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163 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 Terminal. appsgit lists 163, including free alternatives to Postman, Navicat and Docker Desktop, each with its platforms, license and install commands.

Updated Oct 8, 2026

Open Source Code Editors & Developer Tools

Showing the top 48 of 163 by GitHub stars. Every entry is listed in the sitemap and the JSON API.

FAQ

Code editors & developer tools: FAQ

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What are the best open-source code editors and developer tools?

By GitHub stars, Visual Studio Code is the most popular (193,639 stars), followed by Scrcpy and Terminal. 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?

123 of the 163 open-source code editors and developer tools listed here run on Windows, 143 on macOS and 143 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is Visual Studio Code. 69 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 163 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.