EmEditor vs Helix

EmEditor is a Windows text editor for text and code, including files up to 16 TB or 1,099 billion lines. It supports multi-cursor and column editing, macro recording, Unicode and UTF-8, plus plug-ins and connections to external tools such as compilers, browsers, and HTMLTidy. CSV features include sorting, pivot tables, joins, and frozen headers. A free edition is available, and the 7-day Professional trial becomes Free automatically without charging automatically. The listed Professional subscriptions cost $6 a month or $5 a month billed annually, with the annual plan billed at 60 USD first year. Professional purchases include a 90-day full refund guarantee. Current supported platforms listed are Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2019 or later; legacy support includes Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Home or school personal users may install it on up to five computers, while organizations need a license for each computer where it is installed or accessible.

Helix is a free, terminal-based text editor for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its editing model centers on multiple selections, so commands can act on several selections at once; it also supports multi-cursor editing and macro recording. Tree-sitter integration provides syntax highlighting, indentation calculation, and code navigation. Built-in language server support offers completion, go to definition, documentation, and diagnostics, though users need to install language servers for their chosen programming languages. Helix can select and navigate functions, classes, comments, and syntax tree nodes. Other included tools are a fuzzy finder for files and symbols, project-wide search, themes, automatic bracket pairing, and surround integration. Written in Rust, it can run in a terminal, over SSH, or in tmux. Configuration can be global or project-specific, including themes, keybindings, and language-specific settings; language servers and formatters can be configured through languages.toml files. Helix has no plugin system currently, although one is intended for the future. A graphical frontend is described as a future possibility.