Free Html Wysiwyg Editor For Mac

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We have evaluated over 20 free HTML editors for Macintosh against over 40 different criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers. The following applications are the best free HTML editors for Macintosh, both WYSIWYG and text editors, rated from best to worst. Each editor listed will have a score, percentage, and a link to more information.

List of HTML editors. Amaya - An open-source HTML editor from the W3C that allows for WYSIWYG editing. Arachnophilia Editor - Free HTML editor that allows you to do almost everything including frames, drag and drop, CGI, Java, and much more. BBEdit - Innovative HTML editor for Macintosh users. Hype sells for $29.99 in the Mac App Store and is an amazing HTML5 WYSIWYG editor. Created by two ex-Apple engineers, it's gaining rave reviews and can be used to create animated websites.

Best Value: Komodo Edit

Free

What We Like

  • Lots of add-ons available.

  • Built-in FTP client.

  • Auto-complete and syntax checking features.

What We Don't Like

  • Slow to load.

  • Feels cluttered.

  • Difficult to install color schemes.

Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters).

Komodo Edit is not the best HTML editor out there, but it is great for the price, especially if you build in XML. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.

There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.

Best for JavaScript Developers: Aptana Studio

What We Like

  • Integrated debugger.

  • Build-in Code Assist feature for tags.

  • Built-in terminal emulator.

What We Don't Like

  • No longer in development.

  • Minimal support for PHP.

  • Some dependencies.

Aptana Studio offers an interesting take on website development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications.

One thing I really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the document object model (DOM). This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development.

If you are a developer creating web applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice.

A Full Featured Java IDE: NetBeans

What We Like

  • Version 9.0 released by Apache after acquisition.

  • Supports the Jigsaw Module system.

  • Supports Java Shell, new in JDK 9.

What We Don't Like

  • Needs high-memory computer to run quickly.

  • Not many plug-ins.

  • Auto-completion is buggy.

NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications. Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because they don’t often work in the same way that web editors do. But once you get used to it you’ll be hooked.

One nice feature is the version control included in the IDE which is really useful for people working in large development environments. If you write Java and web pages this is a great tool.

Best for LAMP Developers: Bluefish

What We Like

  • Auto-completion and auto-tag closing.

  • Powerful search and replace.

  • Quick to start and load files.

What We Don't Like

  • Not for novice programmers.

  • User interface looks intimidating.

  • Too many tabs and toolbars.

Bluefish is a full-featured web editor for Linux. There are also native executables for Windows and Macintosh. There is code-sensitive spell check, autocomplete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management, and auto-save.

It is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, but if you’re a designer by nature you might not like it as much.

A Powerful Multi-Language IDE: Eclipse

What We Like

  • Robust debugging and profiling profile.

  • Code-completion feature.

  • Fast deployment and implementation.

What We Don't Like

  • Slow when working with large files.

  • Not recommended for large businesses.

  • Steep learning curve for novice programmers.

Eclipse is a complex, Open Source development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on a variety of platforms and with different languages.

Eclipse is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something just find the appropriate plug-in and go.

If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.

A Swiss Army Knife IDE from Mozilla: SeaMonkey

What We Like

  • Tabs for WISIWYG editing, HTML tags, HTML code, and browser views.

  • Suitable for building simple, basic websites.

What We Don't Like

  • Composer element no longer being maintained.

  • Generates HTML 4.01 Transitional code.

SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one internet application suite. It includes a web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and Composer, the web page editor.

One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that the browser is built-in, so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP client to publish your web pages.

A Basic HTML Writer: Amaya

What We Like

  • Useful for up to HTML 4.01.

  • Supports SVG and MathML.

What We Don't Like

  • Last updated in 2012.

  • No longer in development.

Amaya is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web editor and web browser. It validates the HTML as you build your page and displays your Web documents in a tree structure, which is useful for learning to understand the DOM.

Amaya has a lot of features that most web designers won’t ever use, but if you want to be certain that your pages follow the W3C standards, this is a great editor to use.

Straightforward and Stable: BBEdit 12

What We Like

  • Supports HTML5.

  • Opens large files.

  • Great customer support.

  • Rock-solid software.

What We Don't Like

  • Advanced features require paid version after 30-day free trial.

  • Must search menus for features and options.

BBEdit is a paid program that has a set of free capabilities (the same capabilities that the now-defunct TextWranger had. While Bare Bones Software, the makers of BBEdit do offer a paid version, you may find the free version does everything you need. You can review a feature comparison here.

Note

If you're using TextWrangler, it is not compatible with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). However, the free (and paid) version of BBEdit is.

By Scott Clark

Desktop-as-a-Service Designed for Any Cloud ? Nutanix Frame


HTML5 has garnered plenty of attention in the last two years, and for good reasons. The internet as we know it is changing, and HTML5 is at the forefront of those changes. If you are eager to jump into the HTML5 mix, you will be interested in the tools we have found for creating websites and web apps using HTML5.

