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Atom
Powerful Text Editor
4.4
(765)
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Atom Reviews & Product Details

Atom Overview
What is Atom?

Atom is an open-source text editor used by software developers. The platform is free and features tools that allow cross-platform editing, code autocomplete and Git integration. With Atom, developers can streamline workflows while ensuring better collaboration with team members with the goal of creating high-quality software.

Company GitHub, Inc.
Year founded 2008
Company size 501-1000 employees
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Social Media
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Ask Questions about Atom
What Atom is best for?
How does Atom compare to Lightkey?
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Atom Product Details
Capabilities
API
CLI
OSS
Segment
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Linux, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows
Training Documentation
Languages English
Atom Features
Auto-completion
Bracket Matching
Built-in Terminal
Cloud Sync
Code Folding
Code Formatting
Code Snippets
Customizable Themes
Diff Tool
Drag and Drop Editing
Error Checking
File Explorer
Hex Editor
Keyboard Shortcuts
Line Numbering
Linter Integration
Live Preview
Macros
Markdown Support
Minimap
Multi-Cursor Editing
Multiple Language Support
Plugin/Extension Support
Regular Expression Support
Search and Replace
Spell Check
Split View
Syntax Highlighting
Text Wrapping
Version Control Integration
Atom Media
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Atom Screenshots
Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: March 13, 2025
Atom Logo
765 Atom Reviews
4.4 out of 5
Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Oct 02, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SO
Shervin O.
Information Technology Residency Program
Share
"A versatile text editor"
What do you like best about Atom?

Atom allows you to edit code with ease. The most useful feature is that it recognizes multiple languages intuitively.

What do you dislike about Atom?

I would love to see support for even more programming languages.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use Atom to modify and edit my code. I can open source code files from any programming language and start editing.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Sep 28, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AC
Alex C.
Web Application Developer
Share
"Free, Open Source, Great Community"
What do you like best about Atom?

Truly free, open source, community driven. Plugins for everything including git history/blame/diff, ssh, debugging, syntax highlighting for most language and frameworks. The editor is surprisingly fast.

What do you dislike about Atom?

Missing some features of a real IDE, like go to declaration, and better debugging.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Front and back end development, mostly Javascript and PHP.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Sep 06, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
Andi Yuni W. avatar
Andi Yuni W.
Tester
Share
"Free and full features"
What do you like best about Atom?

It is free, full of features, and hackable to the core. Built with package manager that make easily to install or remove package. Autocompletion not perfect but we can install better autocomplete with autocomplete plus in package manager. And don't forget if atom have a lot of support from Github crew.

What do you dislike about Atom?

- It is heavy and slow to load and eat much RAM. So it is not recommended for <1GB RAM computer. - It cannot handle files bigger than a couple MB's

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

We can save bucks for full of features text editor.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Aug 19, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
JS
Jasmine S.
Web Developer
Share
"Atom is my favorite text editor."
What do you like best about Atom?

I love that Atom is fully customizable. It comes with loads of default options and you're able to change loads of things to make Atom fit your workflow better. You can add custom packages by name and install it with the click of a button. Users can create and upload their creations, and you can also download popular packages among Atom users. WordPress users will feel comfortable using Atom. Most of all, it's free!

What do you dislike about Atom?

It has a tendency to be a bit slow upon starting. Performance wise, Atom can also be slow, especially with large files and projects, and may take up a lot of memory.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

I've been able to edit my personal projects with absolute ease. I personally enjoy editing on my MacBook Pro, which works very good with Atom. Being able to take my work on the go with a reliable text editor has been a great benefit to my company.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Aug 08, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
JF
Jeremy F.
Code Mentor
Share
"Own the Tools You Rely On"
What do you like best about Atom?

I love that Atom is an extensible open source text editor with a large community of support and development.

What do you dislike about Atom?

The load time of a new editor from the command line is too slow. When I'm working through an interactive git rebase, I want the text editor for git to be fast to load.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Writing software and markdown documents every day. I have a curated set of packages and themes that allows for me to quickly write code across several languages.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Aug 08, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SW
Seth W.
Front End Engineering Manager
Share
"A Customizable, Lite IDE"
What do you like best about Atom?

Atom is as simple or as complex as you want it to be. There are thousands of high quality packages to install to customize it to your needs and preferences. Linters, code completion, snippets, etc. Users can also create custom snippets for repeated tasks, like AngularJS boilerplate.

What do you dislike about Atom?

It's built on chromium, so it's a bit a memory hog, and initial startup can be a bit long (especially if you have many packages installed). It's also built on CoffeeScript and uses CSON, which I'm not the biggest fan of, though that's more of a personal preference.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Atom is a free, easy to use and easy to customize Code Editor that can become an IDE with the right packages installed. It makes it easy for our developers to code without their tools getting in the way.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jul 28, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
LF
Lauren F.
Instructor, Back End Engineering
Share
"Great! User Friendly! "
What do you like best about Atom?

