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SPECIFICTION
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BBEdit vs TextPad

BBEdit

barebones.com

TextPad

textpad.com

Side by side

FigureBBEditTextPad
Price from$59.99/mo—
Free planYes—
Free trialYesYes
Open source——
Windows—Yes
macOSYes—
Plans published50
Spec score · Text Editors8.6 (#11)7.3 (#77)
PrivacyBare Bones says BBEdit worksheet queries and responses go directly to the ChatGPT API over HTTPS and are not received or retained by Bare Bones.The Chinese product page states that TextPad displays no advertisements and does not share usage statistics or data.
ProductBBEdit is a professional HTML and text editor for macOS aimed at writers, web authors, and software developers.TextPad is a general-purpose plain-text editor intended for everyday editing, web editing, and programming.
Supported platformsmacOSWindows

Plans

BBEdit

  • Free ModeFree
  • BBEdit license$59.99 a month
  • Mac App Store subscriptionPrice not published
  • BBEdit Free ModeFree
  • BBEdit 16 Individual$59.99, paid once

BBEdit pricing →

TextPad

No plans published.

TextPad pricing →

In their own words

BBEdit

BBEdit is a text and HTML editor for writers, web authors, and software developers using macOS. Its tools include grep pattern matching, multi-file search and replace, syntax coloring, function navigation, code folding, and text completion. For web authoring, it provides HTML markup tools, standards-based syntax checking, and live previews of HTML and Markdown documents. A license adds Git and Subversion support, and licensed users can create in-app worksheets to converse with ChatGPT, Claude, and Ollama. Workflow options include AppleScript, macOS Unix scripting, Automator, Xcode as an external editor, and the Language Server Protocol. BBEdit can open and save text files on FTP and SFTP servers. Free Mode continues after the 30-day evaluation period, though some advanced features require a paid license. The listed BBEdit 16 Individual plan costs $59.99 as a one-time purchase. BBEdit 16 requires macOS 14.0 or later and supports Intel and Apple silicon Macs; Bare Bones says there are no Windows or Linux versions.

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TextPad

TextPad has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit textpad.com