# Pulsar text editor

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Pulsar text editor and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free, hackable Atom-based code editor that web developers find pleasant to use. Some find it okay but not quite what they want.

## Why people recommend it

- Hackable Atom-style editor with good dev experience (2 comments): "a hackable IDE like Atom (Pulsar) made with the same tech it’s a pretty great dev exp for web devs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47416718)) "I just went back to Atom (rather Pulsar, the last good fork)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48686685))

## What people warn about

- Okay but not quite what users want (1 comments): "I have been using Pulsar, which is okay, but not exactly what I want." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47162919))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zed](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zed.md): 700 recommend
- [GNU Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacs.md): 648 recommend
- [Vim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vim.md): 513 recommend
- [Visual Studio Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio-code.md): 485 recommend
- [Neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neovim.md): 295 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Pulsar text editor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pulsar/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).