The following is a comparison of TeX editors .
Table of editors Properties of TeX editors 1 Name Editing style [ a] Native operating systems Latest release Costs License Configurable Integrated viewer Version Date AUCTeX Source Linux, macOS, Windows 14.1.0[ 1] 2025-07-11 Free GPL Yes Yes Authorea Source / partial-WYSIWYG Online — — Free Proprietary Yes Yes CoCalc Source Online — — Free AGPL + Commons Clause Yes Yes GNOME LaTeX Source Linux 3.47.0[ 2] 2024-09-14 Free GPL Yes No Gummi Source Linux 0.8.3[ 3] 2022-04-29 Free MIT Yes Yes (Live update) Kile Source Linux (macOS, Windows)[ b] 2.1.3[ 4] [ 5] 2012-09-23 Free GPL Yes Yes (Quick preview) LyX WYSIWYM Linux, macOS, Windows 2.4.4[ 6] 2025-06-22 Free GPL Yes Yes Notepad++ Source Windows 8.8.5[ 7] 2025-08-14 Free GPL Yes No, but can be integrated [ c] Crixet Source Online — — Free Free Yes Yes Overleaf Source Online — — Free AGPLv3 Yes Yes Scientific WorkPlace WYSIWYM Windows 6.1.2[ 8] 2021-07-01 Non-free Proprietary Yes Yes TeX Live Source FreeBSD , Linux , macOS , NetBSD , Solaris , Windows — 2025-3-8 Free LaTeX Project Public License Yes No (used by other editors/tools) TeXmacs [ d] WYSIWYG Linux, macOS, Windows 2.1.4[ 9] 2024-03-11 Free GPL Yes Partial (preview using system Pdf viewer) Texmaker Source Linux, macOS, Windows 6.0.0[ 10] 2024-08-16 Free GPL2 Yes Yes TeXnicCenter Source Windows 2.02[ 11] 2013-09-29 Free GPL Yes No TeXShop Source macOS 5.49[ 12] 2025-01-28 Free GPL Yes Yes TeXstudio Source Linux, macOS, Windows 4.8.8[ 13] 2025-07-11 Free GPL2 Yes Yes (pdf, selection with dvi2png) TeXworks Source Linux, macOS, Windows 0.6.10[ 14] 2025-02-13 Free GPL No Yes (pdf) Verbosus Source Online, Android, iOS, Windows — — Free Proprietary Yes Yes (pdf) Vim Source Linux, macOS, Windows 9.1[ 15] [ 16] 2024-01-02 Free Vim Yes No Visual Studio Code Source Linux, macOS, Windows 1.103.0[ 17] [ 18] 2025-08-07 Free Source code: MIT Proprietary Yes Yes (pdf) [ e] WinEdt Source Windows 11.1[ 19] 2023-05-19 Non-free Proprietary Yes Yes WinShell Source Windows 4.0.0.6[ 20] 2023-05-27 Free Proprietary Yes No Name Editing style Native operating systems Version Date Costs License Configurable Integrated viewer Latest release
Properties of TeX editors 2 Name Inverse search[ f] DDE support[ g] Organises Projects Menu for inserting symbols Document comparison Spell-checking Multiple undo-redo AUCTeX Yes No Partial (master file) Yes Yes Yes[ h] Yes Authorea Yes — Yes No No Yes Yes CoCalc Yes — No No No Yes Yes GNOME LaTeX Yes — Yes Yes No Yes Yes Gummi Yes — Yes No No Yes Yes Kile Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes LyX Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes Notepad++ Yes, with SumatraPDF Yes, with a DDE client Yes Partial[ i] Yes Yes Yes Overleaf Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Scientific WorkPlace — ? ? Yes No Yes No (one level) TeXmacs — Yes Partial (shows document parts) Yes Partial (for own format only) Yes Yes Texmaker Yes No Partial (master file) Yes No Yes Yes TeXnicCenter Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes TeXShop Yes No No Yes[ j] No Yes Yes TeXstudio Yes Yes Partial (master file) Yes Yes Yes Yes TeXworks Yes No No No No Yes [ k] Yes Verbosus No No Yes Yes No No Yes Vim Yes ? Yes Yes No Yes Yes Visual Studio Code Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WinEdt Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WinShell Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Name Inverse search DDE Support Organises Projects Menu for inserting symbols Document comparison Spell-checking Multiple undo-redo
