Best Free HTML Editor

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Last updated by site.editor on 25. November 2020 - 11:58

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Introduction

HTML text editors are fine for programmers or those who are comfortable coding (X)HTML, PHP and CSS, but many users have no interest in this. They just want an editor that allows them to produce web pages quickly in a WYSIWYG environment.

Whether code-based or WYSIWYG, the ideal HTML editor should be able to validate that the HTML is standards-compliant, preview the page in different browsers, support meta-tags and provide basic image editing, while still being free. An included FTP client is a bonus.

 

HTML WYSIWYG Editors

KompoZer  

A complete web authoring system for non-technical computer users

Our Rating: 
4.5
License: Free
Integrated file management, tabbed editing and support for forms, tables and templates.
Not in active development.
Read full review...

Amaya  

A Web editor and an open source software project hosted by W3C

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free (Open source)
Standards compliance and accessibility
Some features are very complex for beginners, WYSIWYG rendering is not very good, doesn't recognize PHP pages.
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HTML Text Editors

NetBeans IDE  

A powerful text editor for web scripting

Our Rating: 
5
License: Free (Open source)
Good CSS suport, including refactoring of inline CSS to external stylesheet. Tag checking. Customisable code colouring. Code completion. Auto-indentation. Fast and powerful. Customisable UI. PHP editing. Settings exportable. Extensive online support, tutorials and documentation. Cross platform
At first sight NetBeans may be a little intimidating for novices.
Read full review...

HTML-Kit  

A highly customizable and extensible development environment

Our Rating: 
4.5
License: Free (Last free version)
Highly customizable development environment, great community support.
Designed for experienced users in html development.
Read full review...

Aptana Studio  

A full featured IDE for building websites and web applications

Our Rating: 
4.5
License: Free
Full featured IDE, many plugins
Primarily focused on development of AJAX applications, can be a bit scary for new users
Read full review...

PSPad  

A general-purpose programming editor with html syntax highlighting

Our Rating: 
4
License: Free
Programming editor with html syntax highlighting
No libraries or code lookup
Read full review...

Related Products and Links

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Comments

The Kompozer website seems to be down

Tony Arts Editor - OK but you cannot put very much in a 3.1mb download file

For my money (that's a joke, son, I say that's a joke), the best freeware HTML editor out there is ToniArts Easy HTML. While I would like the program even more if it included syntax highlighting and/or HTML validation, I feel this lack is greatly outweighed by the inclusion of a preview of the document that can be refreshed without saving the document, a feature I have been unable to find in another freeware HTML editor.

Available at: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ehtmle.htm

Maybe you could find WDPT useful. http://wdpt.eu

I tried Quanta Plus; I'm sure it's very powerful but it sure isn't user friendly.

So I've gone back to SeaMonkey. It doesn't look like it's changed in ten years. Whether that's good or bad you decide. It makes better code than LibreOffice.

Hi, great site. I'm a translator, ex-functional designer/BA. I have enough technical knowledge to wend my way through HTML/XML/some code, but for translation purposes I just want a simple editor that will allow me easily to identify what are visible strings (i.e. viewable by the user), to translate. I'm not familiar enough to know whether I'll need to make changes for character sets etc. I can probably sort that through seek-and-hack skills(skills!?). Generally never as simple as it sounds, but me just translate, ugh.

These products sound either not enough or too much, similarly the text editors sound inadequate... What would you advise, please?

Thanks!