Windows has had Notepad built in since the 1980s. That didn’t stop two separate teams from building something better and charging money for one of them.
TextPad showed up first, in 1992. Don Ho didn’t touch the first line of Notepad++ until September 2003, over a decade later.
TextPad has charged per seat from day one. Notepad++ has never charged anyone anything, and it ships under a GPL license that lets you do basically whatever you want with the code.
None of that answers which one you should actually use, though. That comes down to what each editor turned into over the following twenty-plus years. Notepad++ leaned hard into plugins and got a little heavier because of it. TextPad stayed lean and, honestly, hasn’t changed all that much. Both are still getting updates in 2026, which says something about how much life is left in the classic desktop text editor.
What Is Notepad++
Don Ho built the first version of Notepad++ in September 2003 because he was fed up with JEXT, a Java-based editor he’d been stuck using at his job. What he ended up with is a free, open-source code editor for Windows, released under the GNU General Public License, and it’s been actively maintained ever since.
A few things worth knowing before you download it. It’s built on Scintilla, the same editing component a number of other lightweight editors use, and written in C++. It’s distributed under GPL 3.0 or later, so there’s no license fee at any point, now or later. The latest stable build, as of writing, is version 8.9.7, released July 14, 2026, according to the Notepad++ GitHub repository.
Compared to the Notepad app that ships with Windows, it adds tabs, syntax coloring, and a plugin system that lets you bolt on whatever you’re missing. If you’re trying to figure out whether it’s actually worth switching from stock Notepad, there’s a full breakdown in Notepad++ compared to standard Notepad.
What Is TextPad
Helios Software Solutions put TextPad out in 1992, a good ten years before Notepad++ came along, and they’ve kept selling it as shareware the whole time since. Nobody’s rewritten it from scratch or handed it off to a different company. It’s the same Helios product it’s always been, just updated.
You can try it before paying for it. The current stable release is version 9.9.7, published July 11, 2026, per the TextPad official site, and the newest build (TextPad 9) only runs on 64-bit Windows 11, 10, and Windows Server 2016 through 2022, on Intel and ARM64 processors. There’s no official macOS or Linux version, and there never has been.
One thing Helios is upfront about on its own product page: no ads inside the app, and no usage statistics getting sent anywhere. That’s not nothing in 2026.
What Are the Main Differences Between Notepad++ and TextPad
If you strip away every other difference, it comes down to cost. Notepad++ is free and always has been. TextPad gives you a trial, then asks for a per-user license once that trial runs out.
Both editors show up constantly in day-to-day software development work, so the differences that matter aren’t really about basic text editing. They’re about what happens once you need more than that.
Comparison Table
| Category | Notepad++ | TextPad |
|---|---|---|
| License | Free, GPL 3.0 | Paid shareware |
| Plugin support | Yes, via Plugin Admin | None |
| Built-in languages | ~90 supported natively | Manual syntax files |
| Latest version | 8.9.7 (2026) | 9.9.7 (2026) |
Almost everything else in this comparison, plugins, language support, how each one handles memory, comes back to one decision made early on. Notepad++ was designed to be pulled apart and extended by whoever wanted to. TextPad wasn’t, and it’s stayed simple because of it.
How Do Their Plugin and Extension Systems Compare
Notepad++ picked up a plugin architecture back in version 3.1, according to the project’s own resources page, so this isn’t a recent bolt-on. These days everything runs through Plugin Admin, a panel built into the editor for installing, updating, and pulling out add-ons without ever leaving Notepad++ itself.
A few plugins come up again and again in day-to-day use.
- NppFTP, for editing files directly over FTP or SFTP
- JSON Viewer and XML Tools, for formatting structured data
- Compare, for spotting line-by-line differences between two open files
The catalog behind all of this, nppPluginList, isn’t a closed app store Notepad++ controls. It’s an open-source project on GitHub, and anyone can submit to it.