Shortcuts and packages galore. I haven't yet found something I can't custom personalize to my liking.

What do you dislike about Atom?

I dislike that sometimes package errors are vague and can halt your development process by raising errors on every keystroke. If the issue is major, that's acceptable, but it's usually minor or with a non-vital package that shouldn't be that interrupting.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Most of my business processes involve writing code. I use Atom for 100% of that. My process is clear and easy to follow because of all of the customized packages I've added to Atom.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jul 13, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
ST
Sarah T.
It & Communications Manager
Share
"Brilliant Code Editor - Personal Favourite"
What do you like best about Atom?

- Easy to update - Easy to customize - Lots of support and packages - Never crashes, works great. - Project view works well

What do you dislike about Atom?

It can be a bit of a memory hog sometimes

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use Atom to develop all of our applications at our company. It's certainly helped speed up development and the structure of our code.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jun 08, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
DD
Dustin D.
Technical Operations Manager
Share
"Wish I started using Atom sooner"
What do you like best about Atom?

Both the code interpretation and the community run packages you can download, it keeps it relevant. For example, when writing php inside of an html element, the code will interpret both the html code and the php code inside the php tags. An example of the packages keeping the software relevant, I recently started using typescript language, which is very new. Instead of having to find a new text editor that will support type script, I just opened the install packages tap in the menu and searched for a typescript interpreter, and sure enough there were several.

What do you dislike about Atom?

Import from our old system isn’t supported yet

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

It replaces at least 2 tools that I used to have to pay for, so now I can save money and teach new employees half tools.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
May 21, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SR
Shubham R.
Reader
Share
"Best code editor for for the 21st Century"
What do you like best about Atom?

The functionality where you can add additional features to an edit is best. The package manager is installed by default and to make things even better, all packages are hosted on Github. Atom is rather smooth when compared to other editors.

What do you dislike about Atom?

sometimes it still persists the performance issues. It takes a bit of time getting your plugins and configuration sorted

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

I've been using Atom as my everyday text editor for about 9-months. I use it to write C, C++, Java and Python programs. I had that many packages installed. I had a good impression of the user interface.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 09, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
CA
Caleb A.
Web Developer
Share
"An excellent modular IDE that only does what you want it to"
What do you like best about Atom?

I love the modularity. When you first install Atom it's essentially a glorified text editor, but the number of add-ons and plugins is really what transforms this into an IDE. It's excellent at doing only exactly what you need, being lightweight, and being customizable to precisely your needs. The thing I really love about Atom is that I have every piece of functionality tuned to the way I work. While that can involve messing with configurations, I love the tweaking to optimize my workflow. If that sounds like your personality, then I would highly recommend Atom to you.

What do you dislike about Atom?

I dislike that it does require some setup to get going. Once I set it up once, I simply saved my preferences and plugins and now when I need to set up a new instance I can use that. Doing the research to figure out what you need can be time wasted when you could be using something more fully-featured with everything right out of the box.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have written better and faster code. The plugins I use have significantly improved my workflow and made it a delight to open up and code every day.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
May 09, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
PZ
Patrick Z.
Webprogrammierer
Share
"Slim Editor, great to use"
What do you like best about Atom?

With Atom you have a very slim editor for languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. Like the most editor these days it higlights code of interpreter-languages. The search is very quick, even over a lot of files with code/text. Managing little projects is very easy and fast. After all the Atom-Editor is very flexible, easy to use and just needs to "install" temp.

What do you dislike about Atom?

Hard one, really :-). Because of the nature of the product there is not a negative aspect.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Recplacing Strings over more than 50 files...this is my personal usage. Using it for the file-edit is the way for all editors, so. Of course just the view over some code is common in every project, such as searching.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 29, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
JN
Jobsamuel N.
Javascript Developer
Share
"a fabulous, highly customizable, modern and free text editor"
What do you like best about Atom?

The high variety of available themes and plugins that allow you to customize your text editor at such point that you are gonna love it. Furthermore, I like a lot the session history (it's magical); it "remember" a lot of steps even though after restart it, which is really useful when you want to revert some changes. And last but not least, the updates; they are frequent and always improve important details.

What do you dislike about Atom?

The startup time is kinda slow (v1.15.0 x64), even though it has been improving A LOT after each release. Also, it slow or it crash when you are working with big files (e.g. a big JSON), which is painful and sometimes ridiculous.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Since there are other available options, they aren't free. So I was looking for a solution awesome and free and that's what I found; a fabulous text editor, highly customizable, modern and free.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Apr 24, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AM
Alexander Paul M.
Founder
Share
"Atom, in my experience, is very light, fast and convenient with a customizable environment."
What do you like best about Atom?

