as well as the light blue back space. I also like the window to window tile views. It helps when doing comparisons to codes or trying to find a bug in a code that still runs. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** The search command-I dont like the short cut that is used for searching. It makes searching for things clunky because the first instinct is to CTRL f and you just end up typing an f into your line of code which you may forget to go erase later which of course causes problems in debugging. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Save your work as you go and use the window to window edit view. It is very helpful and nice to look at. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use to to be able to "draw" new decks for simulations. Freedom to do so easily in a nice platform. Being able to have multiple windows open as well as side by side is a great feature that offers ease when working. Also, it helps that it does not take a lot of memory to run because I need my computer to be computing not trying to store. ### 29. Simple code editor **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura R. | Ingeniero de software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 08, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** It has some features worthy of a simple and useful code editor, supports a variety of programming languages, and has the ability to handle multiple files at the same time. It is super lightweight and runs quickly on Windows. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It is not very well adapted to the new tools offered by the current market; it is perfect for console scripts and some C/C++ scripts, but for development in other areas like CSS or JavaScript, it lacks the necessary tools. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** This tool is neither free nor open source; there are other editors on the market that are much more suitable and new, which can offer you better support for programming and new technologies. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Maintenance of simple scripts in C/C++, most of the time it is better to use this tool than to use the default editor in Windows, it is easy to learn and configure and is oriented towards programming in general. ### 30. simplicity and versatility **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2017 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Textpad has a simple interface which is great for many one off needs when developing code or working with data sets **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Something i dislike about text pad is it could use some more functionality **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I find it useful when i am transferring data from one application to another ### 31. Textpad review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Textpad is a great text editor which is available for free to download and use. It has common features that every text editor has and much better than using standard notepad that comes with Windows. It is very easy to use and new users can easily transition to textpad even without prior experience. You can configure various options based on your preference like whether you want full path of the file or just file name to be displayed, or whether you want to see list of the files in left hand navigation bar or in the top. Also, it can easily open large files upto some extent. You can configure short cuts to match your preference based on using other editors. It also offers interactive tips if that setting is turned on every time you launch the editor. Installing textpad adds the shortcut on the windows explorer so you can easily open files in the your choice of editor. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Textpad find shortcut is confusing everytime, instead of Ctrl F, you have to remember to use F5 and that can be challenging unless you modify the default setting specially when you are coming from the other editors background. Also, it can be used for simply viewing the files or some scratch work, but not preferred for doing software development and should not be compared with IDE since it can't identify compilation errors and used for debugging etc. It has its own limits such that it can't recognize unix/shell script files syntax words. So it is strictly meant for Windows use. Textpad at times tends to open files in different editor instead of opening all files in single instance, that has been very confusing to remember which instance has which file. So I always prefer to drag and drop files into existing instance when that happens which is a simplest workaround. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Absolutely recommend - it is great text editor that offers many advantages and much better using notepad. You can use it simply for viewing files and doing some scratch work or it can also serve for initially coding while you are awaiting IDE setup and viewing formats that identifies the reserved words etc. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Opensource and fully functional editor with lot of usability and good user experience, so you can't complain about anything that it doesn't have to offer. It is greatly suitable for day to day usage for doing scratch work, viewing log files or even opening java source code to view and visually compare with files from other directories. Textpad help is great if you are trying to find some solution. ### 32. I use TextPad on a daily basis to sort through data files and error logs. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kellie C. | Sr. Product Owner - RPA, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I like that it is a small application with tons of capability. I can install it in a matter of minutes and it is not a memory suck. I like that i can also manage several files at once. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There really isn't anything i dislike about this application. It is VERY handy. It runs big files and makes them easily searchable and editable. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you need a text editing app this is one of the best. It gives you lots of functions and ability in a very small application. It can open very large data files with minimal effort. It makes them more available to be edited, searched and updated. I like the ability to view encoding characters and hidden characters. Often times those characters are what throws off my data file, so being able to view them in the app is very helpful. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use this app to search data files for errors. I can use it to replace certain pieces of data. I also use it to go through error logs. I like how it keeps my files organized in tabs or in the side window for me to choose. ### 33. Simple and useful code editor **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anastacia M. | Desarrollador de software, Program Development, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Run fast and is lightweight, it possesses all those features that other more advanced editors have, easy to use and configure, Macros can be really useful for task automation, the possibility of having many views of the same document, well established for general development and project construction. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It does not have integration with GitHub or other source code control, the product's website is really old and outdated, which does not inspire confidence or the sense of purchasing the product, the interface is somewhat outdated and has few visual themes to configure it, it does not have the capability to extend it with plugins, it does not have code completion. