Software & Apps Apps The 8 Best Windows Text HTML Editors by Jennifer Kyrnin Freelance Contributor Jennifer Kyrnin is a professional web developer who assists others in learning web design, HTML, CSS, and XML. our editorial process LinkedIn Jennifer Kyrnin Updated on July 15, 2019 kr7ysztof / Getty Images Apps Best Apps Payment Services Tweet Share Email Text editors are HTML editors that allow you to manipulate HTML tags directly. Some HTML text editors also include a WYSIWYG editor, while others are purely text. We've reviewed over 130 different Web editors for Windows against over 40 different criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers. The following are the best text web editors for Windows. 01 of 08 Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe What We Like Program in JSP, XHTML, PHP, and XML. Powerful and versatile. WYSIWYG editor is excellent. What We Don't Like Some useful features are no longer available in later versions. Latest versions only available through subscription service. Dreamweaver is one of the most popular professional web development software packages available. It offers power and flexibility to create pages that meet your needs. Programmers use it for everything from JSP, XHTML, PHP, and XML development. It is a good choice for professional web designers and developers, but if you're working as a solitary freelancer, you might want to look at one of the Creative Suite suites like Web Premium or Design Premium to get graphics editing capability and other features as well. There are a few features that Dreamweaver CS5 lacks, some have been missing for a long time, and others (like HTML validation and photo galleries) were removed in CS5. 02 of 08 Komodo Edit Active State What We Like Excellent XML editor. Extensible for more languages and features. What We Don't Like Not the best editor for HTML. User interface feels a little dated. Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters). It's not the best HTML editor, but it's great for the price, especially if you build in XML. Developers use Komodo Edit every day for work in XML. We use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor we'd be lost without. There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE. 03 of 08 Microsoft Expression Web 4 Microsoft What We Like A full set of design tools for web, video, and graphics. A free download from Microsoft. What We Don't Like Microsoft no longer updates this software. Software is a bit dated now. Microsoft Expression Web 4 gives you a full graphic, video, and web design suite. If you are a freelance web designer who needs to be able to edit graphics in something more powerful than Paint, you should look at Expression Web 4. This suite combines exactly what most web designers need to create great sites with strong support for languages like PHP, HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP.NET, and ASP.NET AJAX. 04 of 08 Komodo IDE ActiveState What We Like Supports many languages beyond HTML. Add more languages through plugins. What We Don't Like Lacks WYSIWYG for HTML. Free version is pretty basic. Komodo IDE is a great tool for developers who are building more than just web pages. It has support for a wide variety of languages including Ruby, Rails, PHP, and more. If you're building Ajax web applications, you should take a look at this IDE. It is also great for teams as there is a lot of collaboration support built-into the IDE. 05 of 08 Aptana Studio Aptana Studio What We Like Makes it easy to visualize the DOM. Good for web application development. What We Don't Like Heavy system resource consumption. Preferences and workbench setup can be cumbersome at first. Aptana Studio is an interesting take on web page development. Instead of focusing on the HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create Rich Internet Applications. One of the things we really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the DOM. This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development. If you are a developer creating web applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice. 06 of 08 NetBeans NetBeans What We Like Version control functionality. Great for Java development. What We Don't Like Substantial learning curve for new users. User interface is inferior to others. NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications. Like most IDEs it has a steep learning curve because they don’t often work in the same way that web editors do. But once you get used to it you’ll be hooked. One nice feature is the version control included in the IDE which is really useful for people working in large development environments. If you write Java and web pages this is a great tool. 07 of 08 NetObjects Fusion Amazon What We Like Intuitive interface is easy to learn. Built-in SEO support. What We Don't Like Features tend to be mundane. Lacks hosting capabilities. Fusion is a very powerful HTML editor. It combines all the tasks you need to get your website up and running including development, design, and FTP. Plus you can add special features to your pages like captchas on forms and ecommerce support. It also has a lot of support for Ajax and dynamic websites. There is even SEO support built in. If you’re not sure if you want Fusion, you should try the free version NetObjects Fusion Essentials. 08 of 08 CoffeeCup HTML Editor CoffeeCup What We Like Affordable price. One-time purchase comes with free updates for life. What We Don't Like Not as powerful as other editors. Can be frustrating for beginners. CoffeeCup software does a great job of providing what their customers want for a low price. The CoffeeCup HTML editor is a great tool for web designers. It comes with lots of graphics, templates, and extra features — like the CoffeeCup image mapper. And we've found that if you request a feature, they will add it or create a new tool to take care of it. Plus, once you purchase CoffeeCup HTML editor, you get free updates for life.