The thing I like best with Atom, as a text editor, is its environment which is very customizable to suit your needs. It's a lightweight text editor and it doesn't come with pre-installed bloatware. You have the freedom to choose the tools you want to install to help you get the job done. Do you want your HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, etc. tags to close automatically? Do you want your files to be split into multiple windows? Or maybe you just want to add awesome explosive effects whenever you are in a coding streak? With Atom, you can download many free packages and themes made by other users to personalize your text editor--to make it feel your own unique IDE. Oh, and don't forget the awesome community, whom you could easily ask for help or tips in fully utilizing the functionality and aesthetics of Atom.

What do you dislike about Atom?

Based on my experience, there is nothing I dislike with Atom in its current state. Well, of course it can be improved, but nothing should be removed. I believe Atom is going into the right direction.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

With Atom, I have found out that a text-editor can be fast and functional at the same time. I've realized that an IDE can be powerful and be equipped with useful tools but still fast and easy to use.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Mar 31, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
LA
Luis Alfredo A.
Founder & Ceo
Share
"A great ease to use editor with a lot of customization options"
What do you like best about Atom?

Easy to use and a lot of plugins available for almost every aspect of development, like CSS colors, code hints, PHP errors on real time, etc. Themes are amazing, specially the dark themes.

What do you dislike about Atom?

Sometimes it´s slow on OSX, sometimes freeze or takes time to load

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

It´s faster than an IDE, sometimes only need to review or change some lines and there´s no need to load the entire IDE

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 24, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
AM
Angela M.
Marketing Coordinator
Share
"I love Atom for coding HTML and CSS for my website"
What do you like best about Atom?

My files are easily accessed from the left sidebar so switching back and forth between my HTML and CSS files is quick. I also like that I can see tips for what code I need to use based on the statements I am typing. Color coded syntax makes code stand out well when doing a quick scan of the code. I like that it highlights beginning and ending declarations so you can quickly find open-ended code and fix it.

What do you dislike about Atom?

I would like it to color code or somehow break up sections which would ease navigation through long files; though this may be a feature I just haven't found yet.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Writing code for a law firm's website. I like that I have complete control over the code yet it is organized in a readable way.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 04, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
BB
Brian Yamanue B.
Ingeniero De Sistemas
Share
"Next Level Editor!"
What do you like best about Atom?

the level of Customatization that atom have, i can turn it into my own, i can change the layout, the colors, the panel's position, everthing and it's super easy, and plugins you can find are realy easy to install and have a very good community where you can find help if you need to. Also, Did i mention that is totally free?, yes, everthing is free,

What do you dislike about Atom?

The download site, some times can be so slow i even prefer to download it from another source.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

i can focus totally on the work i am doing, i can link to my githug account and make push and pulls through my coding proccess, making the workflow really fast.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Jan 31, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
MF
Minu F.
Web Developer
Share
"Atom review"
What do you like best about Atom?

ATOM is the best editor available. Add ons available make life so easy

What do you dislike about Atom?

Indentation is not proper at times, manual intendation is irritating

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Writing software codes using ATOM and then running them

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 24, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
LP
Long P.
Software Engineer
Share
"software engineer"
What do you like best about Atom?

i liked how i didnt have to have the reminder sublime gave me lol. and it just feels cooler then sublime

What do you dislike about Atom?

atom crashes sometimes for no reason.... whenever I use a terminal package sometimes the packages dont do anything, not necessiraly atoms fault but maybe have a go to package endorsed by the atom team?

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

use atom at work.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 13, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
5.0
SC
Shawn C.
Developer
Share
"Atom Editor"
What do you like best about Atom?

Atom is small and extensible giving me what i tell it i need and nothing more. I love it. There is a lot to be said for open source software and the power of crowd coding. OSS means if you want to make an improvements or fix a bug, then just fork atom/atom repo and send a pull request. If your changes are really useful, then they will be accepted. Many packages which were developed by community are included in Atom 1.0 release. Besides, thanks to open source, bugs are fixed faster, so if you’ve found a bug, please open an issue.

What do you dislike about Atom?

It does not integrate with everything the e bigger IDEs do out of the box. but it works well. Sometimes there are too many options with third party plugins. Some customers prefer to have someone outside the company to call for product support on a 24/7 basis and are willing to pay for a service level agreement that will provide a timely response.

What problems is Atom solving and how is that benefiting you?

Atom is free and helps my business focus on other things besides overhead. We also use other IDEs when more robust solutions are needed.