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Considering that there are other much better established alternatives for editing and creating code, TextPad can fulfill a wide range of features in a simplistic and fast way. If you are working on simple projects, you can improve your level of productivity by using it. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creation of scripts is a useful and simple tool, it can be set as the default editor in the operating system and used for common editing or general programming tasks. ### 34. Handy tool for lightweight HTML editing **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Josh H. | Social Media Specialist, Government Administration, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 03, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** TextPad is a great shareware text editor that packs many advanced features that go above and beyond the built-in tools in Windows. It's especially geared towards editing HTML files, and it includes many tools and niceties that streamline the workflow of HTML coding. When editing HTML files, TextPad offers the standard features you'd expect, plus a few useful add-ons like a clip library docked on the sidebar and easily accessible find feature found on the toolbar. These features are the most likely to be used very often, and they're readily available wherever you need them. Above all, TextPad is a great lightweight tool for when you don't want to launch something like Dreamweaver, and it has enough included features to get the job done. And if you want to shape it into something that specifically fits your needs, there are a ton of extra plugins available from the TextPad site. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There is no built-in support for many popular languages, the most notable of which is CSS. These days, if you're working with HTML you're almost definitely working with CSS as well. While TextPad does offer syntax definition files you can download for various languages (including CSS), there's really nothing to indicate that this is the case and you have to know it exists, go looking for it, and install it yourself. In a modern HTML editor, CSS should be included out of the box. TextPad is also missing a few built-in line operation and text manipulation features that exist in similar tools like Notepad++, but with enough effort you could probably re-create these features using macros and plugins. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** You may not be able to completely replace your existing tools with TextPad, but it's a great addition to more powerful tools when you need to get in and out of a file quickly and efficiently. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** For us, TextPad is a great supplemental tool to more robust WYSIWYG editors that allows for very quick edits and operations when a full-featured tool is not needed. ### 35. TextPad Is An Awesome Text Editor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patrick M. | Manager of Technical Services, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** There are so many features that I love about TextPad that it's hard to pick a single one that is my favorite. However, if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the ability to highlight blocks of text from within a text file and cut/paste them to another part of your file or another application. I use this for manipulating load files for legal systems such as Summation and Concordance, and without this tool I have no idea how I would perform the tasks that I do. In addition to the block select mode my other favorite option is probably the powerful search and replace, which allows you to use regular expressions to find patterns of text to replace. Super powerful and easy to use! **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There isn't much about this software I don't like. It is extremely cheap, very flexible, has a lot of great features, and is a super quick and easy install. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Get this software because you have nothing to lose! There is a free version available that you can use without limits, so it doesn't really cost you anything out of pocket. If you want to support the company, which we do, you can buy a license to use the software, which removes the splash screen and gets you into the software quicker.. Definitely try this out if you have the need to modify text in any way! **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** A lot of times we have the need to manipulate text from many different sources in order to get it into a useable format for an application, and this software lets us do that quickly and easily. ### 36. Excellent alternative as a code editor **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alberto C. | Desarrollador de software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Simple code editor, it comes with all the features of much larger and more complex environments, it is fast and simple, you can create macros for repetitive tasks, it is easy to configure and quickly adapts to your needs, it has support for plugins and you can edit the same file with multiple views of it. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It can be somewhat expensive, it usually does not have all the complex features of other IDEs, it does not support GitHub, and it has limited support for other programming languages, it does not support SASS or LESS files. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** For simple projects or bug fixing in the code, it can be truly helpful. I believe the best adoption is for front-end projects. Try it for a certain period and be surprised by the level of productivity you will achieve. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Front-End projects, editing and creating HTML and CSS files, is quite easy to use, and offers a high level of productivity when used efficiently. ### 37. Lightweight code editor **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adriana L. | Front-End Developer en Poe Consulting, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** It's great for simple and common code editing tasks, it has multiples views from an actual opened file, it has a beautiful syntax coloring, you can compare two files for changes, it loads fast, easy to use and configure it, you can create Macros for repetitive tasks. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It's not free and quite expensive, the UI is not very friendly and it's outdated, the webpage is old and outdated, it doesn't support last tech stack like NodeJS or CSS preprocessors. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** It's a great alternative and better than others OS default text editor, you should try it and consider others free alternatives. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simple code editing, it's a great alternative because it's lightweight and runs fast, you can complete all common code tasks easily and without problems. ### 38. The best Text Editor Ever! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Victor A. | Java Developer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 03, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Textpad is an excellent text editor, it has multiple ways to format what you need to do, whether is programming or simple editng text. It is pretty well design, I love the explorer included, you don´t need to get out to find other text. That may seem simple, but is actually very complete and configurable. Clipboard history is a very useful clip library. It provides support for editing files of this type. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Unfortunately it does not support rich text formatting. Some spelling weakness, **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** It can be used as a regular text editor with the addition of managing large files. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** solve the problem with large files, add more number of languages and clip more libraries. ### 39. A great educational software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matteo M. | Studente, Education Management, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I got to use Textpad during the first college programming courses: I used mainly software to program in Java, not in advanced courses. Textpad is a great editor to start developing for it is easy and intuitive, and does not have many options. This makes it easier to focus on what you are doing: the main pros are the extreme lightness and ease of use. You can see the files, there are editor tabs, simply edit function and syntax highlighting. A very useful option is the ability to set compile command via menu option, setting the right environment variable under windows os. This makes the task of compiling (not using shell) less confusing, especially for those who are beginners in development world. Also macros are super useful. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** There are no particular against for this software, unless its simplicity: just needs become more advanced, this software is no longer suitable. Making it perhaps convenient to do more than oo advanced programming scripting. It would be nice to introduce an exploration of java libraries with tip command to use, but this would be detrimental to the performance and in any case there are other IDE that make this task at best. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Use this software if you want simplicity and speed: it is suitable for older computers, it consumes very few resources. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Nothing in particular, this software has been very helpful in the realization of the first libraries in Java programming courses. ### 40. Great utility for multiple purposes **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniela A. | Junior Java Developer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** You can make it the primary text editor in your Windows System. It has Syntax highlighting and folder tree view. It is really handy when working with folder heavy projects that you must browse through multiple folders while working. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I don't really dislike anything from the application, yet I would like to be able to upload files from the get-go, and maybe giving the user a couple more nice themes to work with. It's default syntax highlighting brings a yellow current line highlight that can be an eye sore. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you feel MS's Notepad doesn't fulfills your text editing needs, you should take a peek at TextPad, i will bring a bunch of tools to the table so you won't need any other additional tool to make changes to source files. ### 41. Great Document Search **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Darlene B. | Product Development Manager, Oil & Energy, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 22, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** The ability to quickly and easily search in documents. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I haven't found much to dislike, primarily use search capability. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Search within any file extensions. ### 42. Nice experience with Textpad (friendly features) **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Easy to use features such as the tool box. Easy editing, find and replace features. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Can have an improved sorting feature. There are other software such as Notepad that have better sorting capabilities. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mainly used for data storage, typing instructions and guidelines for software use. Easy to use. ### 43. Old code editor **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daniel S. | Desarrollador sénior, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** It has many features like searching, line numbers etc, it runs fast, it's lightweight and you can configure many things to a better experience. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It has an old interface, it's not oriented to Front-End development, it doesn't have advanced technologies tools like JS compiling or CSS preprocessors, it's not free and it's quite expensive, it doesn't have GitHub integration, it doesn't support code completation or code debug. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** There are many advanced tools for free in market, it's great for a very basic code editing tasks or quickly scan code files. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Basic C scripts, it can be a handy tool for basic scripting like python or C, syntax highlighting and fonts looks very well. ### 44. Easy to use and customizable code editor **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zoraida M. | Junior Front-End Developer, Program Development, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 20, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** You can easily customize it, it's minimalist and it focus well on edit tools, you can have multiple views, it can open large files fast, it comes with a portable edition, it's easy to set syntax colors, it has macro tools for repeating tasks like setting a HTML file default tags. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It doesn't support CSS or others languages at all, it's not free, GUI design is outdated, it doesn't have GitHub or other svn integration. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** It's easy to use and can be customized for your needs, if you want it for basic edit tasks it matches perfectly. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Front-end projects, plain text editing and JS scripts, it's a great lightweight editor alternative, you can build front-end projects fast, fix errors or write unit tests efficiently. ### 45. TextPad a multitask text editor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pedro J. M. | Consultor técnico, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** TextPad helps me no just with regular text files, but is extremely helpful while programming. Its design lets me work in various scenarios, its multiple tabs lets me have several windows open for comparing purposes, easy to switch between open files, additionally its explorer feature keeps me in track, I do not have to search for file outside of the program. Its multilinggual support is it also quite helpful. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Spelling may need a little polish. It lacks support for rich text format. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** Excellent tool, you will find everything youn need, it does not matter if it is plain text or programming codes. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Can use it for multile purposes, no just plain text. ### 46. Windows' Notepad Alternative **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Orianna L. | Jr Java Developer, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Simple Macro Recorder. RegExp searching tool. Tree folder browser, extremely handy! Shortcuts customization. Very lightweight. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** The Syntax highlighting could use some modifications or allowing the user to make modifications to it, so it will be more readable and better to the eye. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you're in need of something lightweight and sort of powerful, you should give textpad a try. It will help you when doing simple files modification hassle-free and without worrying about loading your cpu with an useless and heavy tool. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's all about folders trees. Sometimes i need to navigate through more than 5 sub levels in folders while working in java projects. This tool brings it with a couple more goodies you will be very pleased with. ### 47. Great straightforward code editor **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Cristobal M. | Desarrollador de java, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 18, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Simple lightweight code editor, you can split one file in multiple views and edit it simultaneously, it consumes a very few resources so you can have opened multiple processes of it, great JAVA syntax support and a bunch of editing features like search/replace or bookmarks. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** It doesn't have multiple line editing, it supports a few programming languages, it doesn't have GitHub or any source code management integration, it doesn't have FTP features. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you don't want any complicated IDE for just editing text or source code files you should try it. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Programming work, mostly JAVA files, it runs very quickly, it's easy to customize and adapt it to your needs, multiple views can be very handly for large files. ### 48. As good for data as for text **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ben Ji K. | Manager, Standards and Quality - Wind, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 10, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** Though looking like a simple text editor, TextPad has the ability to open large files of data without being overwhelmed, edit them in an organized manner (edit by row or by column for example), and record and run macros to do repeated editions. I particularly like the ability to open several files and easily switch from one to the other with a column menu and/or tabs. It largely enhances the functionalities of a simple text editor without getting as heavy and complex as a full editor. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** The macros run quite slowly on large files, if yo need to repeat an action on each row for example. You have to launch them and forget, and do something else until it's finished. It's however still appreciated to be able run macros, which avoids having to program in Python, VBA or other programming languages to do simple editing tasks. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you are looking for a text editor not too basic, but without going as far as Word (for text) or Excel (for data), it is good compromise. It is very helpful to work on several files at a time, do basic edition and especially run systematic editing. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** Despite the name of the product, II mainly use TextPad not to edit text, but to visualize large data files. It is easier than Excel or dedicated software for a quick overview and data check, but more powerful than simple text editors. I use it a lot to compare several files together, merge them, or do minor but repetitive corrections. ### 49. A powerful, complete, balanced, and fairly customizable text editor for everyday use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gabriel Alejandro C. | Freelancer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 08, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** I love the flexibility and customizability that allows me to use it in my everyday coding, even though is not my go-to text editor, but it has an embedded java compiler, so it can be helpful if you're in a hurry. But it's also really useful for editing regular text, such as emails and that kind of stuff that you're normally gonna find in the office. I also like the fact that it's really resource efficient. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** Definitely the pricing, since there are other options that offer the same capabilities but are completely free of charge. Aside from the java compiler, it doesn't bring anything new to the table in terms of features. The interface is too plain and simple. **Recommendations to others considering TextPad:** If you can afford it, go for it, It's not a life changer or life saver, but it can definitely help you if you are in a hurry and need to deal with quick text editing or quick java code checking and compiling. If you're happy with your regular windows notepad app, or think that notepad++ has everything you need cover, then you should skip TextPad and go on with your life. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it as my 2nd or 3rd option when I have to edit or correct code snipppets in java, mostly when I'm using my IDE for another thing and I need to quickly check and compile some piece of code that I got through email from a co-worker. ### 50. Awesome Text Features with TextPad **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2016 **What do you like best about TextPad?** The best feature I liked about TextPad is find/search feature which makes searching C programming codes very convenient. **What do you dislike about TextPad?** I dislike the memory constraints as TextPad can't read large memory files. **What problems is TextPad solving and how is that benefiting you?** C programming for data acquisition. ## TextPad Discussions - [What is TextPad used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/textpad-what-is-textpad-used-for) - [How do you compare TextPad?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-you-compare-textpad) - [Can you highlight in TextPad?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-you-highlight-in-textpad) - [Is TextPad an IDE?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-textpad-an-ide) - [What is TextPad used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-textpad-used-for) - [View TextPad pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/textpad/reviews?page=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-17+22%3A03%3A49+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=448f349c-649f-41e5-82b0-4b8e2eb5ee5e&secure%5Btoken%5D=4131a8e5987b46a7c18ee89633eb0f311d0137ada666b373721b7149c316292d&format=llm_user) ## TextPad Features **Coding** - Syntax highlighting - Autocompletion - Find and replace - Code folding **Editing** - Collaborative editing - Language Support - Selection Methods **Functionality** - Extensibility - Cross-platform support - Plugins and integrations - Security **Agentic AI - Landing Page Builders** - Cross-system Integration ## Top TextPad Alternatives - [Visual Studio Code](https://www.g2.com/products/visual-studio-code/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (2,645 reviews) - [Notepad++](https://www.g2.com/products/notepad/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (2,412 reviews) - [Sublime Text](https://www.g2.com/products/sublime-text/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,749 reviews)