# Alternatives to Atom

GitHub's hackable editor. Atom has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to.

It is licensed under MIT, free and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 3 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/atom/
Category: Code editors

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Developers and hobbyist programmers who wanted a free, open-source code editor they could customize down to its core rather than just configure through settings.
- **What you get**: Atom was a general-purpose text and code editor built on Electron, offering syntax highlighting, a fuzzy-find file finder, a built-in package manager, and Git/GitHub integration via panels for diffs, staging, and commits. Its interface and internals were built with web technologies (HTML, JavaScript, CSS/Less), so nearly every part of the editor could be modified. A large community package ecosystem added language support, themes, linters, and other extensions on top of the built-in feature set. GitHub, which developed and maintained Atom, sunset it and archived the project in December 2022 in favor of Visual Studio Code.
- **How it works**: Users installed Atom as a desktop application, opened files or project folders, and edited code in a multi-pane workspace with panes, tabs, and a command palette. They extended it by installing community packages and themes through Atom's built-in package manager, or by writing their own packages and configuration files using JavaScript and CSS/Less.

## Profile

- **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux
- **Status**: discontinued (verified 2026-07-11)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Cursor](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/cursor.md) | building | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 2 | [Devin Desktop](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/windsurf.md) | building | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 3 | [Emacs](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/emacs.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 4 | [Helix](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/helix.md) | building | MPL-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 5 | [Kate](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kate.md) | building | LGPL-2.0-or-later | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 6 | [Neovim](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/neovim.md) | building | Apache-2.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 7 | [Notepad++](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/notepad.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | Windows |
| 8 | [Sublime Text](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/sublime-text.md) | building | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 9 | [VS Code](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/vs-code.md) | building | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 10 | [VSCodium](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/vscodium.md) | building | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 11 | [Zed](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/zed.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | macOS, Linux, Windows |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Sources

Sources for Atom. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Status**: discontinued — <https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/sunsetting-atom/> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “On June 8, 2022, we announced that we will sunset Atom and archive all projects under the organization on December 15, 2022.”
- **License**: MIT — <https://github.com/atom/atom> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “MIT license”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/LICENSE.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files”
- **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux — <https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/README.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “### macOS

Download the latest [Atom release](https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest).

Atom will automatically update when a new release is available.

### Windows

Download the latest [Atom in”
- **Git integration**: Yes — <https://github.com/atom/flight-manual.atom.io/blob/master/content/using-atom/sections/github-package.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “The github package brings Git and GitHub integration right inside Atom.”
- **Extensions marketplace**: Yes — <https://github.com/atom/flight-manual.atom.io/blob/master/content/using-atom/sections/atom-packages.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “The packages listed here have been published to https://atom.io/packages which is the official registry for Atom packages.”
- **Live share / pair programming**: Yes — <https://github.com/atom/teletype> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “An Atom package that lets developers share their workspace with team members and collaborate on code in real time.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/