Getting a plugin installed takes a few clicks inside Plugin Admin, nothing more complicated than that. The steps for installing plugins in Notepad++ walk through the whole panel if you’ve never opened it.
There’s an odd little example of this ecosystem in action on the Valve Developer Community wiki, which documents editing VDF scripts in Notepad++ and compiling them through the NppExec plugin, complete with custom syntax-highlighting definitions built specifically for Valve’s Source engine file formats. Not something most people will ever need, but it shows how far the plugin system stretches.
TextPad doesn’t play this game at all. No plugin marketplace, no extension API, nothing to install beyond the app itself.
Instead you get a macro recorder that holds up to 16 active macros, and a file comparison utility built directly into the editor, per Helios’s own features page. It’s not extensible, but what’s there works without needing anything added.
If you’re coming from Notepad++’s Compare add-on and wondering how that translates, how to compare two files inside Notepad++ covers the plugin-based version of that same workflow.
How Do Syntax Highlighting and Language Support Compare
Out of the box, Notepad++ covers around 90 programming languages for syntax highlighting and code folding, according to its own user manual. That’s Python, JavaScript, and SQL on one end, and things like COBOL and VHDL on the other, which is a strange spread until you remember this editor’s been picking up contributors for over twenty years.
Anything not on that list, you build yourself through the User Defined Language system. It’s not hard, just tedious the first time.
Version 8.3, released February 3, 2022, removed the old 2GB file-open restriction on the 64-bit build and sped up loading and editing on large files (200MB and up). There’s a related quirk worth knowing about: Notepad++ automatically turns off syntax highlighting past 200MB by default, just to keep from stalling on oversized files. That behavior became user-configurable starting with version 8.4.7, so you can turn it back on if you’d rather wait for the highlighting than lose it.
TextPad works differently here. Its syntax definition files get configured manually, one language at a time, and there’s no built-in browser to pick a language from a list.
Both editors rely on Perl-compatible regular expressions for search and replace, for what it’s worth. A quick regex reference is handy no matter which editor you land on.
How Do Performance and Memory Usage Compare
Scintilla, the editing component underneath Notepad++, loads the whole open file into memory rather than streaming it off disk. That works fine until a file gets big, and then it stops working fine pretty quickly.
| File Size | Approx. Memory Needed | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| 40 MB | ~160 MB | Opens and edits smoothly |
| 200 MB | ~800 MB | Syntax highlighting auto-disables by default; performance can still lag on limited RAM |
| 2 GB+ | Roughly 4x file size | Supported on the 64-bit build since v8.3 (2022); the 32-bit build remains capped near 2GB by its address-space limits |
Once you cross into the hundreds of megabytes, memory use runs about four times the file size (a 200MB file eating close to 800MB of RAM lines up with what the Notepad++ community and its own developers have reported).
TextPad’s features page is vaguer about it, just stating that huge files can be edited up to the limits of virtual memory, without giving a hard ceiling anywhere.
Neither editor was built to be a log viewer, and both start dragging once a file gets into the hundreds of megabytes.
What Are the Pricing and Licensing Models
Notepad++ costs nothing. Not a trial, not a license key you need to renew, no upgrade fee waiting for you down the line. It’s free the day you install it and free every day after.
TextPad works the other way. Try it, then pay if you keep using it. A single-user license runs £16.50, excluding VAT, according to Helios’s official pricing page. Worth flagging: Helios only prices it in British pounds and doesn’t publish an official USD or EUR figure, so you’re converting at whatever the exchange rate happens to be that day. TextPad 8 and TextPad 9 are sold and updated together under one license, at least, so moving between the two current major versions doesn’t cost licensed users anything extra.
Buy in bulk and the per-seat price drops, though nothing about the feature set changes with volume.
| License Size | Price (GBP) |
|---|---|
| 1 user | £16.50 |
| 5 users | £73.00 |
| 100 users | £800.00 |
| 500 users | £2,250.00 |
There’s also a rights difference that doesn’t show up on either pricing page. Notepad++’s GPL 3.0 license lets you use it commercially, redistribute it, and modify it, all at no extra cost. TextPad’s proprietary shareware terms don’t extend any of that.
