# CotEditor 9 Hacker News commenters recommended CotEditor and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend CotEditor as a simple, Mac-native text editor that is not built on Electron and handles basic syntax, pretty printing and RTL or vertical text. ## Why people recommend it - Simple, lightweight editor (3 comments): "Mac-assed simple editor for those scenarios where I just want basic syntax support for a random text file. CotEditor is perfect!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48236386)) "CotEditor on Mac is the closest to Notepad I’ve felt in years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45962699)) "The simple in Cot editor on Mac although I now run Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357891)) - Native Mac app (3 comments): "Mac-assed simple editor for those scenarios where I just want basic syntax support for a random text file. CotEditor is perfect!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48236386)) "It's Mac native, not Electron, and supports both RTL and vertical text." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48227794)) "CotEditor on Mac is the closest to Notepad I’ve felt in years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45962699)) - Basic syntax and pretty printing (2 comments): "Mac-assed simple editor for those scenarios where I just want basic syntax support for a random text file. CotEditor is perfect!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48236386)) "For “looking at a text file with pretty print”, try CotEditor." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46887706)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Windows Notepad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-notepad.md): 86 recommend - [TextEdit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/textedit.md): 15 recommend - [Microsoft Edit](https://hackerapproved.com/p/edit-exe.md): 10 recommend - [Pico text editor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pico.md): 6 recommend - [Atto text editor (NetBSD)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/atto-text-editor.md): 6 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "CotEditor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/coteditor/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).