At the moment, there are two flavors of HTML5 editors to be found: standalone applications and browser-based editors. There are advantages and disadvantages for each. Standalone apps are OS-dependent, that is, some are created for Windows, others for Mac, only one is for both. Browser-based apps, on the other hand, work on any OS, with almost any current browser, as well as other devices such as the iPad. Standalone apps work with or without an internet connection. Browser-based apps are typically only available if you are online (more on that later). Whether one is better than the other depends on the specifics of a given developer, their needs, requirements, OS, etc.

With that, let's move on to the HTML5 tools.

Editor's note: Click here to check our our HTML5 Development Center!

Aloha Editor

The Aloha Editor is a browser-based rich text editor framework that was created in JavaScript. Unlike most other HTML editors, Aloha can actually be embedding within a CMS, blog or other standard web development frameworks.

Functioning in a similar fashion as that of a textarea, pretty much any DOM (document object model) element can be edited--a developer just has to embed the code within their online document. When you highlight any text, a floating menu appears next to the area you are editing, allowing you to change the font size, face, insert tables and more according to the content being edited.

The one thing that Aloha is short on is basic tutorials or documentation. An API reference is provided, as is a forum and several different types of samples, but no 'how to add Aloha to your blog' tutorials are present (if they are present, they aren't obvious to this developer).

Dreamweaver CS5

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 is well known in the industry, and its initial reputation as a code mangler has improved drastically over the last few years. The most recent release, Dreamweaver CS5, came along with announcement from Adobe that Dreamweaver CS5 now supports HTML5. We've covered the Creative Suite of products for many years on HTMLGoodies, most recently in an overview article that discusses the various CS5 product suites and subscription plans, a review of Dreamweaver itself, and a tutorial on how to create CSS Menus using CSS Tab Designer along with Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver is a full-featured editor, providing WYSIWYG functionality, a multiscreen preview panel, integration with jQuery Mobile and Adobe BrowserLab, along with support for native Android and iOS apps (when using PhoneGap), CSS3 and of course HTML5. Dreamweaver is not a cheap product, but if you are a professional web developer, it can be a useful and versatile tool in your toolbox--well worth the purchase price.

Maqetta

Maqetta is another browser-based HTML5 editor--but don't fall for the false perception that 'browser-based' means inadequate. Maqetta, as well as other browser-based tools, are becoming more capable, more useful and easier-to-use on multiple devices and browsers. Most such tools are also free (and open source, since they are largely written in HTML and JavaScript), so you're getting much more than you're paying for.

Maqetta is a full-featured WYSIWYG editor. Developers can create a web page, initially drawing it out, dragging-and-dropping elements onto the page, editing the page using a design mode or source code view. A wireframing feature enables designers of user interfaces to 'draw' a UI before they even get to coding it. A theme editor allows the customization of the style of many different types of widgets, and it includes full support for CSS styling. If you haven't tried Maqetta, it's worth spending some time playing around with it to see its potential.

Best Free Wysiwyg Html Editor Mac Os X

MacFlux

MacFlux is a commercial software product for the Mac, obviously, that retails for $99. It includes free website templates, and supports HTML5 (and HTML4), PHP, Ruby, JSP and other text-based languages.

The company that sells MacFlux, MacWare Inc, considers it to be a 'creative design environment rather than a template based solution' and from the screen shots on their site, it looks like it has a simple interface that pretty much anyone could use to create a website. Since they don't offer a trial download, I will have to take them at their word. Any Mac users who have used the software, please feel free to comment below.

BlueGriffon

BlueGriffon is a strange editor, in that yes, it's another browser-based editor, but no, you don't have to be online to access and use it. Based on the Firefox browser's Gecko rendering engine, you can actually download and install BlueGriffon on your computer. There are binaries available for Mac, Windows XP/7, Ubuntu and Fedora, and its available in 9 languages.

Free Wysiwyg Html Editor Mac 2016

Like some of the others we have discussed, BlueGriffon is a WYSIWYG editor with support for HTML4 and HTML5, as well as XHTML. For users who want to experiment with features of HTML5, it enables developers to directly embed HTML5 audio and video elements into a web page.

It has some additional functionality that other editors don't have, such as the ability to extract a frame from a video file so it can be used as the 'poster' for the video when you embed the video on a web page. That feature takes one click to accomplish. HTML5 forms are fully supported, with dialogs for every form element defined in the HTML5 specification.

All of the HTML5 elements--including header, footer, aside, etc.--are also included in an easy-to-use dropdown menu, allowing a developer to insert them in a document with a click of the mouse. BlueGriffon is a top notch editor--it's got my vote as my favorite of those mentioned in this article. If you give it a try, or have an opinion on it, let us know using the comment form below!

Apple Html Editor


Free Wysiwyg Html Editor For Mac Os X

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