Bluefish vs KWrite

Bluefish is a free, open-source desktop editor for programmers and web developers. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and supports more than 30 markup and programming languages. The editor is designed for websites, scripts, and programming code, with project support for working across multiple projects while restoring each project’s settings. Bluefish can load and save remote files through FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, and CIFS via gvfs. Editing tools include regular-expression search and replace, snippets, unlimited undo and redo, crash recovery for modified documents, code folding, bracket and tag highlighting, autocompletion, and automatic tag closing for many languages. It can open more than 1,000 documents, with the features page reporting tests above 10,000 simultaneously. External programs and custom scripts can be integrated. The official Flatpak’s strict security blocks some system-tool and browser integrations.

KWrite is a free text editor from KDE, built on Kate’s editor component. It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS. The editor highlights syntax according to file type and includes word completion, automatic indentation, plugin support, and Vi input mode. Multi-cursor editing, column editing, and extension support are listed. Linux users can install it through Discover or another AppStream store, a distribution package manager, or Flathub. Nightly installers include a Linux AppImage and Windows and macOS builds for ARM and Intel. The project lists KWrite under the LGPL-2.1+ license. The latest listed release is version 26.08.2, dated 2026-10-08. Nightly builds come from the latest development branch and are intended for testing. KDE provides a handbook, forum, and #kate channel on Libera.Chat, plus bug-reporting and source links. Its privacy policy generally limits transfers from end-user devices to explicit user actions, though distributors may modify the software.