BytePad - Made for Developers

BytePad is a fast, beautiful, genuinely native text editor for the Mac. No Electron, no web view, no hundreds of megabytes of browser engine hiding inside. It launches instantly, sips memory, and feels like it belongs on macOS, because it was built with AppKit from the first line.

It is a scratchpad when you need one and a serious editor when the work gets real.

WRITE CODE
Syntax highlighting for 19 languages, detected automatically as you open files: Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Go, C#, HTML, CSS, SQL, Shell, PowerShell, Perl, YAML, TOML, JSON, XML, GraphQL, and Dockerfile. Tabs, a workspace sidebar with an Open Editors list and file tree, instant search across your project, and a command palette on Command+P to jump anywhere without touching the mouse.

WRITE PROSE
A real Markdown editor with a live side-by-side preview, a formatting toolbar, smart list continuation, and one-click export to PDF. Word and character counts sit in the status bar while you work.

WORK WITH DATA
Open a CSV and edit it as a real table right beside the raw text. Click any cell to change it, and everything stays in sync with the file. Giant log files and exports open instantly and stay smooth, no matter how many millions of lines they contain.

DO THE MATH
The built-in Text Calculator turns any note into a live scratchpad. Type 15% of 200 or 10 usd to eur and the answer appears on the same line. It handles arithmetic, percentages, unit conversions, live currency rates, and variables that update the whole sheet as you type.

COMPARE ANYTHING
Drop in any two files for a professional side-by-side diff: aligned panes, line numbers on both sides, clear markers where lines were added or removed, and word-level highlighting inside changed lines.

MAKE IT YOURS
Ten hand-tuned themes, including One Dark, Dracula, Nord, and GitHub. Each ships in a light and a dark variant, and BytePad can follow your system appearance automatically. The whole window re-tints to match, not just the code.

DETAILS THAT MATTER
Sessions restore exactly as you left them. Files changed by another app reload automatically, and your unsaved edits always win. Open Recent and Shift+Command+T for the tab you just closed. Line operations for duplicating, moving, joining, and deleting. Full control over text encoding and line endings, applied on save. A zoom picker from 50 to 250 percent. Bookmarks, find and replace, invisible characters, word wrap, and a built-in PDF viewer.

OPENS ANYTHING
Drag any file onto the window or the Dock icon and it opens. Unknown formats open as plain text rather than refusing. Drop a folder to make it your workspace, or right-click in Finder and choose Open in BytePad.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Your files stay on your Mac. BytePad has no account, no telemetry, and no cloud sync. The only network request it ever makes is fetching exchange rates when you ask the calculator to convert a currency.

TRY IT FREE
BytePad is free to try for 7 days with every feature unlocked. A single In-App Purchase unlocks it permanently. No subscription, ever.

Requires macOS 13.0 or later. Universal for Apple Silicon and Intel.

Questions, bugs, or feature requests: [email protected]