What is the best alternative to Zed on Mac?

Raycast is our top pick. It shares Developer tools with Zed and has 140 upvotes from the community. Visual Studio Code and Postico 2 are close behind.

What is the best free alternative to Zed on Mac?

Visual Studio Code is the best-ranked free alternative to Zed. 5 of the alternatives listed here are completely free.

Is there an open-source alternative to Zed?

Yes. 4 alternatives are open source, including iTerm2, Cyberduck and Ghostty.

How many alternatives to Zed are there for Mac?

Mac App Index lists 16 apps that share a category with Zed: 5 completely free, 6 free to start and 4 open source.

Best Zed alternatives for Mac

Zed is a free-to-start app in Developer tools. We found 16 Mac apps that cover the same ground. Of those, 5 are completely free, 6 are free to start and 4 are open source. Raycast leads on overlap and community votes, followed by Visual Studio Code and Postico 2.

The app you want to replace

Zed

Code editor built for speed and collaboration

Free + in-app · Open source · Developer tools

View Zed

16 alternatives to Zed

How we picked: every app here shares at least one category with Zed. Apps that also share features rank higher, and community upvotes break ties. Price and licence never buy a better spot. How we rank apps

1
Hot
Raycast
A faster launcher with superpowers
140Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- AI
2
Visual Studio Code
Free code editor from Microsoft
14FreeDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- AI
- Free
3
Postico 2
PostgreSQL client for Mac
85$69.99Developer tools
- Also in Developer tools
- One-time purchase
4
Transmit 5
File transfer for servers and cloud storage
84SubscriptionDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
5
Proxyman
Inspect and debug HTTP traffic
82Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
6
Sublime Text
Fast text editor for code and prose
54$99Developer tools
- Also in Developer tools
- One-time purchase
7
Xcode
Apple's IDE for every Apple platform
43FreeDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- Free
8
Tailscale
Private network across your devices
38Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
9
iTerm2
Terminal replacement for macOS
38FreeDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- Free
10
Cyberduck
Open-source browser for servers and cloud storage
28$23.99Developer tools
- Also in Developer tools
- One-time purchase
11
Ghostty
Fast, native terminal emulator
26FreeDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- Free
12
BBEdit
Professional text and code editor
25Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
13
TablePlus
Native client for many databases
20Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
14
OrbStack
Fast Docker containers and Linux machines
16Free + in-appDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
15
CotEditor
Plain-text editor built for macOS
14FreeDeveloper tools
- Also in Developer tools
- Free
16
Fork
Fast and friendly Git client
6$59.99Developer tools
- Also in Developer tools
- One-time purchase

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Zed on Mac?: Raycast is our top pick. It shares Developer tools with Zed and has 140 upvotes from the community. Visual Studio Code and Postico 2 are close behind.
What is the best free alternative to Zed on Mac?: Visual Studio Code is the best-ranked free alternative to Zed. 5 of the alternatives listed here are completely free.
Is there an open-source alternative to Zed?: Yes. 4 alternatives are open source, including iTerm2, Cyberduck and Ghostty.
How many alternatives to Zed are there for Mac?: Mac App Index lists 16 apps that share a category with Zed: 5 completely free, 6 free to start and 4 open source.