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Atom

16.7K
14.3K
+ 1
2.7K
Spacemacs

189
200
+ 1
86
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Atom vs Spacemacs: What are the differences?

Developers describe Atom as "A hackable text editor for the 21st Century". At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it. On the other hand, Spacemacs is detailed as "Emacs advanced Kit focused on Evil: The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and Vim!*". Since version 0.101.0 and later Spacemacs totally abolishes the frontiers between Vim and Emacs. The user can now choose his/her preferred editing style and enjoy all the Spacemacs features Even better, it is possible to dynamically switch between the two styles seamlessly which makes it possible for programmers with different styles to do seat pair programming using the same editor..

Atom belongs to "Text Editor" category of the tech stack, while Spacemacs can be primarily classified under "Tools for Text Editors".

Some of the features offered by Atom are:

  • Atom is a desktop application based on web technologies
  • Node.js integration
  • Modular Design- composed of over 50 open-source packages that integrate around a minimal core

On the other hand, Spacemacs provides the following key features:

  • Batteries Included
  • Nice UI
  • Excellent ergonomics

"Free" is the primary reason why developers consider Atom over the competitors, whereas "Advanced support for Vim key bindings" was stated as the key factor in picking Spacemacs.

Atom and Spacemacs are both open source tools. Atom with 49.3K GitHub stars and 12.1K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than Spacemacs with 18.1K GitHub stars and 4.45K GitHub forks.

Lyft, Typeform, and PedidosYa are some of the popular companies that use Atom, whereas Spacemacs is used by Agworld Pty, untapt, and Curbside. Atom has a broader approval, being mentioned in 836 company stacks & 725 developers stacks; compared to Spacemacs, which is listed in 6 company stacks and 15 developer stacks.

Decisions about Atom and Spacemacs
Andrey Ginger
Managing Partner at WhiteLabelDevelopers · | 3 upvotes · 490.6K views

Since communication with Github is not necessary, the Atom is less convenient in working with text and code. Sublim's support and understanding of projects is best for us. Notepad for us is a completely outdated solution with an unacceptable interface. We use a good theme for Sublim ayu-dark

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Pros of Atom
Pros of Spacemacs
  • 529
    Free
  • 449
    Open source
  • 343
    Modular design
  • 321
    Hackable
  • 316
    Beautiful UI
  • 170
    Github integration
  • 147
    Backed by github
  • 119
    Built with node.js
  • 113
    Web native
  • 107
    Community
  • 35
    Packages
  • 18
    Cross platform
  • 5
    Multicursor support
  • 5
    Nice UI
  • 5
    TypeScript editor
  • 3
    Snippets
  • 3
    Simple but powerful
  • 3
    Open source, lots of packages, and so configurable
  • 3
    cli start
  • 3
    Chrome Inspector works IN EDITOR
  • 2
    Awesome
  • 2
    Smart TypeScript code completion
  • 2
    Well documented
  • 2
    It's powerful
  • 2
    Code readability
  • 1
    works with GitLab
  • 1
    User friendly
  • 1
    full support
  • 1
    vim support
  • 1
    Split-Tab Layout
  • 1
    "Free", "Hackable", "Open Source", The Awesomness
  • 1
    Apm publish minor
  • 1
    Hackable and Open Source
  • 1
    Consistent UI on all platforms
  • 0
    Publish
  • 14
    Advanced support for Vim key bindings
  • 12
    Discoverability
  • 10
    Easy setup
  • 10
    Never have to touch the mouse
  • 7
    Community-driven configuration
  • 7
    Cross-platform
  • 6
    Documentation
  • 5
    Emacs
  • 4
    Fast-paced development
  • 4
    Evil
  • 4
    Nice UI
  • 2
    Git Integration
  • 1
    Autocompletion

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Cons of Atom
Cons of Spacemacs
  • 19
    Slow with large files
  • 7
    Slow startup
  • 2
    Most of the time packages are hard to find.
  • 1
    No longer maintained
  • 1
    Cannot Run code with F5
  • 1
    Can be easily Modified
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    What is Atom?

    At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

    What is Spacemacs?

    Since version 0.101.0 and later Spacemacs totally abolishes the frontiers between Vim and Emacs. The user can now choose his/her preferred editing style and enjoy all the Spacemacs features. Even better, it is possible to dynamically switch between the two styles seamlessly which makes it possible for programmers with different styles to do seat pair programming using the same editor.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use Atom?
    What companies use Spacemacs?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Atom or Spacemacs.
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    What tools integrate with Atom?
    What tools integrate with Spacemacs?

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    What are some alternatives to Atom and Spacemacs?
    Sublime Text
    Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.
    Visual Studio Code
    Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.
    Brackets
    With focused visual tools and preprocessor support, it is a modern text editor that makes it easy to design in the browser.
    cell
    cell is a self-constructing web app framework powered by a self-driving DOM. Learning cell is mostly about understanding how cell works, and not about how to use and memorize some API methods, because there is no API.
    Element
    Element is a Vue 2.0 based component library for developers, designers and product managers, with a set of design resources.
    See all alternatives