Properties of TeX editors 3 Name Collapsible sections Find and replace using RegEx Intelligent error handling Autocompletion of LaTeX commands Parenthesis matching Starts up to previous state[ l] Unicode support RTL Support[ m] AUCTeX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[ n] Yes Yes Authorea No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? CoCalc Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? GNOME LaTeX Planned Yes Yes Yes Yes (just same files) Yes Yes Gummi No No No No Yes No Yes ? Kile Yes [ o] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes LyX No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Notepad++ Yes Yes No Partial [ p] Yes Yes Yes Yes Overleaf Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Scientific WorkPlace No ? ? — Yes No Yes ? TeXmacs No Yes — — — — Yes ? Texmaker Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes TeXnicCenter since v2.0 since v2.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes since v2.0 ? TeXShop No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? TeXstudio Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes TeXworks No Yes[ q] No Yes[ r] Yes No Yes Yes Verbosus No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes ? Vim Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No WinEdt Yes Yes (modified) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes WinShell Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No (just same files) Yes ? Name Collapsible sections Find and replace using RegEx Intelligent error handling Autocompletion of LaTeX commands Parenthesis matching Starts up to previous state[ s] Unicode support RTL Support[ t]
Screenshots and Video Tutorials of TeX editors Editor Screenshot LyX Screenshot Texmaker Screenshot of Texmaker version 4.5 TeXmacs The TeXmacs editor TeXstudio Screenshot of TeXstudio (2.12.6) Visual Studio Code The LaTex Workshop extension for Visual Studio Code Editor Screenshot
See also
Notes ^ "Source" means you see and edit the TeX source files. "WYSIWYM " = What You See Is What You Mean, i.e. you see and edit formatted text. WYSIWYG means that see the output file automatically updated during the edit. Note that some PDF viewers (e.g. evince) automatically reload the PDF document when it is updated on the disk. So, any "source" TeX editor can be turned into partial WYSIWYG editor by opening such a reader in an adjacent window. ^ Support for non-Linux systems considered experimental. ^ Notepad++ can execute Tex viewers ^ TeXmacs is an original document preparation system, with own syntax and own algorithms, but can be used to obtain TeX files through its LaTeX export capability. ^ Requires installation of LaTeX Workshop extension. ^ Inverse search means that one can locate the relevant part of the source code from the viewer (e.g., double-clicking in dvi or pdf file brings up the appropriate line/paragraph in the latex code)^ On Windows some pdf viewers like Sumatra PDF or Adobe Reader don't use command line arguments for forward search, but the editor sends the document position to them using Dynamic Data Exchange ^ Requires installation of extra package. ^ A plug-in is required. ^ LaTeX panel & Matrix panel ^ Requires installation of extra package ^ Starts up to previous state including the current editing point. ^ RTL support means Right to Left language support. ^ configurable as an option of the Emacs editor ^ With usual \section{} notation, Kile collapses equations and figures, but not sections. Collapsing of sections is possible with non-standard notation \begin{section}{}...\end{section}{}, but it eliminates sections from Structure View. An alternative possibility is bracketing sections with comments %BEGIN and %END. ^ This will have to be set up manually. ^ Provides a subset of the regular expression syntax implemented in the Perl scripting language, but fully supports Unicode ^ Template file in resource directory ( Documentation of the code completion feature ) ^ Starts up to previous state including the current editing point. ^ RTL support means Right to Left language support.
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