Notepad++ appears as a native macOS application
An independent community has ported Notepad++ as a fully native macOS app. The editor runs without Wine or emulation on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
The popular editor Notepad++ is now also available as a native macOS version.
(Image: Notepad++ Projekt)
The popular Windows text editor Notepad++ is now available for the first time as a native macOS application. Members of the open-source community around developer Andrey Letov have fully ported the editor to macOS – without relying on compatibility layers like Wine, CrossOver, or Porting Kit. The first stable version 1.0.0 was released in early April 2026, and the editor is now at version 1.0.4.
The project fundamentally differs from previous attempts to make Notepad++ usable on the Mac. Instead of emulating Windows APIs, the developers have rebuilt the entire user interface in Objective-C++ using native macOS Cocoa APIs. The core Scintilla engine, which also underlies the Windows version, remains identical. The result is a Universal Binary that runs natively on both Apple Silicon Macs (M1 to M5) and Intel Macs – without the Rosetta translation layer and from macOS 11 onwards. Porting the Windows UI layer to Cocoa required a complete reimplementation of all interface elements. Menus, dialogs, and file selection now follow macOS conventions, as do keyboard shortcuts. The editor supports syntax highlighting for over 80 programming languages and offers features like split-view editing, macro recording, regular expressions in search, and bookmarks. The interface is localized in 137 languages. However, the German localization sometimes gives the impression of having been created with AI assistance. Notepad++ for Windows recently struggled with a security vulnerability in the updater that allowed the execution of malicious code, the macOS port rebuilds the architecture from the ground up.
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The fact that it took decades for Notepad++ to become natively available on macOS is also due to the original author, Don Ho, who always developed Notepad++ as a Windows application and did not offer a Mac version. Only the independent community initiative from March 2026 made the port possible under the GPLv3 license. The project is not affiliated with the official Notepad++ team.
Plug-in ecosystem grows daily
The integrated Plug-in Admin provides access to a growing library of ported extensions. However, not all Windows plug-ins are yet available for macOS; according to the project, ports are added daily. There is no concrete timeline for full plug-in compatibility yet. The source code on GitHub is open to developers who want to contribute to further development with pull requests.
In terms of data protection, Notepad++ for Mac clearly distinguishes itself from some commercial editors: the application contains no telemetry, advertising, or data collection. Automatic crash reports are also not sent. The only network traffic occurs when using the Plug-in Admin, which accesses GitHub.
Compared to established macOS editors like VS Code, Sublime Text, or BBEdit, Notepad++ positions itself as a free, open-source alternative without telemetry. While VS Code is based on Electron, the Mac version of Notepad++ is a true native Cocoa application. According to the project documentation, the editor should start instantly and have low resource consumption.
The release fits into a broader trend: other providers are also increasingly releasing native macOS versions of their development tools. For example, Google recently released a native Gemini app for macOS. For developers who have previously relied on Windows alternatives or compatibility layers, the port closes a long-standing gap.
(mki)
