What Is Notepad++? Features, Real Uses, and Why It’s Still #3 Among Developers in 2026

If you’ve ever searched for a lightweight text editor for Windows, you’ve likely come across the name Notepad++. It comes up in developer forums, sysadmin subreddits, and tech blogs alike — and for good reason. Despite being over two decades old, Notepad++ ranked third in the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, with 29.1% of 65,000+ professional developers reporting they use it actively. That puts it behind only Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio — both of which are backed by Microsoft’s full engineering and marketing budget.

So what exactly is Notepad++, what does it do, and why do so many people still rely on it in 2026? This guide covers everything from its core features to real-world use cases.

What Is Notepad++?

Notepad++ is a free, open-source source code editor and text editor for Windows. It was created by Don Ho and first released in 2003. The name references Windows’ built-in Notepad app — with the “++” suggesting programming language increment operators, signaling this is Notepad with substantial additions.

It is built on the Scintilla editing component and written in C++, which is why it’s so fast and lightweight. The application runs as a native Windows binary — no runtime dependencies, no Electron, no JVM. The installer weighs in at around 4 MB. RAM usage at idle is approximately 32 MB.

Notepad++ is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), which means it’s free to use, modify, and distribute. There are no paid tiers, no feature limits, and no ads. The source code is publicly available on GitHub with over 27,600 stars and 6,800+ commits.

Core Features of Notepad++

Syntax Highlighting for 80+ Languages

One of Notepad++’s most-used features is syntax highlighting. It supports over 80 programming and markup languages out of the box, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, PHP, C++, Java, SQL, XML, Markdown, Batch scripts, JSON, and many more. Each language token type — keywords, strings, comments, operators — gets a distinct color, making code dramatically easier to read and scan.

Colors are fully customizable. You can configure per-language, per-token color schemes using the built-in Style Configurator, or install community themes like Dracula, Nord, Zenburn, or Material Dark for a pre-built visual setup.

Multi-Tab Editing

Notepad++ supports multiple open files displayed as tabs in a single window, similar to a browser. You can have 50 files open simultaneously without opening 50 separate windows. Tabs can be reordered by dragging, and Notepad++ remembers your session between restarts — so if you close the editor with 12 files open, they’re all there when you reopen it.

Regular Expression Find & Replace

The Find & Replace dialog supports full Boost.Regex PCRE-compatible regular expressions. You can search for patterns across the current file, across selected text, or across an entire directory of files using Find in Files (Ctrl+Shift+F). This makes Notepad++ a powerful tool for log analysis, bulk text transformation, and data cleanup tasks that would otherwise require a script.

Plugin Ecosystem

Notepad++ includes a built-in Plugins Admin that lets you browse, install, update, and remove community plugins with one click. Over 140 plugins are available, covering use cases from file comparison (Compare plugin) to FTP editing (NppFTP), JSON formatting, Python scripting, hex editing, and Markdown preview.

Portable Mode

A portable ZIP version of Notepad++ requires zero installation. Download, extract, and run. Your settings are stored in the same folder as the executable, making it ideal for USB drives, shared lab computers, or any environment where you can’t install software with admin rights.

Dark Mode

Native dark mode was introduced in v8.0 and has been progressively refined through each release. As of v8.9.3, dark mode covers the editor window, tab bar, toolbar, all preference dialogs, search panels, and plugin-facing APIs. Enable it under Settings → Preferences → Dark Mode.

Who Actually Uses Notepad++?

The user base is broader than most people assume. According to 2025 usage data, 411 verified companies actively deploy Notepad++ in their workflows. The education sector leads, followed by IT services and software development firms. Geographically, the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada represent the largest user concentrations.

In practice, Notepad++ serves several distinct audiences:

• Developers who keep it installed alongside a full IDE for fast file edits — opening a config file in Notepad++ is faster than waiting for VS Code to boot and index the workspace.
• Sysadmins and IT teams who use it daily for batch script editing, log file parsing, editing remote server files via the NppFTP plugin, and quick hex inspection.
• Students and learners who need a practical editor to write HTML, CSS, or Python without the complexity of a full IDE setup.
• Writers and content creators who want a distraction-free plain text environment with word count, spell checking (via plugin), and the ability to open large documents that crash word processors.
• Data professionals who deal with CSV, JSON, and XML files that need bulk transformation using regex find and replace across multiple files at once.

Notepad++ vs Windows Notepad

Windows Notepad has improved meaningfully in Windows 11 — it now has tabs and a basic dark mode. But it still lacks everything that makes an editor useful for any task beyond trivial note-taking: no syntax highlighting, no regex, no plugins, no macros, no multi-file search, no code folding, no session restore, and poor handling of files over a few megabytes in size.

Switching from Windows Notepad to Notepad++ takes two minutes. The learning curve for basic use is essentially zero — it opens files the same way, has the same keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste/undo, and looks familiar. You get all the power without any obligation to use features you don’t need.

How Notepad++ Compares to VS Code

Visual Studio Code is the dominant editor for active software development. It has Git integration, a debugger, IntelliSense, thousands of extensions, and a rich ecosystem built by Microsoft and the community. It uses approximately 322 MB of RAM at idle and takes 2–5 seconds to launch.

Notepad++ uses 32 MB of RAM and launches in under one second. For quick edits, log review, and text processing tasks, the tool that opens instantly wins. Many developers keep both installed: VS Code for active coding sessions, Notepad++ for everything else.

Current Version and Ongoing Development

The latest stable release is Notepad++ v8.9.3, released in March 2026. It includes a security patch for the auto-updater (CVE-2025-14819), a migration from TinyXML to pugixml for better performance, an update to Scintilla 5.6.0, and several bug fixes for Find in Files and the printing subsystem. Development continues on GitHub with regular commits, security patches, and new features shipping throughout 2024 and 2025.

Download Notepad++ Free

Notepad++ is available for free download — no registration, no trial period, no premium tier. You can get the latest version (v8.9.3) including both the installer and portable ZIP at Notepad++ on itch.io. Supports Windows 7 through Windows 11, 32-bit and 64-bit.

If you’re currently using Windows Notepad for anything beyond a temporary clipboard dump, Notepad++ is the immediate, obvious upgrade. Free, fast, and actively maintained for over 20 years.