BBEdit
BBEdit is a professional text and code editor for macOS used to write, search, compare, and transform plain text, source code, and HTML.
What is BBEdit?
BBEdit is a native macOS text and code editor built for people who work heavily with plain text, source code, markup, and structured data. It helps writers, web authors, administrators, and software developers edit files efficiently, search across large sets of content, and make precise text changes without leaving the Mac desktop workflow. Common uses include coding, HTML editing, batch search and replace, reviewing differences between files, and cleaning up or reformatting text. BBEdit also supports project-based work, syntax coloring for many languages, code folding, and strong text transformation tools for repetitive editing tasks. It can open and save files on local disks and servers, and it integrates with common command-line and scripting workflows on macOS. Bare Bones publishes BBEdit for Macs with Intel and Apple silicon processors.
Key features
- Edit plain text, source code, and HTML in a native macOS workspace
- Search and replace across multiple files with grep pattern matching
- Compare files and review differences during edits
- Navigate functions and work with syntax coloring for many languages
- Fold code sections to focus on the parts you are editing
- Open and save files on local disks and remote servers with FTP and SFTP
- Use text transformation tools to sort, wrap, clean up, and reformat content
- Integrate editing work with AppleScript, Unix scripts, and version-control workflows
Review app leftovers with diCleaner
Inspect caches, support files, containers, and login items before cleaning.
Safety overview
Status: Safe
BBEdit is a legitimate macOS application from Bare Bones for editing text, code, and HTML. Network access for opening remote files, checking for updates, or using server-based file workflows is consistent with its purpose. As with any editor that can modify many files quickly, review search-and-replace actions before applying them to important documents or project folders.
Recommendation: Keep BBEdit if you use it for writing, coding, web editing, or text processing on your Mac. If you no longer use it, you can remove the app and its support files to free space, but doing so may delete saved preferences, scripts, and project-related settings.
Common paths
/Applications/BBEdit.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/com.barebones.bbedit
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/com.barebones.bbedit.plist
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