Which Operating Systems Do They Support
Notepad++ is Windows-only, officially, and tracks whatever Windows versions Microsoft itself still supports, according to the project’s GitHub readme.
Want it on Linux or macOS anyway? You’ll be routing through Wine, a compatibility layer that translates Windows API calls without actually emulating a processor underneath.
A typical Wine setup asks for around 200MB of disk space (Notepad++ plus Wine’s own dependencies) and stays well under 200MB of RAM for normal text editing. Wine 11.0 stable, released January 13, 2026, finished off the new WoW64 architecture and added support for the Linux ntsync kernel module, which noticeably helped performance for Windows apps run this way (WineHQ, 2026).
If you want the walkthrough, steps for installing Notepad++ on Linux covers the Wine, Snap, and AppImage routes side by side.
TextPad doesn’t bother with any of this. It’s Windows only, no Wine workaround documented anywhere by Helios.
Version 9 runs on 64-bit Windows 11, 10, and Server 2016 through 2022, on Intel and ARM64 processors. Version 8 covers more ground, actually, running on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 7, and Server 2008 through 2022, on Intel processors, according to the official specifications page.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Notepad++
Pros
- Free under an open license, no key or renewal to manage, ever
- Broad native language coverage, Rust, Go, and TypeScript sitting right alongside the older classics
- An active GitHub community, the main repository carries 28.7K stars and 5.3K forks as of August 2026
The plugin catalog on its own, nppPluginList, has picked up 1.6K stars and roughly 480 forks (notepad-plus-plus GitHub org, 2026), which is a decent amount of activity for what’s essentially a supporting repo.
Power users who want every shortcut in one place tend to keep a Notepad++ cheat sheet pinned somewhere nearby.
Cons
Windows-only by default. Already covered under operating system support above, so there’s no need to repeat it here.
Plugin quality is genuinely inconsistent, since basically anyone can submit one to nppPluginList, and loading too many plugins at once will slow the editor down on large files.
No built-in cloud sync between machines, either, which stings if you’re used to editors built around a cloud-first workflow from day one.
What Are the Pros and Cons of TextPad
Pros
Sessions pick up exactly where you left them: tabs, cursor position, all of it restored automatically.
- Text can be replaced across every open document at once, not just whatever file is active
- A built-in hexadecimal viewer handles binary files, no separate tool needed
- Document classes set default fonts, tab stops, and character encoding per file extension, so you’re not resetting preferences every time you open a different file type
Cons
- Only up to two views per open file, thinner than the split-pane layouts common in newer editors
- No official 32-bit build for version 9, so older 32-bit systems are stuck on version 8
There’s also no way to extend it with community plugins, a gap already covered above when comparing extension systems.
When Does Each Editor Make Sense
Notepad++ makes the most sense if you’re coding across a bunch of different languages and file types, or if your workflow leans on plugins like FTP editing or JSON formatting. It’s also the obvious call for students, hobbyists, or anyone working with zero budget for tools.
TextPad fits a narrower crowd. Think straightforward text editing without any plugin sprawl to manage, teams that want an interface that doesn’t shift under them release after release, and procurement departments that find it easier to approve a paid single-user license than justify free software to whoever signs off on purchases.
Where each one falls short is fairly predictable too. Notepad++ struggles the moment you need a native macOS or Linux build instead of a Wine workaround bolted on. TextPad struggles for developers expecting modern language support or an active plugin marketplace, because right now, neither exists in the product.
What Are Alternatives Worth Considering
Neither of these editors exists in a vacuum, obviously. A handful of other tools compete for roughly the same fast, no-frills territory.
| Editor | Price | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | Free | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Sublime Text | $99 personal license | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| UltraEdit | $119.95 per user | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Visual Studio Code, Microsoft’s entry, reached 75.9% usage among developers in the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, the highest share of any editor tracked in that survey. That’s a hard number to argue with, even if VS Code isn’t really playing in the same weight class as these two.
