171 open-source code editors and developer tools
Open Source Code Editors & Developer Tools
The most popular open-source code editors and developer tools for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are Visual Studio Code, Scrcpy and Orca. appsgit lists 171, including free alternatives to Postman, Navicat and Docker Desktop, each with its platforms, license and install commands.
Updated Oct 28, 2026
Open Source Code Editors & Developer Tools
Visual Studio Code
microsoft/vscode
This repository ("Code - OSS") is where we (Microsoft) develop the Visual Studio Code product together with the community.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxScrcpy
Genymobile/scrcpy
Display and control your Android device.
Active · last commit Oct 8, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxOrca
stablyai/orca
Orca is the place for working with a fleet of agents (e.g.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxTerminal
microsoft/terminal
The new Windows Terminal and the original Windows console host, all in the same place!
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsNeovim
neovim/neovim
Vim-fork focused on extensibility and usability.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxGhidra
NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra
Ghidra is a software reverse engineering (SRE) framework.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxZed
zed-industries/zed
Code at the speed of thought – Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxLazygit
jesseduffield/lazygit
simple terminal UI for git commands.
Active · last commit Oct 17, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxHoppscotch
hoppscotch/hoppscotch
Open-Source API Development Ecosystem • https://hoppscotch.io • Offline, On-Prem & Cloud • Web, Desktop & CLI • Open-Source Alternative to Postman, Insomnia.
Active · last commit Sep 30, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxTabby
Eugeny/tabby
A terminal for a more modern age.
Active · last commit Oct 6, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxAlacritty
alacritty/alacritty
A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator.
Maintained · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxWarp
warpdotdev/warp
Warp is an agentic development environment, born out of the terminal.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsmacOSLinuxGhostty
ghostty-org/ghostty
Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration.
Maintained · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxImHex
WerWolv/ImHex
A Hex Editor for Reverse Engineers, Programmers and people who value their retinas when working at 3 AM.
Maintained · last commit Oct 8, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxDbeaver
dbeaver/dbeaver
Free universal database tool and SQL client.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxBruno
usebruno/bruno
Opensource IDE For Exploring and Testing API's (lightweight alternative to Postman/Insomnia).
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxHelix
helix-editor/helix
A post-modern modal text editor.
Maintained · last commit Sep 29, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxHyper
vercel/hyper
A terminal built on web technologies.
Maintained · last commit Aug 21, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxVim
vim/vim
If you find a bug or want to discuss the best way to add a new feature, please open an issue.
Maintained · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSShellcheck
koalaman/shellcheck
ShellCheck, a static analysis tool for shell scripts.
Maintained · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxInsomnia
Kong/insomnia
The open-source, cross-platform API client for GraphQL, REST, WebSockets, SSE and gRPC.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxLapce
lapce/lapce
Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust.
Maintained · last commit Sep 30, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxUTM
utmapp/UTM
Virtual machines for iOS and macOS.
Active · last commit Oct 20, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsmacOSLinuxZellij
zellij-org/zellij
A terminal workspace with batteries included.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxKitty
kovidgoyal/kitty
If you live in the terminal, kitty is made for you!
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsmacOSLinuxAnotherRedisDesktopManager
qishibo/AnotherRedisDesktopManager
A faster, better and more stable Redis desktop manager [GUI client], compatible with Linux, Windows, Mac.
Active · last commit Aug 20, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxVscodium
VSCodium/vscodium
binary releases of VS Code without MS branding/telemetry/licensing.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxNetron
lutzroeder/netron
Visualizer for neural network, deep learning and machine learning models.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxPodman
podman-container-tools/podman
Podman: A tool for managing OCI containers and pods.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxMicro
micro-editor/micro
A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor.
Maintained · last commit Oct 22, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxNotepad++
notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus
Notepad++ is a free (free as in both "free speech" and "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several programming…
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsWezTerm
wezterm/wezterm
A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust.
Maintained · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxDbx
t8y2/dbx
25 MB lightweight cross-platform database client for 100+ databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, MongoDB, DuckDB, SQL Server, and Dameng.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxGlow
charmbracelet/glow
Render markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz!
Active · last commit Oct 2, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxFastfetch
fastfetch-cli/fastfetch
A maintained, feature-rich and performance oriented, neofetch like system information tool.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxSqlitebrowser
sqlitebrowser/sqlitebrowser
Official home of the DB Browser for SQLite (DB4S) project.
Maintained · last commit Oct 25, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxSpacemacs
syl20bnr/spacemacs
A community-driven Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs and Vim!
Maintained · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxBeekeeper Studio
beekeeper-studio/beekeeper-studio
Modern and easy to use SQL client for MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, SQL Server, and more.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxCodeEdit
CodeEditApp/CodeEdit
CodeEdit App for macOS – Elevate your code editing experience.
Maintained · last commit Aug 18, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsmacOSWitr
pranshuparmar/witr
Why is this running? Trace any process, port, container, or file back to what started it - CLI + TUI.
Active · last commit Oct 23, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxWaveterm
wavetermdev/waveterm
An open-source, AI-integrated, cross-platform terminal for seamless workflows.
Maintained · last commit Oct 5, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxLima
lima-vm/lima
Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxGitHub Desktop
desktop/desktop
Focus on what matters instead of fighting with Git.
Active · last commit Oct 28, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxTheia
eclipse-theia/theia
Eclipse Theia is a cloud & desktop IDE framework implemented in TypeScript.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxCutter
rizinorg/cutter
Free and Open Source Reverse Engineering Platform powered by rizin.
Active · last commit Sep 11, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxYaak
mountain-loop/yaak
The most intuitive desktop API client. Organize and execute REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, Server Sent Events, and gRPC.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsWindowsmacOSLinuxiTerm2
gnachman/iTerm2
iTerm2 is a terminal emulator for Mac OS X that does amazing things.
Maintained · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Code editors & developer toolsmacOSAsciinema
asciinema/asciinema
Terminal session recorder, streamer and player.
Active · last commit Oct 27, 2026
OfficialCode editors & developer toolsmacOSLinux
Showing 1-48 of 171 by GitHub stars. All desktop apps A to Z · JSON API
What are the best open-source code editors and developer tools?
By GitHub stars, Visual Studio Code is the most popular (194,363 stars), followed by Scrcpy and Orca. People often use these instead of Postman, Navicat and Docker Desktop. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.
Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?
132 of the 171 open-source code editors and developer tools listed here run on Windows, 149 on macOS and 149 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is Visual Studio Code. 74 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.
Are these open-source code editors and developer tools free?
Yes. All 171 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.
How are these open-source code editors and developer tools chosen?
Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.