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Notepad++

20.5K
16.8K
+ 1
420
SourceTree

10.7K
8K
+ 1
727
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Notepad++ vs SourceTree: What are the differences?

Developers describe Notepad++ as "Free source code editor and Notepad replacement". Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License. On the other hand, SourceTree is detailed as "A free Git GUI client for Windows and macOS". Use the full capability of Git and Mercurial in the SourceTree desktop app. Manage all your repositories, hosted or local, through SourceTree's simple interface.

Notepad++ belongs to "Text Editor" category of the tech stack, while SourceTree can be primarily classified under "Source Code Management Desktop Apps".

Some of the features offered by Notepad++ are:

  • Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
  • User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding: screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3 and screenshot 4
  • PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace

On the other hand, SourceTree provides the following key features:

  • Full-powered DVCS
  • Create, clone, commit, push, pull, merge, and more are all just a click away.
  • Review your outgoing and incoming changesets, cherry-pick between branches, patch handling, rebase, stash, shelve, and much more.

"Syntax for all languages that i use", "Tabbed ui" and "Great code editor" are the key factors why developers consider Notepad++; whereas "Visual history and branch view", "Beautiful UI" and "Easy repository browsing" are the primary reasons why SourceTree is favored.

According to the StackShare community, SourceTree has a broader approval, being mentioned in 618 company stacks & 414 developers stacks; compared to Notepad++, which is listed in 187 company stacks and 499 developer stacks.

Decisions about Notepad++ and SourceTree
Andrey Ginger
Managing Partner at WhiteLabelDevelopers · | 3 upvotes · 537K views

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 Notepad for us is a completely outdated solution with an unacceptable interface.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

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I explored many Git Desktop tools for the Mac and my final decision was to use Fork. What I love about for that it contains three features, I like about a Git Client tool.

It allows * to handle day to day git operations (least important for me as I am cli junkie) * it helps to investigate the history * most important of all, it has a repo manager which many other tools are missing.

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Pros of Notepad++
Pros of SourceTree
  • 104
    Syntax for all languages that i use
  • 60
    Tabbed ui
  • 56
    Great code editor
  • 54
    Fast and lightweight
  • 38
    Plugins
  • 28
    Nice GUI
  • 26
    Regex & Special Character Search & Replace
  • 16
    Fast startup
  • 9
    Application is free, and plugins are too
  • 9
    Themes
  • 6
    Free
  • 4
    Very Lightweight
  • 3
    100% Free
  • 2
    Column selection
  • 1
    Awesome autocomplete
  • 1
    Easy edit on FTP servers (NppFTP)
  • 1
    Cos it's seck
  • 1
    Nice gui. are you kidding me?
  • 1
    Open Sourced
  • 205
    Visual history and branch view
  • 164
    Beautiful UI
  • 134
    Easy repository browsing
  • 87
    Gitflow support
  • 75
    Interactive stage or discard by hunks or lines
  • 22
    Great branch visualization
  • 18
    Ui/ux and user-friendliness
  • 8
    Best Git Client UI/Features
  • 7
    Search commit messages
  • 5
    Available for Windows and macOS
  • 1
    Log only one file
  • 1
    Search file content

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Cons of Notepad++
Cons of SourceTree
  • 3
    No default plugin manager
  • 2
    Can't install more advanced packets
  • 12
    Crashes often
  • 8
    So many bugs
  • 7
    Fetching is slow sometimes
  • 5
    No dark theme (Windows)
  • 5
    Extremely slow
  • 5
    Very unstable
  • 4
    Can't select text in diff (windows)
  • 3
    Freezes quite frequently
  • 3
    Can't scale window from top corners
  • 2
    UI blinking
  • 2
    Windows version worse than mac version
  • 2
    Installs to AppData folder (windows)
  • 2
    Diff makes tab indentation look like spaces
  • 2
    Windows and Mac versions are very different
  • 2
    Diff appears as if space indented even if its tabs
  • 2
    Doesn't have an option for git init
  • 2
    Useless for merge conflict resolution
  • 2
    Doesn't differentiate submodules from parent repos
  • 2
    Requires bitbucket account
  • 1
    Generally hard to like
  • 1
    No reflog support
  • 1
    Bases binary check on filesize
  • 1
    Can't add remotes by right clicking remotes (windows)

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What is Notepad++?

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

What is SourceTree?

Use the full capability of Git and Mercurial in the SourceTree desktop app. Manage all your repositories, hosted or local, through SourceTree's simple interface.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

What companies use Notepad++?
What companies use SourceTree?
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What tools integrate with Notepad++?
What tools integrate with SourceTree?

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What are some alternatives to Notepad++ and SourceTree?
Sublime Text
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
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.
UltraEdit
It is a powerful, fast, and secure text editor whose helpful features make every day life easier for any user type and programming language. Windows, Mac, Linux.
Git
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.
GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.
See all alternatives