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SPECIFICTION
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Kate vs Pulsar

Kate

kate-editor.org

Pulsar

pulsar-edit.dev

Side by side

FigureKatePulsar
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Plans published11
Spec score · Text Editors8.5 (#14)8.1 (#38)
Spec score · Code editors8.5 (#10)8.3 (#16)
Spec score · Go IDEs8.2 (#12)7.8 (#18)
Extension supportYesYes
PlatformsThe download page provides installation options for Linux, Windows and macOS, including nightly packages.Windows,macOS,Linux
PrivacyKDE says its software generally does not transfer information from users’ devices except after explicit user action; any telemetry is opt-in and disabled by default.The privacy policy says the Pulsar Editor collects no user information and sends nothing to remote servers; the policy was last changed December 10, 2022.

Plans

Kate

  • KateFree

Kate pricing →

Pulsar

  • PulsarFree

Pulsar pricing →

In their own words

Kate

Kate is a free text editor for viewing and editing text files on Linux, macOS and Windows. It can show multiple documents in horizontally or vertically split windows, and supports multi-cursor and column editing. For code and other structured text, Kate provides syntax highlighting for over 400 languages, bracket matching and on-the-fly spell checking. Programming tools include auto-completion with argument hints, scriptable auto-indentation and Vi input mode; the editor uses the Language Server Protocol for auto-completion in many languages. Search and replace handles regular expressions, multiline searches, open files and files on disk. Listed plugins include an embedded terminal, SQL, build, GDB and Replace in Files tools. Kate can open remote files and supports Unicode and other encodings. Backups on save and swap files can help recover data after a system crash. The editor is free, and its listed plan describes it as available for Linux, Windows and macOS. Nightly packages are compiled daily, but may be unstable or incomplete and are recommended for testing.

Visit kate-editor.org

Pulsar

Pulsar is a free, open-source desktop text editor for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is a community-led fork of the discontinued Atom editor, with a stated aim of continuing and improving an open, hackable editor. Its package manager supports finding and installing packages or creating them. Language server integration provides autocompletion, smart navigation, and other IDE features. A filesystem browser can open an individual file, one project, or multiple projects in the same window. Editing features include multiple cursors, snippets, semantic selections, code folding, and syntax highlighting. Configuration files let users adjust keybindings, language-specific settings, styles, and other aspects of appearance or behavior. Git tools can switch branches, stage code, resolve merge conflicts, and show open GitHub pull requests. A bundled updater detects when a newer version is available. The current release page lists Windows 10 or later, macOS 10.15 or later, and Linux with glibc 2.31 or later. Pulsar says its editor collects no user information and sends nothing to remote servers; backend troubleshooting logs include IP and user-agent details and are deleted after 30 days.

Visit pulsar-edit.dev