Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications. If you are one of those people who design or edit HTML pages for websites or just learning HTML, then here is a list of some Best Free HTML Editors / Designers for Windows – for Creating, managing, and editing web pages.
There were days when almost all web pages had to be written manually in text editors. Then came WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software tools. Remember Microsoft Frontpage? Nowadays, with the popularity of Content Management Systems (CMS) which takes care of most of the web page layout and structure using themes, there is hardly any need to write web pages ourselves.
There are tons of free software on the internet and there are some really good ones that are free. Free does not always mean ‘bad quality’ anymore. There are many free and opensource software that are equally as good as proprietary versions. That being said, if you can afford to pay for proprietary software, good for you. Otherwise, there are good free software that will serve the same purpose.
HTML pages can be designed using just text editors also. But many of us would like to have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) visual editors for designing web pages.
Here is a list of some Best Free HTML Editors / WYSIWYG Designers for Windows
Microsoft’s Expression Web 4.0 (Free)
- Expression 4.0 is a WYSIWYG editor by Microsoft.
- Expression 4.0 has been pulled into Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and the last update of the standalone solution (4.0.1460.0) was on December 20, 2012. However, free download is still available.
- Expression 4.0 is very similar to Dreamweaver interface.
- It supports customizable toolbars and offers design and code views, which enables to look at design and code at the same time when required, like Dreamweaver.
Download Microsoft’s Expression Web 4.0 (Free)
- Aptana Studio 3 is an open source web application IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Aptana Studio harnesses the flexibility of Eclipse and focuses it into a powerful web development engine.
- Aptana Studio 3 is available for cross platforms like Linux, Windows, and macOS. It is free.
- Aids in authoring of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby. Supports the latest HTML5 specifications.
- Besides HTML5 code, Aptana Studio 3 lets you edit, build and preview your CSS, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, PHP, and Python code as well.
- Integrated Debugger: Set breakpoints, inspect variables, control execution. The integrated Ruby & Rails and JavaScript debuggers help you squash those bugs.
- Git Integration: Easily put your projects under git source code control. Collaborate with team members thru merge, pull and push actions to remote repositories such those hosted on Github. Facilitates git-based deployments.
- Aptana Studio 3 features a Built-in Terminal: Quickly access a command line terminal for execution of operating system commands and language utilities such as gem, rake, etc.
Download Aptana Studio 3 (Free)
- Apache NetBeans is free and open source software.
- Besides HTML, NetBeans can be used to develop desktop, mobile, and web applications with Java, JavaScript, HTML5, PHP, C/C++ and more.
- NetBeans is an impressive Java IDE which enables you to build the powerful web applications.
- NetBeans IDE can be installed on multiple operating systems like Linux, Windows, macOS.
- Highlights source code syntactically and semantically, lets you easily refactor code, with a range of handy and powerful tools.
- NetBeans provides editors, wizards, and templates to help you create applications in Java, PHP and many other languages.
Download NetBeans (Free)
- Kompozer is another free and open source WYSIWYG HTML editor with easy to use WYSIWYG interface.
- Kompozer offers you cross-platform compatibility. thus, can run easily run on Linux, Windows, and macOs.
- Integrated file management via FTP.
- It also comes with a CSS editor and an HTML validator.
Download Kompozer Web Editor (Free)
Atom (Free)
- Atom is another attractive WYSIWYG HTML editor which is again open source by GitHub.
- Cross-platform editing: Atom works across operating systems. Use it on OS X, Windows, or Linux.
- Smart autocompletion: Atom helps you write code faster with a smart and flexible autocomplete.
- Built-in package manager: Search for and install new packages or create your own right from Atom.
- File system browser: Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in one window.
- Multiple panes: Split your Atom interface into multiple panes to compare and edit code across files.
- Find and replace: Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file or across all your projects.
Download Atom (Free)
- openElement is a free software powered by Chromium and with an Intuitive interface.
- The software supports all the latest technology, such as HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, responsive design, etc.
- Managed code with Reusable styles and element packs.
- Supports HTML5 & CSS3
- Local webserver for PHP & DB tests
- BlueGriffon is a WYSIWYG editor powered by Gecko, the same rendering engine included in Mozilla Firefox.
- BlueGriffon is one of the powerful WYSIWYG Responsive Design editor.
- BlueGriffon supports Windows 7 and later, OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).
Non WYSIWYG HTML / Code Editor (Free)
Besides the WYSIWYG variants, there are some good HTML editor which are worth listing here.
