Notepad alternative
A Notepad that doesn’t get in your way
Open it, type, save. NomiPad keeps the simplicity of Notepad and adds what it’s missing: huge files, tabs that don’t get lost, Markdown and code highlighting, on every desktop system.
By the NomiPad team · Updated
What people want from a Notepad replacement
- It starts instantly and opens any text file, including ones that are hundreds of megabytes or several gigabytes.
- Plain text stays plain. On a Mac, TextEdit starts new documents as rich text until you choose Format › Make Plain Text. NomiPad only ever writes plain text.
- It doesn’t change the file behind your back: the encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16, Windows-1252), the byte-order mark and the line endings stay as they were.
- Tabs and sessions: several files in one window, and they’re back after a restart.
- A little more when you need it: Markdown rendered as you type, and colors for code.
What NomiPad adds
| You want | NomiPad |
|---|---|
| Open a huge log | First screen of a 1 GiB file in about a millisecond; edit and save it |
| Keep the file as it was | Encoding, BOM and CRLF/LF kept; asks before changing an encoding |
| Not lose work | Asks before closing unsaved tabs; never overwrites a file another program changed without asking; atomic saves |
| Find things | Find and Replace in one panel, with regex, case and whole-word options, through the whole file |
| Notes and docs | Plain text mode, or Live Markdown with headings, lists, tables and checkboxes |
| Code and config files | Highlighting with the language detected from the file |
| Your shortcuts and fonts | Every shortcut can be changed; a separate font for code, text and Markdown |
| Your system | macOS, Windows and Linux |
Is it free?
Yes. Every feature is in the free version, with no time limit and no account. It shows a 5-second reminder at start-up and keeps up to 3 tabs per window. NomiPad Pro, a yearly subscription, removes both.
Switching
- Download NomiPad and install it.
- Right-click a text file and choose Open With › NomiPad.
- To use it for every text file, open Settings › Files and make NomiPad the default app. (On Windows, that button takes you to the system’s Default apps page, where you pick NomiPad for .txt.)
What it deliberately leaves out
No plugins, no sync, no AI features, no account for the free version, and no telemetry. If you want an IDE, see NomiPad and VS Code; for a full comparison, NomiPad next to other editors.