Code editors are probably the most important tools of web developers. Finding one that best fits your workflow and goals, and has all the features you need can save you a lot of time and significantly improve your code quality.

1. Atom

Atom is a free and open-source code editor created by GitHub. At first, it was GitHub’s internal source code editor, but a few years later (in 2014) they decided to release it to the public. As Atom provides developers with many advanced features, it has quickly become one of the most popular code editors. Its UI is exceptionally well-designed, as you can split the interface into different panes in order to easily compare different files. It has many important features that can greatly improve your development workflow, such as a built-in package manager, a smart autocompletion capability, file system browsing, an easy-to-use find-replace feature, and more.

2. Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is Microsoft’s cross-platform source code editor that runs on all major operating systems. Interestingly, Visual Studio Code has been built on top of Atom’s open-source components, however Microsoft removed some features and added a handful of new ones. It’s also faster than Atom, both at startup and while running. Visual Studio Code is fully customizable; you can find many different themes and plugins in the official marketplace. You can install them easily from the editor and start using them immediately.Visual Studio Code has many awesome features that can greatly improve your development workflow. Probably the most notable one is the IntelliSense autocomplete feature that provides you with a list of smart suggestions while you are writing your code. Visual Studio Code also has a great built-in debugger as well that allows you to debug right from the editor. Moreover, it supports Git by default; it has a separate Git View in which you can run different Git commands.

3. Brackets

Brackets was specifically created for web designers and front-end developers by Adobe Systems. It can be the ideal source code editor for you if you mainly do front-end work (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). One of its most awesome features is that it allows you to establish a real-time connection with Google Chrome. This means you can instantly see the changes you are making in the browser.Although you can split the editor into vertical or horizontal panes to perform side-by-side coding, Brackets also introduces the handy inline editing feature. For instance, if you select a specific CSS ID with the cursor you can open the inline editor by hitting the Ctrl + E (on Windows) or Cmd + E (on Mac) key combinations. Then, Brackets will show you all the selectors belonging to that ID within an inline window. Brackets also supports Sass and LESS which means you can use them together with the inline editing and live preview features, as well.