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Atom vs Sublime Text: What are the differences?
Developers describe Atom as "A hackable text editor for the 21st Century". At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it. On the other hand, Sublime Text is detailed as "A sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose". Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform..
Atom and Sublime Text can be categorized as "Text Editor" tools.
Some of the features offered by Atom are:
- Atom is a desktop application based on web technologies
- Node.js integration
- Modular Design- composed of over 50 open-source packages that integrate around a minimal core
On the other hand, Sublime Text provides the following key features:
- Goto Anything
- Multiple Selections
- Command Palette
"Free", "Open source" and "Modular design" are the key factors why developers consider Atom; whereas "Lightweight", "Plugins" and "Super fast" are the primary reasons why Sublime Text is favored.
Atom is an open source tool with 49.2K GitHub stars and 12.1K GitHub forks. Here's a link to Atom's open source repository on GitHub.
Lyft, Typeform, and Starbucks are some of the popular companies that use Sublime Text, whereas Atom is used by Lyft, Typeform, and PedidosYa. Sublime Text has a broader approval, being mentioned in 1406 company stacks & 1333 developers stacks; compared to Atom, which is listed in 836 company stacks and 725 developer stacks.
Visual Studio Code became famous over the past 3+ years I believe. The clean UI, easy to use UX and the plethora of integrations made it a very easy decision for us. Our gripe with Sublime was probably only the UX side. VSCode has not failed us till now, and still is able to support our development env without any significant effort.
Goland being paid, as well as built only for Go seemed like a significant limitation to not consider it.
Since communication with Github is not necessary, the Atom is less convenient in working with text and code. Sublim's support and understanding of projects is best for us. Notepad for us is a completely outdated solution with an unacceptable interface. We use a good theme for Sublim ayu-dark
I decided to choose VSCode over Sublime text for my Systems Programming class in C. What I love about VSCode is its awesome ability to add extensions. Intellisense is a beautiful debugger, and Remote SSH allows me to login and make real-time changes in VSCode to files on my university server. This is an awesome alternative to going back and forth on pushing/pulling code and logging into servers in the terminal. Great choice for anyone interested in C programming!
I use Visual Studio Code every day, it was very refreshing coming from Atom to get a lightweight, all i need setup right out of the box.
After working with Atom for around 2 years I switch to VSCode.
Here is why:
- Color display of variables in code. This may now sound much, but it improve the display of scss variables and its a core feature.
- Out of the box features.
- Automation! VSCode suggests usefull things to you.
- Integraded console. I love the console in VSCode. It is faster than my 'default' cmd on Windows. For Atom you would have to install a package, that doesn't work so well on Windows.
- Output logging per Plugin.
- Setup time. In VSCode I can set up my workspace in under 5 minutes. For Atom I need
- Plugins work perfect out of the box. This is a mayor one for me. For example: In order to set up Editorconfig you have to adjust mutliple values and plugins to get it work. Plugin creators of Editorconfig for Atom are not to blame: They include a linter, that verifies whether the settings are correct or not.
- Git implementation. VSCode ships with Git and even if the git packet of vscode doesn't look like much, theres a lot to it. For example you can watch changes inline.
- Minimap and vertical scrollbar. This feature is much better implementet in VSCode and you don't need an extra plugin.
- Auto completion. Sass mixins example:
@include
and you press CTRL+SPACE and VSCode shows you every Sass mixin. - Copy paths from open file tab. In VSCode you can copy the path of an file directly when you have it open. In atom you need to select 'show in tree view' and than copy the path or relative path.
- Tree view. The tree view VSCode automaticly brings you to the current open file by default. This helps when working with components.
- File search. The file search supports the asterisk so you can search for eg
molecule-*.ts
. - Tasks support. Tasks are integrated in VSCode so eg. for Typescript you can
CTRL + SHIFT + B
and selecttsc: watch - tsconfig.ts
. - Short waiting time. For example when deleting files or beautifying 20.000 lines of json (Atom hangs up).
- More releases. Faster feature implementation. Active community.
Pros of Atom
- Free528
- Open source447
- Modular design342
- Hackable320
- Beautiful UI316
- Github integration170
- Backed by github147
- Built with node.js119
- Web native113
- Community107
- Packages35
- Cross platform18
- TypeScript editor5
- Nice UI5
- Multicursor support5
- cli start3
- Chrome Inspector works IN EDITOR3
- Simple but powerful3
- Open source, lots of packages, and so configurable3
- Snippets3
- It's powerful2
- Code readability2
- Awesome2
- Smart TypeScript code completion2
- Well documented2
- "Free", "Hackable", "Open Source", The Awesomness1
- Apm publish minor1
- works with GitLab1
- full support1
- vim support1
- Split-Tab Layout1
- Consistent UI on all platforms1
- User friendly1
- Hackable and Open Source1
- Publish0
Pros of Sublime Text
- Lightweight718
- Plugins652
- Super fast639
- Great code editor467
- Cross platform441
- Nice UI277
- Unlimited trial258
- Cmd + d is the best command ever154
- Great community92
- Package control, modules45
- Mac OS X support26
- Easy to get started with23
- Monokai22
- Built in Python21
- Everything you need without the bloat21
- Easy18
- Speed14
- Session & edit resuming12
- Package Control10
- Well Designed9
- Multiple selections8
- ALT + CMD + DOWN is the best command ever7
- Nice7
- Fast, simple and lightweight7
- It's easy to use, beautiful, simple, and plugins rule5
- So futuristic and convenient5
- ALT + F3 the best command ever5
- Great5
- Find anything fast within entire project4
- Easy to use4
- Free4
- Simple and clean design4
- Hackable3
- Pretty3
- UI + plugins3
- Sublime Merge (Git Integration)3
- Totally customizable2
- Color schemes and cmd+d2
- Material theme best theme forever2
- Const0
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Cons of Atom
- Slow with large files19
- Slow startup7
- Most of the time packages are hard to find.2
- No longer maintained1
- Cannot Run code with F51
- Can be easily Modified1
Cons of Sublime Text
- Steep learning curve8
- Everything5
- Doesn't act like a Mac app4
- Flexibility to move file4
- Number of plugins doing the same thing3
- Forces you to buy license2
- Not open sourced2
- Don't have flutter integration2