Sublime Text runs on a one-time $99 personal license, which covers three years of updates, and business subscriptions start at $65 per seat per year. If you’re weighing a free tool against a paid one generally, what Sublime Text actually offers is worth a look before committing to any license.
UltraEdit Enterprise runs $119.95 for a single user and bundles in a compare tool, search utility, and FTP client, all in one package (IDM Computer Solutions pricing, 2026). For anyone still stuck between the free and paid extremes, Notepad++ compared to UltraEdit breaks that particular trade-off down in more detail.
Both Notepad++ and TextPad sit closer to the lightweight end of that spectrum than VS Code does. VS Code runs on Electron, which means a heavier resource footprint no matter how you configure it.
FAQ on Notepad++ Vs Textpad
Is Notepad++ safe to download and use?
It is. The code’s open-source and sits right there on GitHub for anyone to audit. Every release since version 7.6.5 has been signed with GPG too, so you can verify the installer hasn’t been tampered with before you run it on a system.
Does Notepad++ support dark mode?
It does. Dark Mode sits under Settings > Preferences and flips the whole interface, not just the editing pane. The portable “minimalist” builds only ship with the default light and dark themes though; you need the full package for the additional color schemes.
Is there a portable version of Notepad++?
There is. Notepad++ ships zip and 7z portable packages alongside the standard installer, plus a smaller “mini-portable” edition that skips the bundled plugins. Any of them will run off a USB drive or a cloud folder with no admin rights needed.
Can TextPad handle Unicode and UTF-8 text?
It can. TextPad advertises full Unicode compliance and ships interface translations in ten languages, according to its own features page, so editing non-Latin scripts or multilingual documents doesn’t need any extra configuration.
Does TextPad support printing with custom headers and footers?
Yes, and it’s fairly thorough about it. TextPad includes print previewing along with customizable headers, footers, and page breaks, per Helios’s own feature list. That level of print formatting is rare for something this lightweight.
Does Notepad++ support multiple cursors or column editing?
Both, actually. Notepad++ supports multiple simultaneous cursors for editing several lines at once, plus a block (column) selection mode for tabular or aligned text. Neither depends on what language the file is set to.
Can Notepad++ connect to Git or another version control system?
Not natively, no. There’s no built-in Git client in Notepad++, but plugins installed through Plugin Admin can add basic version control features like diffing and commit shortcuts without leaving the editor.
Is TextPad still actively maintained in 2026?
It is. Helios Software Solutions put out TextPad version 9.9.7 on July 11, 2026, and they’re keeping both the 64-bit TextPad 9 line and the older TextPad 8 line updated in parallel for people on different Windows versions.
Does TextPad have a spell checker?
TextPad has one, yes. Its spell checker pulls from dictionaries Windows already has installed, so there’s no separate download, and it checks documents inline rather than making you run a standalone proofreading pass.
Can Notepad++ open and edit CSV files?
It can, though it treats a CSV like any other plain text file rather than a spreadsheet. There’s no column-aware CSV view built in, but plugins like Compare or a custom UDL can add basic highlighting for comma-separated data if you want it.
Conclusion
Cost settles this one before feature lists even get a say.
If the budget is zero, Notepad++ wins without much of a contest. Between the Plugin Admin library and the open GPL license, there’s no real reason to pay for a source code editor before you’ve even run into a wall that free software can’t solve.
TextPad earns its place in narrower situations. A Windows fleet that needs one interface that doesn’t change across every machine, say, or a procurement process that trusts a paid single-user license more readily than it trusts free software. Those are real reasons, just not universal ones.
Try both before deciding anything. Notepad++ costs nothing to test, and TextPad’s evaluation copy costs the same amount of nothing. Give each one thirty minutes and you’ll know more than any comparison table could tell you.
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